Dum Aloo

Small potatoes are deep-fried whole first, then cooked slowly sitting in the sauce rather than above water.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (ghee), dairy (yoghurt).

Ingredients

• 800 g baby potatoes
• 300 g thick yoghurt
• 60 g cashew nuts, soaked and ground
• 1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste
• 2 teaspoons ground fennel
• 4 cardamom pods, seeds ground
• 2 teaspoons Kashmiri red chilli, ground
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 tablespoons ghee
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 300 ml water
• oil for deep frying
• 20 g coriander leaves, to finish

Method

1. SMALL POTATOES ARE DEEP-FRIED WHOLE FIRST, THEN COOKED SLOWLY SITTING IN THE SAUCE RATHER THAN ABOVE WATER. Its article gives both steps and then goes out of its way to prevent the obvious misreading. Dum translates as steam-cooked or slow-cooked -- and it adds a note saying that steam-cooked here refers to a technique where the potatoes are cooked WHILE SITTING IN a steaming sauce, and are NOT steamed above boiling water. A source that stops to correct a misunderstanding is telling you which one people make. The potatoes are usually the smaller ones, skinned and deep fried before any of that.
2. THEY ARE PRICKED ALL OVER BEFORE THEY GO IN THE SAUCE. A fork or a skewer, several times each. A whole fried potato with an unbroken skin takes up nothing and comes out tasting of potato in gravy rather than of the dish.
3. THE FRYING IS UNTIL GOLDEN AND FIRM, NOT UNTIL COOKED THROUGH. Four or five minutes. They finish in the sauce, and a potato already soft will break up there.
4. THE SAUCE IS YOGHURT OR KHOYA, OFTEN WITH CASHEW PASTE, AND ITS ARTICLE SAYS SO. This page takes the yoghurt version with the cashews. The Banarasi one is tomato and onion instead, which its article also records, and that is a different sauce rather than a variation in seasoning.
5. THE YOGHURT IS WHISKED AND ADDED OFF THE HEAT, THEN WARMED SLOWLY. Three hundred grams, beaten smooth, stirred in with the pan off the flame and then brought back over the lowest heat while stirring one way. Dropped into a hot pan it splits at once.
6. FENNEL AND GINGER DO THE WORK THAT ONIONS USUALLY DO. Its article names fennel among the spices, and in a sauce with no onion in it that is where the sweetness comes from.
7. THE CHILLI IS THERE FOR COLOUR AS MUCH AS HEAT. Kashmiri chilli is mild and very red, which is why two teaspoons is not a lot.
8. IT COOKS COVERED, AT THE LOWEST HEAT, FOR TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES. Barely a tremble on the surface. This is the dum, and rushing it with a brisker heat curdles the yoghurt and leaves the potatoes hollow.
9. IT IS OFTEN SERVED WITH NAAN, WHICH ITS ARTICLE NOTES. Naan, as on its own page.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes