Friday, November 18, 2011

Kumro Aloor Chakka – Potato Pumpkin Curry





'Dirty Picture' starring Vidya Balan, Nasiruddin Shah & the media tagged 'serial kisser' Imran Hashmi is coming on screen tomorrow. What I assume seeing the trailer of the movie is that the plot might revolve round a heroine sucked into the vortex of shoddy film-making. Vidya Balan caught notice by her laudable performance in Parineeta acquiring admiration from all until she turned herself into a laughing stock performing in a number of bad movies with roles and outfits not suiting her at all, like Kismat Connection and Heyy Babyy. She has traditional Indian features, therefore not all the roles are likely to suit her. She should show some prudence in choosing roles before audience shelve her for good. Hope 'Dirty Picture' would reflect her spark which went missing since Parineeta.

Coming back to the recipe, Kumro Aloor Chakka is a tasty side dish to complement roti, rice and luchi. In my preparation I have used 'panchphoron' (a mix of five spices) for sauting, but some people use black cumin seeds or kalonji, hing to temper the oil. The taste of the dish varies with the change of ingredient.

Another thing to note is if the pumpkin is not sweet, please add sugar as I did.


Ingredients                             Cooking time: 20-30 minutes

ü  400 gm pumpkin (cut into small cubes)
ü  1 large potato (cut into small cubes)
ü  1/2 cup of black chickpeas
ü  1 tsp coriander powder
ü  1 tsp cumin powder
ü  1 tsp turmeric powder
ü  1 tsp ginger paste
ü  5-6 green chillies (slit in the middle)
ü  salt to taste
ü  2 tsp sugar (in case the pumpkin is not sweet)
ü  1 tsp panchphoron ( a mix of five spices like fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, nigella seeds, fennel seeds and black mustard seeds.)
ü  2 dry red chillies (cracked into halves)
ü  White oil for cooking

Method:

1) Soak black chickpeas in water overnight. Pressure cook until 6-7 whistles. Keep aside.

2) Heat oil in a cooking pot and when smoke comes out, add panchphoron & dry red chillies. When they begin to splutter, add potato cubes. Roast the potatoes lightly.

3) Add ginger paste, turmeric powder, coriander powder and cumin powder. Saute for 2 minutes.

4) Add pumpkin, chickpeas and green chillies. Cook covered on medium heat for 5 minutes. If the mixture turns dry, add 1/2 cup of water.

5) Add salt & sugar. Cook covered until potatoes and pumpkins are cooked through.

6) Serve hot with roti or rice. Enjoy your meal.

1 comment:

  1. Thanx for the post awesome recipe but I prefer to do it without chick peas :)

    ReplyDelete