Alur Dum with Baby Potatoes

"Me and my husband are not particularly people who plan a trip a few months in advance. We make impromptu plans one or two days or at the most a week in advance and go ahead with it. Most of our trips were chalked out at the last minute and we have always enjoyed such surprise tours. This trip that I am going to write about is not an exception either. My classes for MBA first semester came to an end on 4th May and classes for summer semester were supposed to start from 16th May. So in between, I had little more than 10 days of holidays to take advantage of. Though we desired to take a trip during my holidays, we didn’t start planning until 9th May when my husband came home for lunch in the afternoon and told me that he wanted to go to Yellowstone National Park for three days. I told him to give me the afternoon for doing my research before confirming on Yellowstone. I did a small research on Google and realized that going to Yellowstone during spring break would not be wise as many parts of the park remain closed. Besides, the weather runs amok during spring. The weather forecast for Yellowstone exactly on the days we were planning to visit showed signs of rain showers. I didn’t want to take the pain of visiting a place when the chances of rain putting a damper on our trip were high. So we dropped the plan for Yellowstone. I zeroed in on choosing a location ideal for a visit this time of the year. So after an hour of deliberation, we decided on visiting the national parks in and around Utah. Utah with its desert climate is ideal for a visit during spring when the temperature hovers below 90 F."

Above is the excerpt from my travel journal. If you have liked what you have read so far, please don't forget to read the whole story here.

Coming back to the recipe. This preparation is one of the easiest ways to prepare alur dum. I prepare it especially in the morning when I have to put together breakfast in a hurry. I just get the baby potatoes boiled and peeled the previous night and prepare the curry in the morning. It tastes awesome with roti, luchi, and paratha. Please leave your feedback if you prepare this dish at home and it turns out to your liking. Thank you for visiting my page !

Ingredients

• 30-35 baby potatoes (semi boiled and peeled)

• 1 small size onion (ground into paste)

• 3-4 tomatoes (pureed)

• 4-5 green chilies (ground into paste)

• 2 cloves of garlic (minced)

• 1 tsp kalo jeera or black cumin seeds

• 1 heaped tsp dry red chili powder (you can use Kashmiri red mirch to add color)

• Salt to taste

• 1 1/2 tbsp sugar

• White oil for cooking

Method

1) Heat oil in a wok. When oil turns hot, add black cumin seeds and let it sizzle. Add garlic and roast it till garlic begins to change color.

2) Add onion paste and fry it till onion turns translucent. Add tomato puree, dry red chili powder and green chilies. Sauté the mixture for 5-7 minutes.

3) Add 1/2 cup of water and potatoes. Add salt and sugar. Cook covered till potatoes are soft. (If water evaporates and the curry becomes dry, add 1/2 cup of water and cook covered.)

4) Serve hot with paratha or roti.