Potatoes and Delicacies.

      Potato or aloo is a favourite vegetable for we Odia people. As I have written before we cannot live without it. A simple meal in any Odia house hold is rice , dal and aloo .In every curry we add potatoes. Somehow for the carbohydrate content , many health conscious  families trying to avoid it these days. But some dishes are just unavoidable for their taste. Here am writing the recipe for Aloo Posta. I like it cooking this way. Hope you will enjoy it too. If you want to make it with janhi or ridge gourd( Chinese Okra), you can cut that into small cubes and add to the potatoes while frying,and then you can add the posta paste.

 Aloo posta.

Ingredients:-

4 medium sized potato.

1 large onion.

5-6 garlic cloves.

2-3 tbsp khus khus / posta / poppy seeds

1 tsp pancha phutana.

2-3 green chillies or dry red chillies.

1 pinch of turmeric powder.

1tbsp mustard oil /any cooking oil.

Salt as per taste.

(boil the khus khus for 2-3 mins in water,and keep it in that water for 10-15 mins.)

Preparation:-

           Wash and peel the potatoes, cut lengthwise into 1inch long pieces and keep in water to prevent from blackening. Cut the onion into thin slices . Strain the khuskhus (posta) in a tea strainer and make a paste of it adding a little water into it if the paste is too thick . Put a deep pan on flame. Pour the oil into it. Add pancha phutan,when begin to splutter add onion slices,green chillies and garlic pods into the oil. Fry till the onion is soft and translucent , add the potatoes ,fry till its half cooked. Add the khuskhus paste, turmeric powder and salt. (you can add a bit of more turmeric powder if u wants it to be look yellow, I prefer mine a bit whitish). Pour in 1 cup of water to the potatoes. Let it be cooked in a slow flame till its fully cooked. The mixture should be thick and the khuskhus paste should be sticking it to now. Remove from fire and serve it with rice,roti, parathas or mudhi (puffed rice).

Happy cooking Guys !

    

Aloo Bati Basa:

Ingredients:-

3-4 potatoes
2 tsp  khus khus paste.
2 tsp mustard powder(soaked in water).(You can make the paste by grinding  mustard seeds with water)
2 green chili .
1/2 tsp turmeric powder.
1 medium sized onion,thinly sliced.
2-3 garlic cloves ,crushed
1 medium sized tomato diced
1 tbsp mustard oil or any cooking oil.
Cilantro leaves to garnish.
salt.

Prepartion:-

                Wash and cut the potatoes lengthwise into thin slices. Take a deep pan  put the potatoes diced tomatoes, onion slices,  khuskhus paste, mustard paste, oil, green chiles, crushed garlic, turmeric powder,salt into it together. mix it well, add little water to cook the potatoes. Cook that mix for 10 -15 mins till the potatoes are cooked. Garnish it with cilantro leaves and you are all set. It can be eaten as a side dish to lunch or dinner.

Enjoy folks!