Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Mashed Potato - Bengali Style

In Manipur, we have this dish on thursdays when we refrain from having fish.
Goes well with Daal.
The Bengalis have it often.
And since it is very simple, it is a bachelor's delight.
Almost like Maggi.

Boil Potatoes, 2 large ones.
If you are cooking dal as well, peel the potatoes, cut in Half and boil it with the daal only.
Saves time and makes it a simple second dish.

In the frying pan or kadhai where you will do the tadka,
Add oil for the tadka, make it a little more than usual.

Fry 4-5 Red Chillis( Peppers) in it, as the chili gets puffed
and start to change its colours to dark brown, remove and keep aside.
Add Onions cut into thin slices. ( Half an onion should do, keep half of it for the tadka)
Add half a handful of spring onions cut in inch pieces.
Fry till the Onions are golden brown.
Remove them with a sieve or spoon so that oil remains back in the kadhai for the dal tadka

Now crush the fried Chilli which must be crispy by now.
Use a mortar pestle or use the back ofa steel tumbler to crush them.
Add salt just enough taste while crushing so that it i easier to crush also.
Add the fried onions and spring onions into the mix, and crush more.
Mash the potatoes and mix with the crushed mixture well. Also mix Chopped corianders.

If you have mustard oil, add a teaspoon of it into the mashed potatoes to get a genuine bengali taste. Make into balls and aim at the wall. just kidding. Keep the balls on the dish as a side dish.

9 Comments:

Blogger Sury said...

Umm, that's yum Anthony! Alu-bhate is what we Bengalis call it, and if I may add (though I am sure you know this already), it goes very well with hot steamed rice with a dollop of pure (desi) ghee or butter in it. The spring onions is a fresh touch for me though. Will try it sometime. Thanks for sharing :)

11/10/2005 12:05:00 AM  
Blogger thalassa_mikra said...

Another Bengali variation is to leave the chillies whole and saute some whole cumin with them. Now for some Manipuri fish recipes! Oh, I wanted to ask you Anthony, is any lemongrass used in Manipuri cooking?

11/10/2005 12:10:00 PM  
Blogger Admin said...

no. its not used. We have very limited herbs for cooking. Rest are used for various other recipes but i won't be able to explain.. I don't know the name..

And Mikra, it always tastes better without the cumin, believe me.. I have tried it, and the spring onion bit was beacuse we use it as a substituute sometime to the pseudo chive that we discussed.

Thanks for visiting suri. Oh yes it does taste great with desi ghee.. but mustard oil gives that peculiar catchy smell as well taste that strikes right at the nose. instead of the spring onions use something called garlic leaves, well its the name used by foodmarts, its really great.

11/10/2005 06:33:00 PM  
Blogger The Comic Project said...

tasty man...tasty

11/10/2005 07:09:00 PM  
Blogger Sury said...

Oh yes, can't agree more about the mustard oil punch. I simply love that. The stronger, the better, eh?

11/10/2005 08:08:00 PM  
Blogger Admin said...

Any cahnge in plans for the paris trip TCP??

Yeah Suri, it sure gives a punch

11/11/2005 11:54:00 AM  
Blogger Shammi said...

Hmm... cant say I know much about Bengali food (other than the sweets!) - I'm vegetarian and dont eat fish so this is a nice recipe for me to try. Yippee :)

11/13/2005 06:44:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow,

Me and my DH are lovers of potato...Amaan wud take boiled potatoes as a meal itself. Hmm..this version looks nice...but wud it be too spicy?

2/16/2007 04:40:00 PM  
Anonymous recipes said...

Hi Blogger!
Interested to share comments & visitors through Link Exchange, add my blog and leave a comment or mail me at harimegha@gmail.com

9/08/2009 10:01:00 AM  

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