Potato Bhaji – Jeeru Rai Harrad No Papeto

Once again, I’m posting a basic recipe for newbies venturing into the kitchen arena. This is a simple, potato recipe that pairs brilliantly, as a side, with various lentils. It gets done in very little time and most important, if you’re anything like me and have a few potatoes boiled and ready in the fridge then… inko chil liya, toh life jingalala. 😉

Ingredients:

6 medium sized potatoes, boiled, peeled, and cut into cubes

3 medium onions, finely chopped

5 - 6 long green chillies, chopped fine

14 - 15 cloves garlic, thinly chopped

12 – 13 curry leaves

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

¾ teaspoon mustard seeds

1 – 1¼ teaspoon turmeric powder

Salt, to taste

A handful coriander leaves, chopped

4 – 5 tablespoons oil, or as needed

Method:

1.    Heat oil in a large non-stick pan/kadhai.

2.    Add cumin seeds, mustard seeds, curry leaves and allow to splutter.

3.    Add green chillies, garlic, and sauté for a minute or until a nice garlicky aroma becomes evident to your olfactory senses.

4.    Add onions and sauté until the onion go translucent pink and are just about to turn light brown.

5.    Add turmeric powder, salt, and sauté well to mix into the onions.

6.    Add the boiled potatoes and using a flat wooden spoon or a spatula, mix the potatoes gently but very carefully into the onion masala.

7.    Lower heat, cover and cook for 5 minutes to ensure the potatoes absorb the flavour of the onion masala.

8.    Open lid and check for seasoning and add if necessary.

9.    Cover once again and cook for a further 5 minutes.
 

10. Add coriander leaves, cook for a minute more and take the vessel off the heat. Serve!

Chef Notes:

1.    You can also make this recipe using raw, thinly sliced potatoes but if you are a newbie in the kitchen, and are unsure of cooking raw potatoes, I’d advise you to stick to using boiled ones.

2.    The sizes of the potato cubes is roughly ¾ inches. If you feel you can handle them carefully in a smaller size feel free to chop them accordingly.

3.    The green chillies and garlic can be adjusted to taste. Do use quite enough, though, as it is mainly these two ingredients that will lend heat to these potatoes.

4.    I chopped chillies two ways as mum and dad cannot handle spicy food. Some chillies were chopped large so that they could be set aside while eating.

5.    When tossing potatoes in the onion masala, the best technique is to use a flat wooden spoon or better still, a spatula and beginning from the sides of the pan toss the potatoes into the center of the pan. Continue doing this gently from all sides of the pan until the potatoes are well coated with the masala. This will ensure the potatoes don’t break into a mash.

6.    You may share the direct blog-link of the recipe/s but do NOT publish my recipes, and/or my photographs, on any blogsite or website without my explicit consent or attempt to pass off my recipe/s as your own. You will be held accountable for plagiarism.

Some more photographs: