Alu’r Dom

About this recipe

Alu’r dom is one the of the popular Bengali dishes of spicy curried potatoes, commonly known as ‘aloo dum’ or ‘dum aloo’. Prepared in Bangladesh during the winter months using the newly harvested baby potatoes or ‘notun alu’, alu’r dom is best enjoyed with luchi, kichuri, polao, fried rice, or parota. This simple recipe is for the niramish (vegetarian) version, which, in Bengali cuisine means it makes no use of onion or garlic. It can, therefore, be served as bhog (puja offering) in Puja which is a worship ritual performed by Hindus in Bangladesh.

Ingredients

• 700 g new baby potatoes (notun alu)
• 30 g mustard oil
• 2 pcs dried red chillies
• 2 pcs bay leaves
• 3 pcs cloves
• 2 pcs cardamom
• 1 pc cinnamon
• ½ tsp cumin seeds
• ½ tsp turmeric
• ½ tsp kashmiri red chilli powder
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1½ tsp coriander powder
• 15 g ginger paste
• 6 g green chilli paste
• 50 g yoghurt
• 20 g tomato ketchup
• 20 g cashew nuts (ground)
• 45 g total salt
• 18 g sugar
• ¼ tsp bengali garam masala powder
• 5 g ghee
• 400 g hot water (for the gravy)

Step-by-step cooking instructions

1. Place the baby potatoes in a saucepan or boiling pot along with 30 g salt and 1 litre water. Boil the potatoes until tender. This should take about 30 minutes. Boiling the potatoes in heavily salted water ensures that they are uniformly seasoned. Besides, it also causes the potatoes to lose water, because of osmosis, improving their texture.
2. Once the potatoes are tender, drain the water and peel them immediately. Coat with 10 g of salt while the potatoes are still hot. This will help in further absorption of salt.
3. Before you begin make a paste of cumin powder, coriander powder, ginger paste, and 25 g water, and keep at the ready.
4. Heat 30 g mustard oil in a pan. Temper it with dried red chillies, bay leaves, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon and cumin seeds. Allow the spices to fry for about 10 seconds before adding turmeric powder and kashmiri red chilli powder. Fry for 20 seconds. We would normally add turmeric and red chilli to the paste we made earlier, but for this dish, frying them directly in oil will lend the gravy a rich red colour. However, dry spices are prone to getting burnt in oil, so be very careful and keep the heat low.
5. Next, stir in the spice paste. Cook until the smell of raw spices is gone and they have started to release oil. This should take about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, beat the yoghurt until it is lump-free. Add it to the pan, stirring vigorously to prevent it from splitting. Cook off the raw yoghurt for a couple of minutes before stirring in the ketchup.
6. Now add the boiled and salted potatoes, and fold them in. Sauté them with the spices for about 4 minutes. We’ve chosen not to fry the potatoes before adding them, as boiling them directly in the curry leads to juicier potatoes.
7. Add the remaining salt (5 g) and all of the sugar to the pan, along with 400 g of hot water. This will form the gravy. Cover and allow the potatoes to simmer in the curry for about 20 minutes until the gravy has reduced and the potatoes are juicy and tender. Stir regularly so the bottom doesn’t catch.
8. Once the gravy has reduced, add the ground cashew. Cook for a minute before garnishing with ghee and garam masala. Turn off heat, cover, and allow alu’r dom to rest for 2 minutes before serving.