Aloo posto with steamed rice
Bengali everyday comfort: potatoes fried in mustard oil with kalonji and green chillies, then cooked soft in ground white poppy seeds (posto) until the nutty paste clings to every piece. Eaten with rice, often with a masoor dal; the same posto is made with ridge gourd (jhinge posto).
- 40 minTime
- 26 minHands-on
- 4Portions
- 11 gprotein per portion
- 580kcal per portion
Ingredients for 4 portions
- 60 gPoppy seeds (khus khus)
- 600 gPotato, peeled, in 2 cm cubes
- 4Green chillies
- 4 tbspMustard oil
- 3 mlKalonji (nigella seeds)
- to tasteSalt
- 3 mlSugar
- ≈ 250 mlWater
On the side
- 300 gRice, everyday rice or gobindobhog
Method
- Soak the poppy seeds in a little warm water.
- Wash the rice two or three times, put it in a pressure cooker with twice its volume of water and cook for 3 whistles.
- Let the rice cook, then leave it until the pressure drops by itself, about 20 minutes in all.
- Peel the potatoes and cut them into 2 cm cubes.
- Drain the poppy seeds and grind them with two of the green chillies and a splash of water into a smooth paste.
- Heat the mustard oil in a kadai until it just smokes, keeping back a teaspoon for the end. Lower the flame, add the kalonji and the rest of the green chillies, slit, then the potatoes. Fry for 5 minutes until the edges are golden.
- Stir in the posto paste, salt, sugar and the water. Cover and cook on a low flame for 12–15 minutes, stirring now and then, until the potatoes are soft and the paste clings to them, almost dry.
- Drizzle over the teaspoon of raw mustard oil you kept back and serve with the rice.
