Vrat wale aloo with kuttu puri
The potato curry of fast days: boiled potatoes in a thin tomato gravy with jeera, ginger and green chilli, cooked in ghee with sendha namak and no onion, garlic or turmeric, and eaten with kuttu ki puri (buckwheat flour puris) during Navratri and on other vrat days. Use only sendha namak, not ordinary salt, if anyone is fasting. Some homes make it dry, like jeera aloo, or with curd instead of tomato, and many eat it with samak rice.
- 55 minTime
- 42 minHands-on
- 4Portions
- 10 gprotein per portion
- 530kcal per portion
Ingredients for 4 portions
- 500 gPotato, for the curry
- 2 tbspGhee
- 1 tspCumin, seeds
- 1 tspGinger, grated
- 2Green chillies, chopped
- 2Tomatoes, chopped (optional)
- 3 mlRed chilli powder
- to tasteSendha namak (rock salt)
- ≈ 400 mlWater, hot
- 2 tbspCoriander leaves, chopped
On the side
- 200 gKuttu atta (buckwheat flour)
- 200 gPotato, for the dough
- ≈ 50 mlWater, for the dough
- 5 tbspGroundnut oil, for deep-frying (what the puris soak up)
Method
- Wash all the potatoes and put them whole in the pressure cooker with a cup of water.
- Pressure-cook on medium heat for 3 whistles, about 10 minutes, and let the pressure drop by itself.
- Meanwhile, chop the tomatoes, green chillies and coriander leaves and grate the ginger.
- Peel the potatoes. Break the potatoes for the curry into rough pieces with your hands, and mash or grate the ones for the dough until completely smooth.
- Mix the kuttu atta with the mashed potato and a pinch of sendha namak and knead with the water, a little at a time, into a soft dough that doesn't crack. Cover.
- Heat the ghee in a pan and add the cumin seeds. When they splutter, add the ginger and green chillies, then the red chilli powder and the tomatoes, if using. Cook until the tomatoes are soft, about 4 minutes.
- Add the potatoes and sendha namak and mash a few pieces against the side of the pan so the gravy thickens a little. Pour in the hot water and bring to the boil.
- Simmer, covered, for 8–10 minutes, until the gravy has thickened slightly.
- Meanwhile, make the puris: divide the dough into 12 balls and press them between two sheets of plastic into 10 cm rounds; the dough is fragile, so don't make them too thin. Heat the oil in a kadai and fry them one at a time, pressing gently with a slotted spoon so they puff up, and flip once the underside is firm. Lift out when golden.
- Scatter the coriander leaves over the aloo and serve at once with the hot puris.
