Yes, I am Croatian, moreover Dalmatian (we don’t really eat spicy food), and I haven’t eaten anything memorably spicy until I was 16, but Indian food has got under my skin and into my heart! I simply adore it: the heat, the complexity of flavour, the variety! Now, I am totally mesmerized by spices, and especially their aromas. Ginger, either raw or powdered, has a special place in my Spice House of Fame! The smell of ginger is one of my favourite aromas in cooking!
Think Spice… is a monthly event organised by Sunita from Sunita’s World. This month, the spice in focus is Ginger, so this time, I simply had to take part!
I made this lovely Gujarati aloo a few days ago – and loved it! Ever since I saw it over at Mallika’s, I wanted to make it! It smelled fantastic! It is incredibly light, and I felt wonderfully invigorated and energised after eating it! Of course, ginger is an important component of the dish, at least for me!
The dish is extremely easy to make, and apart from the final cooking of the potatoes, things happen fairly quickly. For this reason, I would definitely recommend preparing everything before you start, and this especially means measuring out the spices, and putting them together in a little bowl, so you can add them quickly to the dish!
In addition, I learnt one important lesson when making this dish. This was the first time I cooked with hing, and it was a bit bitter. I either put too much, or I really shouldn’t have added some extra afterwards. I’ve read that hing needs to be cooked in hot oil/ghee before adding other ingredients.
Wikipedia Commons: Zingiber officinale
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Simply spicy Guajarati aloo
SOURCE: Mallika from Quick Indian Cooking
PREPARATION TIME: 5 min
COOKING TIME: 20 – 30 min
CUISINE: Indian, Guajarati
SERVES: 2 (as a main course)
INGREDIENTS:
2 tsp ghee (Mallika’s version: 2 tbsp vegetable oil)
1/4 tsp sugar
pinch of asafoetida (hing)
1/2 inch ginger, pureed with 1 tbsp warm water (I simply grated it)
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp chili powder
350 gm small new potatoes, washed and halved
2 tbsp natural Greek yogurt
1/2 cup hot water
Salt to taste
METHOD:
1. Heat the oil in a pot over a high flame. When the oil is hot, add the hing and the sugar.
2. As the sugar caramelises, add the pureed ginger and fry it stirring until its colour changes to a warm golden.
3. Then add the tomato puree and all the powders. Mix them well, frying the masala for five minutes or until you can see the oil reappearing on the sides of the pot.
4. Now add the potatoes and stir vigorously incorporating the masala into them. As the potatoes start going translucent around the edges, spoon in the yogurt. Make sure you use a very thick yogurt or it will split.
5. Fry for about two minutes, mixing the masalas together. Then add the hot water, reduce the flame to a medium heat and cook covered, stirring regularly, until you can easily insert a fork into the potatoes. This will take a good 20-30 minutes but the potatoes will taste much better than if you pre-cook them.
6. Serve them hot, with a vegetable pulao or rotis.
Verdict
Delicious and very easy to make. It smells absolutely amazing when cooking.
Notes
Be careful with hing! Make sure to add it to hot oil/ghee at the beginning of cooking.
Do prepare everything in advance, including the spices because things happen pretty quickly when making this dish!
Also, I found that the dish didn’t work served with coriander on top.
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Blackberries and I 
Tea
/ 23 November, 2007INteresantno….Ja isto imam kuci veliku paletu zacina, ali za hing nisam nikad cula. Evo bas sam sad pogledala na Wikipediji.
Pa dobro, gdje ti zivis sada?
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Lucy
/ 23 November, 2007I’ll bet it smells AMAZING Maninas! All of my favourite flavours in one bowl.
Lovely.
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Nora
/ 24 November, 2007That sounds amazing and it’s good to know that it’s quick and simple to make. Also, it uses ingredients I always have around.
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Simple Indian food
/ 24 November, 2007Thats an interesting one…nice recipe
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sunita
/ 24 November, 2007Thanks for that lovely entry…
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Maninas
/ 24 November, 2007TEA, Hing se dosta koristi u indijskoj kuhinji, kao zamjena za luk i kapulu. Postoji jedna odredjena grupa Indijaca, Jain, koji ne jedu luk i kapulu, ne sjecam se tocno sad koji je razlog.
Inace, sad zivim u Engleskoj, muz mi je od tuda.
LUCY, different aromas are (almost) the best part of cooking for me! 🙂
NORA, it really is very easy. The only trick is to prepare all the ingredients in advance. It really makes it easier! I’m saying this, because I don’t normally do this, and I like to prepare bits and pieces as I go along – multitasking! But with this dish, it really needs to be all ready beforehand.
SUNITA, it was a pleasure! I hope to take part again! I wonder what the next Think Spice will be… 🙂
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VegeYum
/ 24 November, 2007Ah, hing. What an aroma that is!
Maninas, I would like to add you to my meme tag list – do you want to play?
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Zlamushka
/ 25 November, 2007Love aloo! Especially the spicy kind. Gotta try!
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Tea
/ 25 November, 2007A taaako znaci, jer sam se vec zapitala gdje kupujes sve te sastojke, hehe. KOd nas ima vec dosta, ali opet ne toliko. Imam 3 prijatelja indijca u razredu pa cu ih bas pitat jeli oni koriste hing 😉
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Maninas
/ 26 November, 2007VEGEYUM, thanks, yes, I do want to play! Just skip me on those with 30 questions or so… Thankss 🙂
ZLAMUSHKA, check the entry before this one, too! 🙂
TEA, ode ima masu razno raznih etno-shopova! cak sam naisla na ajvar, vegetu, podravkine pastete, kraseve napolitanke, itd. 🙂
Ima jedna ulica koja je puna takvih ducancica – grcki, marokanski, pakistanski, balticki, poljski, orientalni (kineski, malejziski, japanski, i slicno sastojci) itd! 🙂 obozavam otkrivat nove stvari!
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