I have made this combo many times since then but never got around to blogging about it (a shame, really). I decided a couple of months back that it was high time I started documenting the recipes that I grew up eating. That, and Sonal Gupta’s encouragement made me write this post!
Aloo Posto:
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- Potatoes – 3 Cups, cubed
- Poppy Seeds – 3 tbsp
- Turmeric Powder – 1/4 tsp
- Green Chilies – 2 or 3
- Salt to taste
- Oil – 1 tbsp
- Water – 3 tbsp + enough to cook the potatoes
You can use your wet grinder to make the paste. My Ma would throw in the green chili along poppy seeds when making the paste. I used my coffee grinder to grind the poppy seeds into a coarse powder, mixed in 3 tbsp of water and let it sit for about 10 minutes.
I used small red potatoes (with the skin on) for this dish, but you can use russet potatoes. In Kolkata, we would use ‘Chandramukhi’ variety of potatoes.
In a non-stick pan or kadai, heat up oil and throw in the cubed potatoes along with the green chili and a sprinkle of salt. Cover and cook while stirring from time to time, till the potatoes are almost fork tender. In the Bengali cuisine, a lot of stress is put on how vegetables are cut. And all pieces need to be of similar, if not same size. This particular dish calls for the potato to be cut into smallish cubes.
Once the potatoes are almost cooked, add the poppy seed paste and enough water to just cover the potatoes and cook till the raw smell of the poppy seed paste disappears and the potatoes are fork tender. Serve warm with steaming hot rice and kalai daal.
Kolai Daal
- Kalai Daal/Biuli Daal/Urad Daal/Spilt Black Gram – 1/2 Cup
- Water – 2 1/2 Cups (for cooking the Daal)
- Paanch Phoron – 1/2 tsp (Five Spice Mix – details below)
- Dried Red Chili – 1, split
- Asafoetida – 1/8 tsp or a fat pinch
- Bay Leaves – 1 big or 2 small
- Fennel Seed Paste – 1 1/2 tsp
- Ginger paste – 1 1/2 tsp
- Turmeric – 1/2 tsp
- Salt to taste
- Oil – 1 tsp
A special mix of 5 spices that we Bengalis call ‘Paanch Phoron’ is used in this dish for tempering. Typically, Paanch Phoron will include equal quantities of Fenugreek Seeds (Methi), Nigella Seeds (Kalo Jeera), Fennel Seeds (Mouri), Cumin Seeds (Jeera) and Wild Celery Seeds (Radhuni). ‘Radhuni’ is rarely available outside West Bengal, so celery seeds or black mustard seeds are also used as the 5th spice. I sometimes add a 6th spice – coriander seeds.
Heat up the oil in a kadai or a pan and temper with ‘paanch phoron’, dried red chili, bay leaves and a fat pinch of asafoetida. Once the spices starts spluttering and the aroma of asafoetida hits you add the boiled Daal back and mix well. Add the salt and turmeric and bring it to a boil. Add little water if you think the Daal is too thick. Throw in the fennel seed paste and ginger paste – give it a quick whisk. Cook for just a couple of minutes and take it off the heat.
Serve with hot rice and a side of Alu Posto!
Kalai Daal tastes best when freshly made. We sometimes use the leftover Daal to make Daalpuris.