Puri Aalu

No one really confesses to liking it anymore, but poori had to be India’s favourite breakfast dish across the board.

Piping hot puris with potato curries all through the Indo-Gangetic belt to the luchi of Bengal and the festive shrikhand-poori of the Western states, poori is a pan-India bread, found in almost all kitchens of the Subcontinent.

The ritualistic and bound-by-strict-rules traditional Vedic kitchen had some rather strange practices. Treating food as “pucca khana” and “kachcha khana” was one of them. Ghee, as a medium through which sacrificial offerings reached the gods, was always revered as a valuable ingredient in Vedic cooking. Anything cooked in ghee thus became “pucca” or “saccha” khana—pure food, the highest category of all that could be consumed by Vedic society.Kachcha khana, on the other hand, was food, not dipped in ghee.

This Aalu sabzi goes so well with puris that this combo seems to be made in heaven! A potato curry is simmered with minimal spices and loads of water to make a thin gravy.

 

This is a very simple aalu tamatar recipe and is extra ordinary in taste.

 

Ingredients:

1. Boiled potatoes-3, roughly mashed 
2. Tomatoes chopped-3
3. Cumin seeds-1 tsp.
4. Hing-1 pinch
5. Turmeric powder-1 tsp.
6. Chilli powder-1 tsp.
7. Slit green chillies-4
8. Coriander leaves-1/4 cup
9. Salt
10. Oil- tsp.
11. Water- plus cups

Method: 

• Heat oil and add hing and cumin seeds.
• Now add roughly mashed potatoes and all the powdered spices.
• After 2 minutes stirring, add chopped tomatoes and slit green chillies.
• Saute till tomatoes are soft, add water and let it simmer for at least 5-6 minutes.
• Sprinkle coriander leaves.
• Serve with puris or parathas.