Thursday, 7 September 2017

Potato Kuruma

Plain potato kurma is our all time favourite and it goes well with chappathis, pulav very well. Made this creamy potato kurma for the vegetable pulav which i made yesterday. For parties, its preferable as its easier to make and its not time consuming also. I still remember the sunday morning breakfast in our hostel during our college days. I used to get up early mainly to taste the watery potato kuruma with hard dried rotis. Though the quality of those rotis were not that good, the watery potato kuruma was tasty. We tried to hunt all the potatoes hiding in that watery kuruma in our mess. That time, i did not even know that i would be making this potato kuruma by myself one day and eat. !!!!
Ingredients
Potatoes - 8-10 Medium Size
Onion - 1/2 Big or 1 Medium nicely cut into thin slices
Tomato - 1 Big One
Fresh Peas / Frozen Peas - 1 handful
Pudina / Mint Leaves - 2 tbsp chopped
Ginger Garlic Paste - 2 tbsp
Turmeric Powder - 2 tsp
Coriander Powder - 1 tbsp
Red Chilly Powder - 2 tsp
Garam Masala Powder - 1 tbsp
For Tempering
Olive Oil - 3 tbsp
Jeera - 1 tsp
Fennel Seeds - 2 tsp
Cinnamon Sticks / Pattai - 2 Medium Ones
Lavang / Cloves - 4 or 5
Cardamom Seeds - 3
Bay Leaves - 2
Anashuppu / Anise Star Seed - 1
For Grinding
Fresh Coconut - 3/4th of a cup
Khus Khus - 1 tbsp
Cashew nuts - 1 handful
Sombu / fennel seeds - 2 tsp
Green Chilly - 2 medium
Method
  1. Wash all the potatoes and cook them well. After its cooked, peel off the skin and keep it ready.
  2. Grind the ingredients as mentioned above in a mixer grinder. Grind it to a smooth paste and keep it ready.
  3. Cut the onions, tomatoes and keep them ready too. After these three processes, we can start heating the kadai.
  4. On a thick bottomed vessel, add Olive Oil first. When its heated, add all the ingredients as mentioned under "Tempering" one by one. Make sure that the heat is on a medium flame only.
  5. After tempering process is done, add the onions and fry them with a pinch of salt for 1-2 minutes.
  6. Add the ginger garlic paste next and fry them till the raw smell goes off.
  7. Add the tomatoes next into the vessel and fry them till the tomatoes get mashy and softer. Then, add pudina and frozen peas or fresh peas into the kadai. Fry for a minutes.
  8. Finally add all the powders to the mix in the kadai. Fry all of the contents in the kadai for 2-3 minutes.
  9. Then, add the grounded mixture into the kadai. Add required amount of water into it.
  10. Add salt to the mixture and mix everything thoroughly.
  11. Close the lid and let the Kuruma gravy cooks well and let the raw smell completely goes off the gravy.
  12. Open the lid and check to see whether the gravy becomes little thicker and if you feel the rawness in taste or in the texture of the gravy, allow the gravy to cook for some more time.
  13. After the gravy is done completely, add the cooked, peeled potatoes into the kuruma gravy.
  14. Let the kuruma cooks in open for 2-3 minutes. Then, switch off the flame and let the kurma cools and settles down.
  15. Now the spicy, tasty potato kurma is ready to serve with roti, chappathi...
Variations
 You can add almonds instead of Cashew nuts in the grinding mixture.
 You can reduce the spicyness in the kurmua gravy by taking out the green chillies from the grinding mixture if its only for 
 the kids. 
Tips
 Allow the gravy to get cooked completely. If the rawness still remains in the gravy, then the kuruma wont taste very good.
 Add enough water in the beginning while making the gravy itself. If you add water at the end, after making the kuruma completely, then the kuruma's taste might change and it reduces the punch in the kuruma.