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Dum Aloo Recipe

Dum aloo is a north indian vegetarian dish of baby potatoes in a rich & spicy gravy. Serve with indian flatbreads like naan, parathas and pooris.
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time40 minutes
Total Time50 minutes
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Indian
Servings: 4
Author: Tanvi Srivastava

Ingredients

For Par Boiling Baby Potatoes

  • 500 g baby potatoes (about 12 to 14 potatoes)
  • 2 green cardamom
  • ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 cloves

Spice Mix

  • ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
  • 8 black peppercorns adjust to taste
  • ¼ teaspoon fennel seeds
  • 3-4 dried kashmiri chilli (hot) or use 1.5 teapoon red chilli flakes, adjust to taste
  • 1.5 teaspoon coriander seeds
  • 2 cloves

For The Dum Aloo Gravy

  • 4-5 tablespoon mustard oil or any cooking oil
  • 1 black cardamom
  • ⅛ teaspoon hing asafetida
  • 1 inch cinnamon stick
  • 1 large bay leaf
  • 1 inch ginger julinned
  • 1 cup onion sliced, 1 onion~180g-200g
  • 1.5 teaspoon kashmiri chili powder
  • ¾ teaspoon salt adjust to taste
  • ⅓ cup tomato puree puree 1 medium tomato (~70g-80g) in a blender
  • ½ teaspoon sugar
  • ½ cup plain whole milk greek yogurt or thick yogurt, not too sour
  • 1 teaspoon kasuri methi
  • ½ tablespoon ghee optional

Instructions

PAR BOIL THE POTATOES

  • Using a peeler, peel off the skins of the washed baby potatoes. You may half the potatoes if you wish.
  • Using a fork, prick each potato in a few places. Until you are ready to cook, soak the peeled potatoes in a large pot of water to prevent oxidation.
  • In a large cooking pot (I use 3 qt cast iron kadai, similar sized dutch oven or stainless steel cookware will work too), bring 3-4 cups of water to a rolling boil on high heat.
  • Once the water starts to boil,reduce the heat slightly to keep it from boiling over and add cloves, green cardamom pods, salt and ? teaspoon turmeric powder to it. Adding turmeric lends beautiful color to the potatoes and the whole spices when added at this step start the flavor infusion rightaway.
  • Continue boiling for about 6-8 minutes-shorter if you halved the potatoes and longer if the potatoes are larger in size.
  • To check for doneness, pick a potato and try to insert a fork, tip of a sharp knife or a metal skewer. If it goes in with slight resistance, the potatoes are par boiled.
  • Drain and set the potatoes aside in a bowl. Discard the whole spices. Once cooled and dried, if you wish, for a richer flavor, you can lightly deep fry or pan fry the parboiled potatoes separately in oil until they develop a golden crust before adding them to the masala.

Make Spice Mix

  • Discard all the water from the pot and heat up again on low medium heat. Add cumin seeds, corinader seeds, dried chilies, cloves and black peppercorns.
  • On low-medium heat, dry roast the spices until they are nicely browned and you see little bit of smoke coming out. You will have to stir continously so that spices dont burn.
  • Transfer to a plate, let cool down a bit and then grind into a powder.

MAKE ALOO DUM

  • Place the cooking pot back on medium heat and add oil. Let warm up. If you are using mustard oil, warm up for a little longer so that the raw smell of oil goes away.
  • Temper the warm oil with bay leaf, cinnamom stick, hing and black cardamon. Also add the ginger. Fry everything on low heat for 5-6 seconds taking care not to burn the spices.
    At this stage you can also add few slit green chilies (hot variety) for extra heat.
  • Add the sliced onions next. On medium flame,fry the onions for about 8-10 minutes or until they are golden brown. Don't rush the onions, the right amount of browning contributes to the color and taste of curry.
  • Reduce the heat to low, and sprinkle 1.5 teaspoon kashmiri red chili powder along with 1-2 tablespoon of water (to avoid the chili powder from burning). Stir and fry for a minute or so taking care not to burn the chili powder. If needed, take the cooking pot off the stove.
  • Next, add the par boiled potatoes and sprinkle salt on them. Toss around and fry the potatoes with onions for about 3-4 minutes on low medium heat. In this way, introducing potatoes a bit early starts the flavor absoprtion rightaway.
  • Then, add the tomato puree & sugar. Continue to fry the potatoes with masala for 3-4 minutes.
  • Once you see that the moisture of tomatoes has evaporated a little bit, reduce the heat and add the beaten yogurt. As soon as you add the yogurt, start stirring and continoue for at least 2 minutes or until the yogurt has warmed through. This prevents the yogurt from curdling.
  • Once yogurt is part of the masala, add the spice mix that we made earlier. Mix everything and fry for another 1-2 minutes.
  • When you see oil starting to seperate, add about  ¾ cup water (warm water). Don't add too much water since aloo dum has a thickish gravy. 
  • Mix and then cover the cooking pot and let dum cook (slow cook) on low flame for about 12-14 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through. Check 2-3 times while slowcooking and make sure that the masala is not getting too dry. Add water as needed. Make sure that the potatoes dont over cook, please adjust slow cooking time accordingly.
  • Once the potatoes are fully cooked, open the lid.You will see a thin layer of oil on the sides of pot and the potatoes will have a beautiful color.
  • Finish aloo dum with crushed kasuri methi. Let rest for 10-15 minutes if possible.

Notes

  • Make sure to choose similar size potatoes so that they finish cooking in about the same time. Usually I choose baby potatoes that weigh between 30g -40g.
  • Don't skimp on oil. Certain vegetable like potatoes, eggplant etc need optimum quanity of oil to cook and taste good. Aloo dum is a rich curry and reducing the quantity of oil will take away the ideal taste.
  • Here, in this recipe, the heat comes from black pepeprcorns and dried kashmiri chilies that we grind. Adjust the amount of to your spice preference. If you prefer it milder, reduce the quantity.
  • Sometimes my mom would add a hanful of fresh green peas to dum aloo especially during winter time. You can try. 
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