A simply delicious recipe of dum aloo made restaurant style. This easy aloo dum recipe uses a mix of onions, cashews, curd along with spices. No tomatoes are added in this recipe.
Rinse and scrub 250 grams baby potatoes very well in water. Then bring the water to a boil.
Add the baby potatoes.
Cover with a lid and cook them for 12 to 15 minutes.
Simmer till the baby potatoes are almost cooked. Do not over cook them.
Drain all the water and let them become warm or cool down at room temperature.
Once they become warm, then peel them. Prick the baby potatoes with a fork. If you want, you can keep the peels on them.
making paste for dum aloo
When you keep the potatoes for cooking, soak 10 cashews in ⅓ cup hot water for 20 to 30 minutes.
In a grinder jar, take 1 cup roughly chopped onions, soaked cashews, ½ inch ginger (chopped), 5 small to medium garlic cloves (chopped) and ½ teaspoon fennel seeds.
Add 2 tablespoons water and grind to a smooth paste.
Then add the ¼ cup fresh curd.
Just blend for some seconds till the curd mixes very well with the onion paste. Do not over do.
making dum aloo gravy
Heat 2 tablespoons ghee in a pot or pan. Once the ghee becomes hot, then on a low to medium flame, add the following whole spices - 1 inch cinnamon, 2 cloves, 2 green cardamoms, 1 small to medium tej patta and ½ teaspoon shah jeera (caraway seeds). Let the spices crackle.
Keep the flame to a low or you can switch the flame off. Then add the onion-curd paste.
Mix very well with a spoon.
Cover the pan with its lid and cook the masala paste on a low flame. The pan needs to be covered with a lid as a lot of spluttering happens.
In between do check after every 2 to 3 minutes so that the masala does not stick to the pan. Also stir very well.
The paste needs to be cooked till the color changes and you see some specks of ghee floating on the top and the sides.
Then add the following spice powders - ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, ½ teaspoon red chilli powder or kashmiri red chilli powder, ½ teaspoon coriander powder and ½ teaspoon garam masala powder.
Mix the spice powders very well.
Add the baby potatoes and mix them with the sautéed masala paste.
Pour 1 cup water. season with salt as required and mix very well.
Seal the pan tightly with a foil. Then cover the pan with its lid.
cooking dum aloo
On a low flame dum cook for 10 to 12 minutes.
Switch off the flame and allow the gravy to rest for 3 to 4 minutes. Then open the lid and the foil.
Add 1 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves. Mix very well.
Serve restaurant style dum aloo with chapatis, naan, pooris or jeera rice.