Cauliflower and potato curry
Aloo Gobi
Preparations before:
- Prepare the spices: Heat a dry frying pan over a medium heat. Add the cumin and the coriander seeds, warm them for few seconds until they smell nicely aromatic. Remove them from the pan and grind them into a powder in a spice grinder or with back of a spoon.
- Prepare the rest of the ingredients: Chop the onion. Break the cauliflower into bite-sized florets. Chop the tomatoes (if you use fresh tomatoes, peel them beforehand). Deseed and chop the chili pepper. Prepare the stock if you want to use it instead of water.
Method:
- Put the oil in a heavy bottomed sauce pan and heat, add the bay leaf and the fennel seeds and fry until the oil start smoking.
- Add the onion and the green chili pepper, lower the fire and fry it until the onion is glazed (don't let the onion brown). It should take you around 6-8 minutes.
- Add the rest of the spices: turmeric, coriander and cumin, stir and fry for another 2 minutes.
- Turn up the fire, add potatoes, cover the sauce pan, and fry for another 8 minutes stirring the potatoes from time to time.
- Add the cauliflower florets, stir and fry for another 3 minutes.
- Add tomatoes, milk, water or the stock and a pinch of salt. Lower the fire, cover the pan and stew for another 15 minutes or until the potatoes and the cauliflower are tender, but not overcooked. If you want the sauce to be a bit more dense, cook the dish for another 5 minutes without the cover.
- Serve it sprinkled with chopped fresh coriander leaves and optionally Naan bread.
Aloo Gobi is a colorful and full of flavor vegetarian dish. This hearty stew is ideal for cold, short autumn days. The basis of it is always the same: potatoes and cauliflower - both of the vegetables go well with spicy, strong flavours. You can experiment, adding a bit of freshly grated ginger root or playing with the quantity of the chilli pepper. The amount of chilli I gave in the recipe above is moderate, suitable also for people who are not keen chilli fans. But, if you like hot dishes feel free to add some more heat to your Aloo Gobi.
You can serve it with different kinds of bread or even make sandwiches. I recommend Naan, a typical bread from South and Central Asia that is available in the supermarkets.
And don't forget to use fresh chopped coriander leaves to finish up your plate. Delightful!