Mimi's Mommy, Medha's Delicious Indian 'Potato Recipes' (Vegetarian)

I enjoyed reading Medha's Blog about daily life and her young son in Bangalore.  http://mimismommy.wordpress.com/  I find it fascinating that we can share each other's cultures without leaving our own homes, we also have things in common with women around the globe, Motherhood, Cooking, Crochet and Ravelry, to name a few!  Medha posts some delicious recipes, I must try her Cashew Nut sweets, but will wait for Diwali.  I love cooking and eating authentic Indian food.  I requested some potato recipes and these are the ones Medha posted.
        The recipes are as Medha wrote them, I will note any alterations I made with a photograph of my finished dish.  Medha has posted additional photographs that help explain what it is you need to be doing. (well worth popping to her website)
 
RECIPE 1: Aloo Paratha (Aloo = potato, Paratha = regular chapati made with a stuffing)
 Here’s what you need:
For the filling:
 *4 medium sized potatoes, boiled, peeled and mashed
 *1-2 green chillied, finely chopped. Alternatively you could use red chilli powder (vary the quantity as per your taste)
 *Salt to taste
* A sprig of finely chopped coriander
For the chapati dough:
 *250 gms of wheat flour
 * Pinch of salt
 * 1 tablespoon of refined oil (vegetable, sunflower oil)
 * Water
To make dough, mix all ingredients well in a bowl. Slowly add water and knead the dough. Make lemon sized(or slightly larger) balls and keep aside. Mix the ingredients for the filling together. Make sure there are no lumps from the potatoes. You could squeeze in a few drops of lemon juice to this filling. A fourth of a lime will be enough.
Roll out the dough into to make a chapati. Make sure the chapati is thin. Now add a spoon full of the filling and spread it out evenly with a spoon making sure you don’t tear the chapati. Add this filling onto one half of the chapati. Fold the other half and press the edges. Slowly lift this and place it on a tawa/griddle. Sprinkle a few drops of oil and roast the paratha well on both sides.



My Chapati skills need improving, the filling was delicious, I did not have coriander and used finely chopped Spring Onion and red chilli instead.  Delicious with Lime Pickle.


RECIPE 2: Potato and Raw banana cutlets
Here’s what you need:
* 1 raw banana (cook/steam the banana, remove the peel and mash it)
* 2-3 boiled, peeled and mashed medium sized potatoes
* 2-3 green chillies / red chilli powder (depending on your taste)
* Salt to taste
* 1 finely chopped onion (0ptional)
* A sprig of finely chopped coriander
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Make sure there aren’t too many lumps from the potato or banana. Make a ball and press it into a cutlet shape between your palms. Coat with bread crumbs on either side (you can work without the bread crumbs too). Shallow fry on a griddle.
Very, very tasty…
You could completely do away with the banana and make just pototo cutlets. Or you could add boiled and mashed carrots, beans, peas and make veggie cutlets. Use your imagination to vary the veggies..



I was a little sceptical about banana and potato as a combination, but I trusted Medha and made these to the recipe, of the three dishes, that were all delicous, these were my favourites.


RECIPE 3: Aloo Mattar (Potato and Green peas curry)
Here’s what you need:
*4 medium sized potatoes, cut into cubes of about a 1 inch
* 1 cup of green peas
* 2 finely chopped onions
* 2 ripe chopped tomatoes
* 1 tea spoon of ginger and garlic paste
* 1 teaspoon of red chilli powder
* 2 teaspoons of garam masala powder
* 2 tablespoons of oil
* Salt to taste
* Pinch of sugar
In a deep pan heat oil. To this add the ginger garlic paste and onions. Once the onions are soft, add the tomatoes. Stir and cook well till the tomotoes are completely soft. Add the garam masala, chilli powder and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the peas and potatoes. Add about 2 cups of water and close the pan. Cook on medium heat till the potatoes turn soft. The peas will cook very quickly, so no need to worry about them. Keep checking once in a while to make sure the water has not evaporated. Add salt and sugar (I always add a pinch of sugar to all my dishes as I feel it balances out the spice). It’s your choice if you wish to leave out the sugar.
***Alternately you could boil the potatoes before hand and cut them to cubes. Then add them at the last stage when you feel the peas are cooked. After adding potatoes just cook the curry for a couple of minutes. ***
The consistency of the curry is how you would like it. Add more water if you want it be watery or if you wish to savour it with rice.
Serve hot with chapati or white rice.

Note: If you don’t have garam masala powder, just add the salt, chilli powder and pinch of sugar. It will taste equally good.



I followed the recipe for this curry but I included a cupful of chopped spinach.  This made a great meal with the accompaniments.  Delicious with Mango Chutney.

I am not vegetarian however I do support the idea of eating less meat as a family we have discussed vegetarianism as a family but as yet no one has made the commitment (I have been vegetarian for a number of years in the past).  We all care about animal welfare greatly and the environment so eating less meat is a positive choice.  It is also a healthy dietry option and eating a meal like the 'above' recipes is very economical.  My youngest help me with the chapatis and liked his hot with butter.  He also tucked in to all three dishes quite happily, even with my addition of red chilli.  I hope you try them and enjoy them.  Do pop over and say hello to Medha she will be pleased to see you.   :)