Potato Curry (Oriya Style) : ''Aalu Tarkari''

I have eaten this so many times earlier, but never has it taken my notice. Very recently I ate it at a cousin's place here in USA. My sister-in-law had made it along with Puris. I just loved it so much that I had to make it all by myself. Quite easy to make and not lots of things you require to make it. You can make it any day without the need of any elaborate plans. As far as I think, most of you will have potatoes and Panch-Phutana in your house at any given point of time - that is all you need to make this simple and non-spicy curry!!

And yes I would say please eat with garma-garam (hot) Puris only.

What I used :

(Serves 2)

• Potato - 2 (large)

• Onion - 1 (medium sized)

• Cooking oil - 2 Tbsp

• Panch Phoran - 1 Tbsp

• Green chillies - 2

• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

• Salt - to taste

How I made it :

• Wash and peel the potatoes.

• Cut the potatoes into small pieces (1-2 cm in size).

• Finely chop the onions into thing long slices.

• Chop the green chillies.

• Take a kadhai (or frying pan) and put it on the gas.

• Heat the cooking oil keeping the gas on medium.

• Once the oil is hot add the panch phoran.

• Immediately add the onion and sauté it for a minute. We don't want to make it crunchy so 1 minute is enough for our purpose.

• Add the chopped chillies.

• Add the cut potatoes. Mix well. Cover it up and let it cook on low to medium heat for about 5 minutes. Since we have cut the potatoes very small, they will get cooked quickly.

• Sprinkle the turmeric powder. Add salt according to your taste. Mix well.

• Let the turmeric powder and salt seep into the potatoes, this will take 1 minute.

• You may check if the potatoes are almost cooked. Simple way to check - take one piece out and squeeze it or poke it with a fork.

• Add a cup of water now and cover. Let it cook on medium heat for another 5 minutes. The potatoes and onions will get nicely cooked in the water gravy. Just note that we want a thin gravy for this curry.

• Take out the cover and you can see the lovely curry - potatoes sunk in a thin and shiny yellow gravy. 

• Switch off and take it out in a small bowl for serving.

• Take out those Puris (assuming you already made the Puris) and enjoy the tasty Aalu tarkari (Potato curry).