Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Simple and Easy Potato Fry !!!!

Been a busy month for me , what with my daughter turning "1" :) , the birthday party and with my hubby travelling on weekdays which makes it impossible for me to sit in front of my laptop for more than a few minutes as my daughter loves the laptop and refuses to allow me to sit in front of it. Plus she misses her Dad a lot and hence her sleeping time is also cut down :(..... this is just a small idea of my time at home right now :).


I finally put her to sleep and thought let me post something simple and easy :)
Everyone has a comfort dish and mine is Potatoes in any form :). Any time of the day -  be it for breakfast , lunch or dinner i would not mind eating them. As a filling for sandwiches , as a side dish for lunch or dinner !!!! Hmmmm even writing about it tempts me to make some :).
To date my hubby pulls my leg everytime i make this dish. The reason being that when i got married i did not know the ABC of cooking. Even a simple Rasam was something i learnt from my hubby. But the very first dish i made on my own was this and it turned out perfect :). So to date he keeps asking me , "how come you kept saying you did not know to cook and this dish alone turns out so perfectly :)"




Ingredients :

1/2 of a medium size onion -  chopped
2 medium sized potatoes - diced into small cubes
1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
1 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
a pinch of asafoetida powder
Salt as required
Curry leaves and coriander as required
2 tbsps  Olive oil ( or any oil)

To go about :
Heat the oil in a pan. Once the oil is hot add the mustard and cumin seeds. Once the mustard starts spluttering add the curry leaves. Then add the chopped onions. Sauté the onion till it turns translucent.Then add the diced potatoes. Stir it up once then add all the powdered ingredients and salt. Stir it up completely and allow it to cook on a medium flame. Keep stirring it once in a while so that the potatoes  do not burn up. The medium flame allows the potatoes to cook up nicely. You can if you want leave it on medium flame to deep roast it or remove it once the potatoes are done. The choice is ultimately yours on how you want it done :). I used to deep roast it earlier but these days i don't as sometimes my little one eats what i eat and if deep roasted then she finds it difficult :)... hmmmm the choices we Mom's make for our little ones !!!!!
Garnish the potatoes with coriander and remove. Serve it hot with rice or even chappathis.
Variation : A slight variation to the above is to skip the onions and fry the potatoes :). This is also yummy !!!
This is a quick dish as it requires no separate boiling of the potatoes and gets done quickly.
I am sure nearly everyone out here has almost the same recipe for this dish.... but for those reading this, let me know how you make it in your kitchen :)