Potato Masala: spread over dosa or serve with poori, both are phenomenal combinations…

Since my last post was about egg dosa, I felt that this post should be about making potato masala. Luckily, I had the pictures of potato masala in my picasa album. Yet another popular way of serving dosa in South India is by spreading potato masala over the dosa and rolling it, which is called Masala dosa. Any day, any time masala dosa tastes delicious and is seen on the menu of any South Indian vegetarian restaurants. Both adults and kids can be seen having this with so much enthusiasm. I have to agree that restaurant style masala dosa always tastes better than homemade ones. One of the reasons is that they make the dosa super crispy and it’s huge. Hopefully, someday I can figure out secret behind this.

Isn’t dosa such a versatile vegetarian dish? As there are endless ways of serving it, you could stuff the dosa with literally anything you like. Potato masala, egg masala, chicken, ground beef, mixed veggies, chutneys, cheese etc etc the list just goes on. This potato masala can be called as an Indian style mashed potatoes. This can be served along with poori or chapati as well.

Potato Masala

Ingredients

• Oil-2 tbsp
• Mustard seeds-1 tsp
• Chana dal- 1/2 tbsp
• Urad dal- 1 tbsp
• Red dry chilly- 2
• Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
• Curry leaves- 1 sprig
• Onion, chopped small- 2
• Green chillies, chopped- 2 or 3
• Ginger, minced- 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
• Potatoes, cooked- 4 large
• Green peas, frozen- 1/2 cup
• Water- 1/4 cup
• Cilantro, chopped- 2 handful
• Salt- to taste

Preparation:

1. Peel the skin off the potatoes.
2. Cook the potatoes in boiling water till it’s fork tender, keep aside.
3. Place a wok over medium heat, add oil and let it turn hot.
4. Add mustard seeds and let it splutter.
5. Add chana dal first, saute and when it start to turn light golden in color add urad dal.
6. When the dals turn golden in color, add red dry chilly, curry leaves and cumin seeds.
7. Saute till cumin seeds turn light brown.
8. Make sure not to brown or burn the dals.
9. Add chopped onions and salt to taste.
10. Add minced ginger and green chillies to the onions, saute till onions turn translucent.
11. Add turmeric powder and combine well.
12. Add cooked potatoes and mash it using a wooden spoon, cook for a few minutes.
13. Add green peas to the potatoes.
14. Add water and cook covered till potatoes have almost mashed up and green peas cooked well.
15. You could either mash the potatoes well or partially mash it.
16. Sprinkle cilantro over it and combine well.
17. Have a taste and add more salt if needed.
18. If you are making masala dosa: spread the potato masala over the dosa and fold it.
19. Potato masala can also be served along with poori or chapati.

Tips:

• Adding chana dal and urad dal enhances the taste of this dish.

My hubby found this recipe, made it and I fell head over heals for it…

If I try a recipe from a cookbook or any other source, I tend to make a lot of changes as it’s very hard for me to follow it blindly unless it’s a cake or pastry recipe. As a result, I can never recreate the original taste of that dish. On the other hand, when my hubby cooks he follows the recipe as it is, so that the original taste of the dish is preserved. A few weeks ago, when he took over the kitchen he made this delicious potato stir fry. That day he was determined enough to not to make mashed potatoes, instead he made this. He got the recipe from the internet by the cookbook author Julie Sahni.

In most South Indian veggie dishes, we make a seasoning by frying mustard seeds, curry leaves in the oil, the aroma when these fries in the oil is just wonderful that I’ll be seen taking deep breaths. For making this dish, first mustard seeds and curry leaves are fried in the oil and then the marinated potato is added and stir fried till it gets browned. Asafetida is the key ingredient for this dish which gives the potatoes a really nice flavor and taste. Asafetida has an intense pungent aroma when it’s raw, but when cooked it imparts a nice aroma to the dish. This spice is an unavoidable ingredient in most of the South Indian vegetarian dishes like Sambar, Rasam, pickles etc.

How to store Asafetida:

Powdered asafetida is usually found in a plastic jar with a rotating lid at Indian stores. You have to make a small hole on the lid and then close it by rotating the lid. If you keep the plastic jar like this, in no time your pantry will have an intense pungent smell imparted by this spice. It’s very very unpleasant.

What I do:

• Place the plastic jar in an air tight container so that the pungent smell is sealed.
• I don’t usually transfer this spice to the air tight container as while transferring the whole place gets the pungent smell.
• A little of this spice goes a long long way. Only a pinch or two of this is required for most of the recipes, don’t even think of adding more than 1/4 tsp in any dishes.

Hot Curry Leaf Potatoes

Ingredients

• Potatoes, fingerling or white potatoes- 8 no’s

For mixing with potatoes:

• Salt- to taste
• Cayenne or chilly powder- 2 tsp
• Ground turmeric- 1 tsp
• Asafetida- 3 pinches
• Lemon juice- 1 1/2 tbsp

For stir frying:

• Oil- 3 tbsp
• Mustard seeds- 1 1/2 tsp
• Curry leaves- 10 leaves

Preparation:

1. Peel off the potato skin.
2. Cook the potatoes in boiling water seasoned with salt.
3. Cook till it’s fork-tender, don’t over cook the potatoes.
4. Drain the water and let cool down.
5. Cut the potatoes into long strips and put it in a large bowl.
6. Add all the above mentioned ingredients ‘for marinating potatoes’ and combine well.
7. Place a wok or large skillet over medium heat, add oil.
8. When the oil gets hot, add mustard seeds and curry leaves, let the mustard seeds splutter.
9. Add the potatoes and stir fry it till the potatoes gets browned.
10. Serve hot as a side dish.

If you are searching for a fancy appetizer to impress your friends, here’s one from my cook book: Baked Beefy Potato…

A real fancy appetizer you could make for super bowl party – Baked potato with a twist! While having the potatoes you also get the bite of beef stuffed inside it. This definitely makes the perfect appetizer, especially for a super bowl party.

I first baked the potatoes, then scooped out the flesh and mashed it with heavy cream and added browned seasoned ground beef with it. Stuffed the potato skin with the beefy mashed potatoes and gave them a final baking.

Watch the magic: this is going to be the fastest selling appetizer and your friends will be curious to know how it’s made. Make sure to keep the recipe print outs for them or send them here

Beefy Potato:

Ingredients:

• Potatoes, whole- 4
• Heavy cream, fat free- 1/2 cup
• Butter, slightly melted- 2tbsp
• Cheddar cheese- 1/4 cup
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Salt- to taste
• Parsley leaves, chopped- 1 handful

For making Beef:

• Ground beef- 8 oz
• Onion, minced- 1
• Garlic, minced- 1tsp
• Cumin powder- 1/2 tsp
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Salt- to taste
• Olive oil- 2 tbsp

Preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 4ooF.
• Wash the potatoes and pat dry with paper towel. Prick the potatoes all over with a fork.

• Place the potatoes on a baking sheet and bake for 50-55 minutes or until tender.

Preparation of Beef:

• In the meantime, heat a non-stick pan over medium heat and add olive oil.
• Add the ground beef to the oil, add ground pepper and salt,  saute it until it turns brown and well cooked.

• Add the onions and garlic to the beef and saute until onion turns tender.
• Add cumin powder and saute for few minutes.
• When the beef has cooked well, remove from the flame and keep it aside.

Stuffing:

• After 50-55 minutes, take the potatoes from the oven and let cool.
• Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F.
• Cut the top part of the potatoes horizontally and scoop out the flesh from the potatoes leaving behind little flesh on the skin. Don’t break the skin of the potatoes.

• Reserve the skin of the potatoes for stuffing.
• Mash the scooped potato flesh using a potato masher or a wooden fork without any lumps.

• Add the heavy cream, slightly melted butter, ground pepper, salt and cheddar cheese to the mashed potatoes and combine everything well.

• To the mashed potatoes add the seasoned browned ground beef and mix well.

• Stuff the potato skin with the beefy mashed potatoes and sprinkle with parsley leaves.

• Place the stuffed potato skins on greased baking sheet.
• Bake the stuffed potato skins for another 20-25 minutes.
• When it’s done, place on a platter and serve.

Tip:

• You could use fat free heavy cream and fat free cheddar cheese.