Another dry vegetable curry and a common dish across all of India. This potato and cauliflower curry or aloo gobi is typical of the Bengali style and is very different to what is served at your local curry house or food hall.
Usually, commercially cooked aloo gobi has pieces of potato and cauliflower swimming in some gravy – often made from yoghurt or water. This home-cooked version is dry, with crispy edges to the potato, and just-cooked cauliflower; it really suits eating with roti or naan. The wetter versions, usually from the south, are best eaten with rice to absorb the gravy. I will post some wetter vegetable recipes shortly. In the meantime, there is a recipe for avial, a south Indian mixed vegetable curry, which would suit serving with rice.
This is an everyday dish, and is well-suited to a simple meal. It also makes a wonderful side dish to some of the more robust meat dishes.
We serve this on it’s own with roti, and sometimes after a rasam.
the recipe
equipment
- wide pan with lid
ingredients
- 450 g cauliflower
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp mustard oil
- 1 tsp panch phoran - see recipe
- 500 g potato - cut into wedges
- 60 g ginger - finely sliced
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
- ½ tsp salt
to serve
- ½ cup coriander leaves - finely chopped
- ½ lemon - juiced
- 1 green chilli - finely sliced
- ½ tsp garam masala
instructions
- Cut the cauliflower into generous florets. See the notes below for a description of a simple technique.
- Bring a pan of water to a boil, then add the salt and cauliflower florets. Cook for five minutes, or until cauliflower starts to soften. Drain and set aside.
- Heat the oil in a large pan and add the panch phoran. When the seeds sizzle add the potato, cut side down and cook for ten minutes, turning to ensure the edges brown evenly.
- Add the cauliflower, mix well and cook for three minutes. stirring frequently.
- Add ginger, and mix well. Sprinkle the turmeric, chilli, and salt over the vegetables and toss well. Be very careful not to break up the vegetables as you mix them.
- Cover the pan tightly. Reduce the heat to very low, and cook for 20 minutes. Stir gently every five minutes to stop the vegetables from sticking to the pan. You should not need to add any water, as these vegetables should cook in their own moisture.
to serve
- Once the potatoes and cauliflower are cooked add the coriander leaves and lemon juice. Gently mix, then spinkle the garam masala over and decorate with the sliced chilli. Serve.
notes
- 450g of cauliflower is approximately half a large cauliflower.
- To make the florets, cut the cauliflower half vertically into two wedges. Then cut the hard stem out of each of the wedges and gently separate them into large florets. This will provide a lot of flat edges to help with the cooking and colouring of the florets.
private notes
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