I find it pretty amazing that most of my "memories" of people and incidents are somehow also linked with food. Even when food is not the central focus in that memory; it is still prominent. Not only does my mind take me back to the day that I'm reminded of, but sometimes the feel and smell of the day is revoked as well.
Walk through the memory lane @ Gayathri's
Vardhini's Dish it out event hosted by Divya,
Traveling with food comes naturally to most of the families from the Indian sub-continent. My MIL packs a stash of "Pooris" and a boiled potato. After peeling and chopping the potato, she'd mix in some salt and pepper and it was ready to eat with her Pooris. My parents, and my grandparents before them, always travelled with their traditional potato preparation called "Achaari Aloo" along with wonderfully crisp "Parathas". As soon as the "tiffin" opened, the smell of this mix between an achaar (pickle) and a subzi permeated the whole train car. I have these elaborate memories of us sharing our food with whoever happened to be our neighbor in the train car, or got drawn to our berth by the mouth-watering aroma of Achaari Aloo. Not even my mom could make this dish taste like my grandma's. Towards the end of every summer vacation at my naani's, we'd get a letter from my dad (this was the pre-telephone era in India) requesting that she send him some of her Achaari Aloo and parathas. Naani always did. And daddy got to the food the moment we got home, and ate it all up. If, per chance, there was some left over, he'd tell my mom that he wanted it for breakfast - this from a guy who never ever liked leftovers......
That brings me to my memories of people and food. This past week, I was going through my old photo albums. Flipping through pictures of a last trip to upstate New York with my parents in 2005, nostalgia set in. And the image that popped up, was of this wonderfully young couple, playfully fighting over one last bite of naani's paratha and aloo, with a giggling 6yr old me trying to help her dad win. For that brief instant, I felt like I could actually smell the food and hear the laughter from that day. Once reminded, I couldn't back off. The same evening, I ended up with Achaari Aloo on my dinner menu.
Achaari Aloo
(Pickle- Spiced potatoes)
Potatoes 3 medium, peeled, washed and chopped into 1/2 inch cubes
Salt and red chilli powder to taste
Turmeric 1/2tsp
Coriander powder 2 heaping Tbsp
Tempering:
About 2Tbsp from a mixture containing equal parts of:
Cumin seeds/ Jeera
Mustard seeds/ Sarson
Fennel seeds/ Saunf
Black caraway seeds/ Kalonji
Fenugreek seeds/ Methi (see notes below)
Mustard oil/Vegetable oil 2Tbsp (see notes below)
- Bring the oil to the point of smoking hot, then turn down the heat and add the tempering.
- As soon as the seeds start to splutter, add the salt, red chilli powder, turmeric and coriander powder. Stir for a minute or so.
- Immediately afterwards, put the potatoes in, stir to coat evenly. Turn down the heat to low, cover with a lid that can hold a little water on top of it (typically a thali).
- Half-way through the desired done-ness, remove the lid and cook on medium till the potato bits get crispy and browned.
- The potatoes get cooked in about 25-30min., but keep stirring every few minutes to check and to make sure that the spices don't burn.
My two cents: Traditionally, this is an uber-spicy version of potato with an extra kick of pungency from the mustard oil. Since the potatoes cook without any water added, you have to be a little generous with oil to prevent them from sticking. Also, at my naani's, the tempering was made from "aam ke achaar ka masala"- the pre-treated mix of seeds from a traditional mango pickle preparation. I guess that is where the name comes from too. I don't have that pickle, so I used dried seeds. Also:
Notes: 1) I dry toasted and coarsely crushed the methi seeds before using them to get rid of some of the bitterness. I probably also had less than an equal amount of these seeds.
2) I am not a huge fan of mustard oil, so I used regular vegetable oil. But if you can, do use the mustard oil for that authenticity.
3) I also tone down the red chill powder for the kids. Make it as hot as you can stand. Sprinkle in some garam masala at the end for another layer of spiciness.
4) The evaporation of water on top of the lid makes cooking of these potatoes faster, and prevents sticking. But make sure you stir-cook them uncovered the last 10 min. or so to get that crunchy, brown crust on the potatoes.
I don't make this dish often. I am actually not sure, but A said that I'd never made it for him before...and he loved it. Went especially well with our Chole-Poori dinner to mark our wedding anniversary last week :-)
Linked to:Walk through the memory lane @ Gayathri's
Vardhini's Dish it out event hosted by Divya,
