Potatoes with Poppy Seeds

Aloo posto is a very traditional West Bengal dish made of poppy seeds paste. Posto is white poppy seeds in Bengali. Poppy seeds or posto is soaked in hot water for an hour or two and ground into paste adding enough water. Various spices are added while grinding the poppy seeds. White potatoes are chopped and cooked in the poppy seeds paste till soft and almost dry.

Makes: 5 Baby Potatoes in poppy seeds paste
Ingredients:
Baby Potatoes 5
Poppy Seeds 1 – 1 1/2 tbsp
Mustard Seeds a pinch
Green Chillies 2 – 4
Panch Phoran 1/4 tsp
Salt to taste
Mustard Oil 2 tsps
Method of preparation:
Peel, wash and pierce the potatoes multiple times.
Soak poppy seeds in 2 tbsps of hot water for more than an hour.
Remove stems, wash and roughly chop green chillies.
Grind soaked poppy seeds with mustard seeds and green chillies into coarse paste adding water if required.
Heat oil in a pan, add panch phoran.
Once panch phoran releases aroma or starts to crackle, add potatoes and salt.
Fry for few seconds until potatoes get a nice golden coating.
Stir in ground poppy seeds paste and half a cup of water.
Cook covered on low flame till potatoes are cooked from inside.
Stir occasionally, add more water if required and cook covered till done.
Uncover and stir fry for a minute or two to evaporate any excess moisture.
Serve baby potatoes with poppy seeds over plain steamed rice.
Notes: Make sure baby potatoes are pierced well and cooked through.
Suggestions: If baby potatoes are not cooked, add few more tablespoons of water and cook covered till done. Else, chop up the potatoes into small chunks to ease the cooking process.
Variations: Boil potatoes prior to cooking till just soft. Add cumin or mustard seeds instead of panch phoran in tempering. Green chilli can be finely chopped and added as a variation to grinding. Cumin seeds powder, coriander powder, red chilli powder can be added to the tempering for extra spice. Sugar can also be added at end for a touch of sweetness.

Posted in: indian,potato,veg,vegetable