Aloo Mutter (Potato and Pea Curry)

This is a dish that is often used as a simple dinner or great accompaniment to a larger banquet – it was made at the request of a good mate, Lindsey Te Ata O Tu McDonald – remember, if you have a dish you’d like me to try then give me a yell and I’ll see what I can do!

Aloo Mutter is, literally, potato and peas.  There are two varieties out there – one is a wetter dish with more gravy and the other is flavoured the same way, but is drier and served more like a spiced vegetable dish or sabzi.  I’ll show you how to do both here, but we prefer the wetter version.  Oh, and I should apologise in advance – we were so desperate to feed our guests and dig into dinner that I forgot to take a ‘finished and served’ photo.  I’ll upload one next time we make it 🙂

Ingredients:

3 medium sized potatoes cut into 2.5cm (1 inch) cubes (I like the flavour, texture and fibre in the skins, so I’ve left them on, but feel free to peel them, if you wish)
1 cup of peas (frozen or fresh)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 cm of ginger, grated
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon of red chili powder or smoked paprika (for a less chili taste)
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of ground coriander
2 teaspoons of cumin seeds
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
1/2 cup of water (for a dry sabzi) or 1 cup of water (for a dish with more gravy)
Vegetable Oil for frying

Method:

Start by frying off your potato cubes over a high heat in 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil.  Try not to be an idiot and cover yourself with oil, as I nearly did taking this shot.

Keep frying until they are par cooked and have golden, crispy edge – approximately 5-8 minutes should do it.  Season your potatoes as you’re frying them, to taste.  Once fried, set them aside on a paper towel to absorb any excess oil.

Next, fry off your cumin seeds in a little more oil over a medium heat.  Don’t cook them too fast or they’ll burn and make the dish go bitter.

Add in your onions, garlic and ginger and slowly fry the onions until they are translucent – again, don’t do this too fast or the onions will burn.

Next add in your ground spices (turmeric, chili/paprika, ground cumin and ground coriander) and stir to coat your onions.

Time to add back your potatoes…

Add in your peas…

And as much water as you need (1/2 cup for a dry dish, 1 cup for a wetter gravy).

Add in your tomato paste and stir all the ingredients together and bring the water up to a gentle boil before reducing the heat and covering.  You can also add in some paneer at this stage to make Aloo Mutter Paneer.

Leave on a low heat, covered, for about 10 minutes or until the potatoes are tender – check there’s enough water in the pan and it doesn’t burn (especially if you’re going for a dry dish, which has a higher chance of going too dry).

Remove the lid and serve with fluffy basmati rice or rotis.  I also spinkled a little garam masala on top to finish the dish.  Enjoy! Hope you like it, Lindsey 🙂