Alur Dom -- A Spicy Potato Dish

"Alu" in Bengali means potato. This is a very popular dish in Bengal. I am so proud that we have so many traditional vegan recipes though the word "vegan" is not known to many. Actually these plant based recipes have been part of our traditional food culture for ages, long before the word "vegan" were coined. But I think only the word "vegan" can describe them perfectly and they reflect that our original food habit was much less to do with meat than it has nowadays.
We prefer to use baby potatoes to prepare this dish but it is fine to use any type of potato. I have posted the cooking procedure earlier also. As I tried to look for it. I found it in my previous blog that I don't work on at the moment. Below I have copied the post from August, 2009.



Today I cooked 'alur dam', the recirie of which I am going to share with you. 'Alu' means 'potato'. 'Alur dam' is a popular Bengali delicacy for which the main ingredient is potato. I went for baby potatoes.
All the ingredients are captured below:




Macro-element: baby potatoes

Micro-elements: onion, tomato, cumin seeds, garlic, bay-leaves, red and green chillies, olive oil, salt, a pinch of sugar (optional)

You can actually use any oil. Traditionally, mustard oil is used.

Here are the steps to prepare 'alur dam'.

1) Clean the potatoes with water and boil then in a pressure cooker. Two whistles are enough. Do not overcook.




2) In the meantime keep your 'phorhon' ready.




3) Grate some onion and tomato, too.



4) Now. As the potatoes are cooked you need to peel them off. So, put them into cold water.




5) Now peel them off and cut those into two pieces which are much bigger than the rest.




6) Put some olive oil in to the frying pan and fry the potatoes until they turn golden.




7) Keep them aside.



8) Put bay-leaves, red chillies into the oil.

9) Add cumin seeds.

10) Add chopped garlic.

11) Add green chillies.

12) Add

chopped onions.

13) As the onion starts turning golden,

add turmeric powder.

14) Stir so that the turmeric powder
mixes well and
saute for a while.

15) Now add the grated

onion and tomato.

16) Stir and
mix and
sauté.

17) Add salt. Stir and mix well.

18) Add potatoes and stir

and mix well.








19) Add water.

20) Cover the pot

and cook until the

potatoes become soft.


Now ‘alur dam’ is ready. Serve hot with steamed rice or luchi.