আলু ভর্ত্তা - Mashed Potato Sautéed

 

Mashed Potato Sautéed with Green Chilly and Shallot

I can eat potato any time in any shape or form. (Cooked potato, I mean!!) And the same goes with rice. I think, Van Gogh, the creator of the famous painting "The Potato Eaters", would have made me also a subject of his painting, moved by my loyalty and dedication to potato. 

The Concept of  সেদ্ধভাত /sheddho bhaat/

This morning I was making breakfast for my Mom and me. For my Mom it was mashed potato with butter and salt and a hardboiled egg with rice. Mom was not well. Otherwise she doesn't let me prepare the breakfast, neither does she eats rice in the morning.

আলুসেদ্ধ-ডিমসেদ্ধ-ভাত, a common breakfast for children and ill people

Our traditional way of preparing "mashed potato" is by cooking it in rice, i.e. cooking the two together. We call it আলু-ভাতে /aalubhaate/, literally, "potato in steamed/cooked rice". We do cook other vegetables, too, the same way and call it ভাতে দেওয়া /bhaate deoa/, "adding into rice" and the vegetables thus cooked ভাতে সেদ্ধ /bhaate sheddho/, i.e. "cooked (thoroughly) in rice". Usually these vegetables are mashed adding fresh green chillies, salt, mustard oil, and sometimes (for some vegetables) very thinly chopped fresh shallot and had with rice. This combination of steamed rice and boiled vegetables without any spices is a dish itself and called সেদ্ধভাত /sheddhobhaat/ the literal meaning of which -- "boiled rice" is misleading.

Making my আলু ভর্ত্তা /aalu bharttaa/

After the rice is done, I drained the starch and then took the potatoes out, mashed them adding salt. I added a little butter to my Mom's share. 

Now I heated very little mustard oil on a pan and added the very thinly chopped onion and green chillies into it, and a pinch of turmeric powder. When the onion is glazed I added the mashed potato. I sautéed the potato changing sides. It turned beautiful golden. I had it with steamed rice.