Potato, Onion & Sesame Seed Curry

This curry was invented because of hounding by my family—whenever I make biryani, I am told the potatoes in the biryani are never enough. My one sister always says that at weddings when biryani is served the hosts should buy one less sarie and 3-4 extra bags of potatoes for the biryani-and I find my sons as well always say the potatoes are not enough. Generally when I cook biryani – I count about 4-5 pieces of potatoes per person. I personally prefer the vegetable, brown lentils and the rice served with lashings of kachoomer (grated mixed salad)

Because of all the nagging, I decided to try and make a potato curry based on the principles and spices used in making biryani-and this potato curry can be served with lovely fresh whole wheat roti and some raita-I tried out this wonderful potato curry and unfortunately no sisters came to visit on the day-but I did the taste test and I think it is great-the wonderful flavour and aroma of biryani is there and there is just only potatoes-so that angle was covered-I loved it and I am sure my sisters will love-but I know I am going to get the comment “why did you put sesame seeds and tomatoes-biryani does not have that”, but the ‘tweaker’ in me got the better of me and I just thought the sesame will be good and the tomatoes will add that little bit of tang-I liked it and well I will just have to prepare this curry again for the family to try-this time I am not going to wait for them to try it—I am trusting my taste buds completely and sharing the recipe with you.

Potato, Onion & Sesame Seeds Curry

35ml oil

250ml sliced onions

3ml fennel seeds

3ml mustard seeds

5-8 curry leaves

35ml sesame seeds

1-2 dry chillies

100ml finely chopped tomatoes (optional)

500ml medium size cubed potatoes

7ml biryani masala

100ml water

7ml salt

5ml mango dry powder or 5ml lemon juice

35ml chopped fresh coriander

 Method

• Heat oil in large flat pan, add the onions and allow them to cook and soften but not brown
• Once the onions are soft-add the fennel, mustard seeds and curry leaves and stir, before lowering the heat
• Add the sesame seeds, dry chillies, tomatoes, potatoes and biryani masala, mix well before adding the water and covering the pan and allowing the potatoes to cook till they are soft and tender
• Season with salt and mango powder before removing from the heat
• Garnish with chopped coriander and serve with roti and a mint and coriander raita

A RECIPE FOR BIRYANI MASALA/SPICE WILL BE POSTED ASAP

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