Aloo Posto

Aloo Posto (Potato cooked in poppy seed paste) is a delicious & popular Bengali recipe generally eaten as a dry accompaniment with a meal of steamed rice and daal. This recipe finds a place with biulir daal (urad daal) in every other Sunday afternoon lunch at our home.

Ingredients:

• 4-5 medium sized potatoes
• 4 tbsp poppy seeds / posto / khuskhus
• ? cup water (to make poppy seeds paste)
• 2 tbsp mustard oil
• 1 tsp panchphoron
• 1 bay leaf / tej patta
• 3 green chillies
• ? tsp red chilli powder
• ? cup water
• salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Wash, peel and dice the potatoes into one inch sized cubes.
2. Take a pan, boil water and steam the potatoes a little (ensure that the potatoes do not become too mushy). Keep aside.
3. Soak poppy seeds in 1 cup of boiled water for 30 mins. Drain and put poppy seeds in a blender. Add 1 green chilli, ? tsp salt and ? cup water and blend to form a smooth paste.
4. Heat oil in a kadhai. Add bay leaf & panchphoron and let them splutter.
5. Reduce the flame. Add the poppy paste, 2 green chillies, red chili powder and salt and stir fry for 3-4 mins.
6. Add the semi-cooked potatoes to the poppy paste, mix well and again stir fry for 2-3 mins.
7. Add water and cook till the water evaporates and the potatoes are done.
8. Transfer in a serving bowl and serve hot with rice and daal.

Tip:

Instead of steaming the potatoes, you can directly cook them with the poppy paste with enough water to cook the potatoes until tender.