This Bengali Dum Aloo | Niramish Alur Dom | Alu Dum is a delicious, spicy, vegan potato curry. Pairs well with some luchi, paratha, or any other flatbread!
Hello everyone! Hope everyone is doing good! The festive season has begun in India, and currently , Navratri is going on. Navratri literally translates to ‘nine nights’. It is a Hindu festival where people across the country worship different avatars of goddess Durga. Today I have a traditional Bengali dish to share with you guys- Bengali dum aloo | Alur Dum.
Stir-fried baby potatoes are simmered in a thick curry consisting of tomatoes and aromatic spices. It is spicy, well balanced and delicious. Traditionally, it is paired with luchis, but you can enjoy it with any flatbread.
In several parts of India, people keep Vrata (fasting), during Navratri. People tend to eat pure vegetarian food, excluding onion and garlic, except Bengalis who do consume non- vegetarian meals during Navratri. So this recipe is perfect for all the readers if you want to try something without these ingredients.
About Bengali cuisine, frankly, I have never tasted authentic Bengali food, but have heard some awesome stuff about how good it really is! Fortunately, I met a lovely person, Ujjaini Majumdar on my FB foodie group, who hails from Bengal, India and settled in Philadelphia. I learnt this particular recipe from her, and couldn’t wait to try it! This is a dry version of dum aloo, it is not very saucy nor rich as the Punjabi dum aloo. It turned out to be absolutely delicious!
It is interesting to know that dum aloo is prepared slightly differently in different regions of India. The most popular being the Kashmiri and Punjabi dum aloo, both of which I love.
This is the first time I tried making Bengali dum aloo and I loved it. Well, I love anything with potatoes!! But moreover, I love the fact that this dish is light and can easily be enjoyed often and not just reserved for an occasion.
Then there is also a Banarasi dum aloo, a UP style preparation. I’d love to try that out next!.
- HOW TO MAKE BENGALI DUM ALOO AT HOME?
- STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS TO MAKE BENGALI NIRAMISH ALOO DUM | BENGALI DUM ALOO
- HOW TO MAKE BENGALI DUM ALOO?
- Bengali Dum Aloo Recipe | Bengali Niramish Alur Dom
HOW TO MAKE BENGALI DUM ALOO AT HOME?
This is a Bengali niramish recipe. Niramish means there is no use of onion or garlic in the dish. So any dish that is devoid of onion and garlic begins with niramish.
To make dum aloo, you need to prep up your baby potatoes. Boil them and deep fry or shallow fry them. Simultaneously start off with your gravy preparation, which is a tomato based flavored with spices like ginger, red chili powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, some whole spices, and coriander leaves and stalks. There is no yogurt, nut, nor any cream, unlike the Punjabi dum aloo which is quite rich.
Aloo luchi is a classic combo in Bengali cuisine. Luchi is nothing, but a Bengali style poori (unleavened deep-fried puffy bread) made with refined flour.
I hope you enjoyed this simple aloo dum recipe and will try it out soon.
STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS TO MAKE BENGALI NIRAMISH ALOO DUM | BENGALI DUM ALOO
1.Pressure cook the baby potatoes until fork tender. Peel and set aside. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a heavy bottomed skillet, shallow fry the boiled baby potatoes on medium heat until golden brown. Drain and set aside.
2.In the same pan/pot, add another tablespoon of oil. Add bay leaf, cinnamon, cumin seeds, broken red chillies, green cardamom. Sauté until cumin crackles and spices are aromatic.
3.Add the tomatoes and a pinch of hing and the chopped cilantro stems.
4.When the tomatoes soften, add tomato purée, sauté until the masala leaves oil.
5.Add the ginger paste along with the chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, sugar, and salt. Add 2 tablespoons of water and mix everything well. Sauté until the rawness of spices vanishes.
6.When the masala is fried properly, you will see oil separating, add the slit green chillies.
7.Add the fried potatoes and mix well with the above masala.
8.Add about 3/4th cup of water, mix well. Bring to a boil.
9.Lower the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes or until the desired thickness of curry. Stir occasionally. Sprinkle garam masala, mix well, garnish with chopped cilantro, serve hot with luchis, paratha or any flatbread.
NOTES
1.Instead of adding the whole spices in step 2, you may dry roast the bay leaf, dried red chillies, green cardamom and cinnamon on low heat until fragrant. Powder it and use it in the 2nd step after the cumin seeds crackle. Reserve a little of the ground spice powder to be sprinkled in the last step and skip the garam masala.
2.Post updated with new pictures.
HOW TO MAKE BENGALI DUM ALOO?
Bengali Dum Aloo Recipe | Bengali Niramish Alur Dom
Ingredients1x2x3x
- 15-16 baby potatoes
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- Whole spices (1 Bay leaf, 2 inch cinnamon stick, 3 green cardamom)
- 2 dried red chillies, broken in half
- 1/2 tbsp ginger paste
- 1 tsp finely chopped cilantro/coriander stems
- Pinch of hing (asafoetida)
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp red chilli powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 2-3 green chillies, slit lenghtwise,adjust as per desired heat
- 2 large tomatoes, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup tomato puree, optional
- 1/4 tsp garam masala
- 2-3 tbsp mustard oil/ vegetable oil
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- Salt, to taste
Instructions
- Pressure cook the baby potatoes until fork tender. Peel and set aside. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a heavy bottomed skillet, shallow fry the boiled baby potatoes on medium heat until golden brown. Drain and set aside.
- In the same pan/pot, add another tablespoon of oil. Add bay leaf, cinnamon, cumin seeds, broken red chillies, green cardamom. Sauté until cumin crackles and spices are aromatic.
- Add the tomatoes and a pinch of hing and the chopped cilantro stems.
- When the tomatoes soften, add tomato purée, sauté until the masala leaves oil.
- Add the ginger paste along with the chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, sugar, and salt. Add 2 tablespoons of water and mix everything well. Sauté until the rawness of spices vanishes.
- When the masala is fried properly, you will see oil separating, add the slit green chillies.
- Add the fried potatoes and mix well with the above masala.
- Add about 3/4th cup of water, mix well. Bring to a boil.
- Lower the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes or until desired thickness of curry. Stir occasionally. Sprinkle garam masala, mix well, garnish with chopped cilantro, serve hot with luchis, paratha or any flatbread.
Notes
I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to share your feedback with photos and suggestions to me at aromaticessence77@gmail.com
You can also follow me on :
Regards,
Freda
Bengali Dum Aloo Recipe | Bengali Niramish Alur Dom
Ingredients
- 15-16 baby potatoes
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- Whole spices (1 Bay leaf, 2 inch cinnamon stick, 3 green cardamom)
- 2 dried red chillies, broken in half
- 1/2 tbsp ginger paste
- 1 tsp finely chopped cilantro/coriander stems
- Pinch of hing (asafoetida)
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp red chilli powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 2-3 green chillies, slit lenghtwise,adjust as per desired heat
- 2 large tomatoes, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup tomato puree, optional
- 1/4 tsp garam masala
- 2-3 tbsp mustard oil/ vegetable oil
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- Salt, to taste
Instructions
- Pressure cook the baby potatoes until fork tender. Peel and set aside. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a heavy bottomed skillet, shallow fry the boiled baby potatoes on medium heat until golden brown. Drain and set aside.
- In the same pan/pot, add another tablespoon of oil. Add bay leaf, cinnamon, cumin seeds, broken red chillies, green cardamom. Sauté until cumin crackles and spices are aromatic.
- Add the tomatoes and a pinch of hing and the chopped cilantro stems.
- When the tomatoes soften, add tomato purée, sauté until the masala leaves oil.
- Add the ginger paste along with the chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, sugar, and salt. Add 2 tablespoons of water and mix everything well. Sauté until the rawness of spices vanishes.
- When the masala is fried properly, you will see oil separating, add the slit green chillies.
- Add the fried potatoes and mix well with the above masala.
- Add about 3/4th cup of water, mix well. Bring to a boil.
- Lower the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes or until desired thickness of curry. Stir occasionally. Sprinkle garam masala, mix well, garnish with chopped cilantro, serve hot with luchis, paratha or any flatbread.
Notes
Egg methi bhurji is a delicious dish that can be enjoyed for breakfast or as a side with some rice and curry!
Methi (Fenugreek) is widely used as a herb or spice in the Indian cuisine.
Given its very distinctive and slightly bitter taste, fenugreek may not be a popular spice in world cuisines but therapeutically, its properties are unquestioned; both the seed as well as its green leaves are highly valued pharmaceutically as it is a rich source of phytonutrients such as thiamin, folic acid, riboflavin, niacin, vitamins A, B6, and C, with the leaves boasting of Vitamin K; it also contains various minerals such as copper, potassium, calcium, iron, selenium, zinc and manganese. ( Source- The Hindu)
So coming to today’s recipe, It’s like a normal egg bhurji preparation (scrambled eggs sauteed with onions, tomatoes, and spices) but with the addition of fenugreek leaves. The combination of fenugreek with eggs is not only healthy but equally delicious as well. It is a very simple recipe, the only time-consuming part would be cleaning the fenugreek leaves I’d say. For a vegetarian/vegan version, you can use paneer or tofu.
This post is special to me, cause this is the first time we attempted to grow fenugreek at home. We do not get these leaves here at all, and that’s what prompted us to try growing our own at home.
So we soaked some fenugreek seeds in water overnight, and the next day we planted them, within a couple of days few sprouts were visible, and we finally harvested them after about 3 weeks. I shall be growing my next batch soon, and intend doing a detailed post on how to grow fenugreek at home, In case you want to give it a go as well, which I highly recommend.
- Step by step instructions to make Egg methi bhurji
- HOW TO MAKE EGG METHI BHURJI?
- Egg Methi Bhurji (Scrambled Eggs With Fenugreek)
Step by step instructions to make Egg methi bhurji
1.Clean, wash and chop the methi leaves very finely.
2.Heat oil in a non stick pan, add chopped onions and saute until translucent.
3.Add chopped tomatoes, cook on medium heat until they are mushy.
4.Add the chopped methi leaves, salt, and sugar. Mix well
5.Let this cook until all the water evaporates from the methi and onion tomato mixture.
6.Add the eggs, and scramble it. Serve hot with bread/ toasted bread/chapati.
HOW TO MAKE EGG METHI BHURJI?
Egg Methi Bhurji (Scrambled Eggs With Fenugreek)
Ingredients1x2x3x
- 3 cups of methi fenugreek leaves, (I used only 1 & 1/2 cup since that was all I had)
- 1 large red onion finely chopped, about 1 Cup
- 1 medium tomato
- 2 green chillies slit lengthwise
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp oil
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Clean, wash and chop the methi leaves very finely.
- Heat oil in a non stick pan, add chopped onions and saute until translucent.
- Add chopped tomatoes, cook on medium heat until they are mushy.
- Add the chopped methi leaves, salt, and sugar. Mix well
- Let this cook until all the water evaporates from the methi and onion tomato mixture.
- Add the eggs, and scramble it. Serve hot with bread/ toasted bread/chapati.
I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to share your feedback with photos and suggestions to me at aromaticessence77@gmail.com
You can also follow me on :
Facebook @ Aromaticessence
Pinterest @ Aromatic Essence
Instagram @ aromatic_essence77
Twitter @ freda_dias
Regards,
Freda
