Everybody loves potatoes. Deep fried or boiled, cooked or baked, it pairs with almost every kind of meals, be it meat or vegetables.
If you go to your local market in India, you might find potatoes in different colors - some red, some brown, or purple or white. For culinary purpose, varieties are often differentiated by their waxiness and their ratio of starch content. There are about 5000 potato varieties worldwide. 3000 of them are found in Andes alone in the regions of Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia.
Potatoes are prepared in many ways, with or without skin, whole or cut up, with seasoning or without. The only requirement is to swell up the starch granules. Boiled potatoes can be used for making salads or snacks, potatoes can be fried to make French fries or chips, grated potatoes can be used for dumplings or pancakes, cubed potatoes are used in stew with meat or vegetables.
In UK, potatoes form part of traditional staple Fish and chips. French fries and Hash brown are commonly found in a typical American fast-food cafes, Potato pancakes are popular all over Central Europe, A traditional Canary Island snacks are Papas Arrugada (wrinkled potatoes), Papa Bravas(spicy potatoes in spicy tomato sauce) and Tortilla de Papas (potato omelette)
Other than eating, potatoes are also used for other purposes: Using as fodder for livestock, Potato starch in food industry as thickeners and binders for soups and sauces, in textile industry as adhesives, in manufacture of boards and papers. It is also used to brew alcoholic beverages such as Vodka.
Back home, we love aloo chat, alu dum, alu parathas. Vada pav is the popular dish in Maharastra. Aloo Posto is immensely popular in East India specially Bengal. Then there is Aloo Tikki, Samosas and Aloo Pakoras. In south India, Masala Dosa has potato bhaji as filling.
Potato bhaji is prepared differently in different part of India and can be enjoyed with dosa, or Puri and can make even sandwiches from left over potato bhaji.
Happy to share my Potato Bhaji Recipe, which is simple and yet so very tasty.
1. Take 2tbsp Mustard oil
2. Add 2tbsp mustard seeds, 1tsp cumin seeds, small pinch of hing, 1inch chopped ginger, 2 chopped green chillies, few curry leaves.
3. Add 1 sliced onion
4. Stir and let it cook till onion change color to light brown
5. Add 1 chopped tomatoes, 1tsp turmeric powder, 1tsp red chilli powder, 2tbsp Podi masala( or garam masala)
6. Cook for a minute
7. Add 1 large boiled potato
8. Mix and let it cook on low flame for 10 minutes
9. Garnish with coriander leaves
Watch the video on my utube channel
Subscribe my channel here >> PapadChai for more recipes
