From the Kitchen : Aloo Gobi (Potatoes and Cauliflower)

Your local Indian joint is closed! What are you going to do now? With a bit of effort and culinary magic, this problem will be just a minor setback.

Aloo gobi, directly translated as potatoes and cauliflower, has a special place in my heart. As a student living in the East End of London, I made this alot. Not only because it was very cheap to make, but also the ingredients were widely accessible to me. I was in one of the biggest Indian communities outside of India after all. So it was a double bonus.

And I particularly love this dish as the two main ingredients, cauliflower and potatoes, are vegetables that can last for ages, if you take care of it properly. So this is a good time to have them on stand by. Seriously, getting leafy vegetables now is not a good idea.


Aloo Gobi

Vegetables:
Cauliflower (I used 350 gm)
Potato, peeled ( I used about 150 gm)

Flavour base:
1 onion
5 cloves of garlic, crushed and minced
2 tsp fennel seeds
 2 tsp fenugreek
4 cloves
4 tbsp chilli powder
1 tbsp garam masala
2 dried chillies, soaked beforehand
4 tbsp turmeric

Steps:

Boil boil boil!

1. Precook the vegetables by blanching them in hot water. Cut them into more manageable pieces before hand.

This smells much better than it looks. 

2. While precooking your veggies, chop the onion and saute it using a well oiled pan. Once it is slightly caramelised, add the rest of the flavour base. Saute accordingly until all the fragrance from the spices start to meld together. You know that you have hit the sweet spot when the kitchen smells like an Indian restaurant.

Colouring in progress. 

3. Include all the vegetables into the pan and stir fry, making sure that they are well coated with the yellow hue of your flavour base. If you think it is not yellow enough, you may include extra turmeric.

4. Add in some water and salt and cover your pan with a lid. Let the dish simmer under a low heat for about 10 minutes before serving or until the potatoes soften. Serve with a good helping of rice.

Finished product!

This is such a simple dish that lots of people pay top dollar for a portion in a restaurant. But once you know how to get this down right, this is a dish you would rather revisit at home instead.

Also, I note that it can be a bit difficult to get the spices listed in the flavour base above, which I get. So in terms of non-negotiable items, that would be the turmeric, garam masala and fennel seeds. If you cannot get chilli powder and/or dried chillies, you can substitute them with fresh chillies. It will produce a more zesty flavour, instead of a woody and earthy profile. It is fresh after all.