BANARASI ALOO DUM

           Dum aloo cooked in banarasi style. I used medium sized potatoes here, each cut into 2, as I didn't find baby potatoes.

INGREDIENTS:

Baby potatoes boiled - 12 to 15

Oil for shallow frying

Cardamom - 8

Roasted Kasuri Methi - 1 tbsp

Chopped fresh coriander - 1 tbsp

Oil - 1 tbsp

Salt to taste

For gravy:

chopped tomatoes - 2 cups

ginger garlic paste -  1tsp

Dry kashmiri red chillies - 8 ( Although these are not so hot chillies, you adjust the quantity up to your taste.)

Cashewnuts - 2 tbsps

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Fennel seeds - 1 tsp

Water - around 2 1/2 cups

METHOD:

• Heat oil in a pan and shallow fry the boiled potatoes.You can leave the skin on if you want to.
• Drain on Kitchen tissue and keep aside.
• For the gravy, Combine all the ingredients together and simmer over a medium flame till the tomatoes are cooked.
• Cool the mixture and puree in a blender to make a smooth paste.
• Heat oil in a pan, add the cardamom and gravy paste and allow it to come to a boil. simmer till the oil separates from the gravy. It may take 4-5 mins.
• Add the potatoes, kasuri methi and salt and simmer for 5 more mins, so that the potatoes will absorb all the flavors from the gravy.
• Add the coriander leaves and serve hot with roti or rice.

Makes 4 servings.