Kurkureet batate or Crispy potatoes

This tops the charts in our house, as far as potato preparations go!

Serves:  2 persons, as a side dish

Ingredients:

500 gms potatoes

1 ½  tablespoons oil

1 teaspoon red chilly powder or hot paprika

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 tablespoon cumin seeds

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Wash and peel the potatoes. Cut them into small cubes.
2. In a sauté pan, heat the oil. Add the cumin seeds and let them splutter.
3. Lower the flame and add the turmeric and chilly powder, quickly followed by the potatoes. (The timing is important here. You need to let the turmeric and chilly swirl in the oil but add the potatoes quickly enough before the spices burn.)
4. Add salt to taste. Stir the potatoes so that they are covered with the spice mix.
5. Cover the sauté pan with a large steel plate or any other concave lid. Pour some water on the plate.
6. The steam cooks the potatoes. No water is added into the pan.
7. After 12-15 minutes, take off the plate/lid carefully and give the potatoes another stir.
8. If they are already semi-cooked, leave the lid off and continue to cook them for another 8- 10 minutes on a high flame, stirring regularly to ensure the potatoes turn crispy but don’t char.
9. They are done when the potatoes are cooked completely and brown and crispy in places.

PS: Try and not finish them before they get to the table! 🙂 It’s a challenge.

Best served with hot dal-rice. I love it with hot phulkas too.

Notes: This is what I mean by cooking the potatoes in their steam, in point 5..