Very few foods have the flair and versatility of the potato. The potato has this magical ability to be able to recast itself, with just the addition of a few ingredients. The potato flourishes when assailed by almost any cooking method. You can fry, roast, boil, sauté, barbecue, or grill a potato, like you can mash, chop, grate, slice or pierce it. The potato is like no other; a mutant that can take any shape, taste and form you want.
I for one cannot live without potato. I grew up in a household which cooked potato in some form or the other for every meal. If not an ‘aloo ki sabzi’, then potato in the mutton, potato in the chicken, potato in the prawns, ‘keema’ stuffed cutlets and chops made out of potato, slices of potato dipped in besan batter and fried as bhajjiyas, pastry stuffed with potato filling, eggs cooked with potato, bakes mince pie with potato, I could go on and on. There was so much potato that when castigated for the amount of non-vegetarian food I ate, I’d gladly show off saying, I can eat vegetarian food (pause) like potatoes. There was a time when, if served, the potato was the saving grace at any invitation for a vegetarian meal.
So here are a few of my favourite Indian potato dishes. Dishes that in no particular order have given me lots of joy over the years.
Let me start with the most obvious. The Batata Vada. These were the days before anyone even knew what a Vada Pav was. When we ordered a plate of Batata Vadas, two lovely big round Vada came in a plate served with chutney. Ramakant at Khopoli made the best Batata Vadas. Mashed potato spiced with a tadka of green chillies, mustard seeds, methi seeds, ginger, garlic, a touch of turmeric and batter fried till golden. The stuffing looked less yellow than it looks today. Unbeatable when hot and without bread.
With the same kind of spices in the Batata Vada but with the boiled potato cut into chunks and with more turmeric and curry leaves in the tadka, is the typical Bombay Sookha Alu served with deep fried pooris is the most heart-warming Poori Bhaji. I remember we had a friend whose mother used to roll the sookha aloo into freshly fried pooris, and lay them out one beside the other in this rather long break box, which he brought to school. He was such a favourite as was his break box.
With potatoes cooked with similar spices and tempering, but with long slivers of onion cooked along with it, is the stuffing for a solidly good Masala Dosa. It is said the Masala Dosa was invented by South Indian Brahmins who added onions to their potato when potatoes were unaffordable. But the Brahmins were forbidden from eating onions. So, they started hiding the potatoes cooked with onions inside the dosa so that no one would suspect. What a lovely story that invented such a great dish.
Talking of stuffing, hot freshly made Aloo Paratha in a Punjabi home or crisp Alu Kulcha from the tandoor of a roadside Amritsar shop will always be my favourite. Of course, I love gobi, methi and other stuffing, but aloo is aloo. Spiced with green chillies and other spices with a bit of achaar, or chole, or a dollop of white butter, blazing hot Aloo Parathas on a chilly morning are just heaven.
The greatness of Aloo Tikkis, cannot be disputed, so much so that even an international fast-food chain had to bow down with humility and add the tikki into their burgers. When served with ragda, (white peas cooked in spices) and served with pickled onions, sweet and sour imli, and green mint and coriander chatni, it seems like the alluring tikki has found its lifelong partner in Ragda Patties.
You must try Dabeli on the streets of Mumbai. The Dabeli originated at Kutch in Gujarat it is nothing more than a spicy, tangy and sweet potato filling inside a bun. The stuffing is made of mashed potatoes and mixed with a spice combination of fresh coriander, turmeric, coriander seeds, cardamom, chili, and other chatpata spices. The filling stuffed in local bread and is topped with roasted peanuts, pomegranate seeds, and sev. The word Dabeli, actually means “pressed” and so the whole sandwich is pressed on a tawa and heated and served.
Of course, potato forms the basis of most meals in the country, and most cuisines have their own iconic potato dishes. Like say Kashmiri Dum Aloo. Impossible to find a really good original Kashmiri version anywhere, the real Dum Aloo Kashmiri is pure sin. Fried and refried potatoes in dry ginger powder and spices cooked in oil and yogurt without onion and garlic.
Classic Bengali Alu Posto. Cooked with minimal spices, except green chillies and nigella seeds and most importantly roasted poppy paste, normally cooked without or garlic. Though some families add a few fried onions just for a little smokiness.
Assam’s comfort food is Aloo Pitika. Pitika itself means mashed. And Aloo Pitika is like a chutney of mashed potato with onion, green chillies, chopped coriander leaves all mixed in with raw mustard oil. Close your eyes and imagine these simple but robust ingredients.
If Pitika is Assam’s comfort food, Aloo Chokha is Bihar’s. Simple. Potatoes, Onions, Garlic with some ground spices and green Chillies served with daal chawal or rotis. Once again simple to make, mashed potato with onion, chilies, mustard oil, and coriander leaves.
These are but just a few. The whole world eats potato and I am not at all surprised that this knobby, shapeless, unappealing looking bulb that grows under the mud and soil in the earth has not only travelled thousands of miles to far off places across land and sea but has also travelled out to space.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.)
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