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Rum Wale Aloo – a la Ajit.

April 11, 2017 By appu 2 Comments

My friend Ajit invented this absolutely unusual recipe on the spot.

 

the husband and Ajit

We were all in Mahabaleshwar, wondering about the dinner menu. Naan and Kaali Dal were already in the picture, and he volunteered to make an Aloo (Potato) veggie. This jovial, happy – go – lucky, man waltzed into the kitchen at 10 am, fiddled around with pots and pans, and waltzed back out. Then at 7 pm, he took a stiff drink of whisky in his hand, asked for a bottle of rum, (leaving me wondering, as to how we will get him off the kitchen floor and into bed!!) and marched into the kitchen again. I confess to taking a few peeks into the kitchen, just to check if he was still standing. The one time I peeped in, I saw him drain the bottle of Rum into the pan of simmering potatoes. I heaved a sigh of relief, and went about my business grinning, impatiently waiting to taste these crazy Rum laden potatoes.

Rum Wale Aloo – a la Ajit

I really don’t need to tell you how good it was, because I know as soon as you read the recipe you will definitely want to try it at least once. After that, you will be hooked. And all those who eat it with you will be hooked. I have already made it thrice in a span of three weeks, and I am a very very happy person when mealtime arrives.

This dish takes a little bit of planning, a little bit of sweat and a great deal of Rum. I really suggest you make it just the way I have mentioned. Everything that Ajit, has put into this Rum Wale Aloo – a la Ajit – has a purpose and imparts some sort of flavour.

Get hold of the smallest potatoes you can. And please see that all of them are approximately the same size. This way, they will all cook uniformly.

Marinate it for an at least 6 hours. I did a huge boo boo, last week. I was asked to make this recipe for a friend’s party and so I marinated the potatoes, a night before to make it next morning, only to realise that I have miscalculated the dates. It was not due for yet another day. I just said a fervent prayer and popped the potatoes into the fridge and let it marinate for yet another 24 hours. So in all – 36 hours of deep marination. Whoa! It cooked faster, tasted bloody good and it did not smell like over worn socks.

So yay!! Go for it – marinate it for as long as you can.

Besides a long marinating time, it also takes a little while to cook. I would suggest good Jazz music in the background (Why Jazz? – well it just seems to set the right tone for this dish! All sultry and seductive. Something good waiting to happen!) A good drink in the hand, and a happy go – lucky nature like the inventor of this dish.

 

Oye Ajit – Cheers!!

Enjoying a Cigar, after hard days work.

 

 

 

Rum Wale Aloo - a la Ajit
Print Recipe
Marinated for hours, drenched in black rum, cooked patiently on slow fire - to be eaten with grins and smiles!
  • CourseMain Course, Main Dish
  • CuisineIndian
Servings Prep Time
6 pax 20 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
1 hour 8 + hours
Servings Prep Time
6 pax 20 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
1 hour 8 + hours
Rum Wale Aloo - a la Ajit
Print Recipe
Marinated for hours, drenched in black rum, cooked patiently on slow fire - to be eaten with grins and smiles!
  • CourseMain Course, Main Dish
  • CuisineIndian
Servings Prep Time
6 pax 20 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
1 hour 8 + hours
Servings Prep Time
6 pax 20 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
1 hour 8 + hours
Ingredients
Marinade for Potato
  • 500 gm Baby Potato wash well and keep the skin on.
  • 300 gm Curds
  • 1 Tbspn garlic pound in mortar pestle
  • 1 tspn Ginger pound in mortar pestle
  • 1 Tbspn Green Chillies pound in mortar pestle
  • 1 tspn Turmeric (haldi)
  • 1 tspn Red Chilli Powder
  • 1 tspn Corriander Powder (dhania powder)
  • 1 Tbspn salt
  • 2 tspn Lime Juice
Initial Tempering
  • 4 Tbspn Mustard Oil (rai ka tel)
  • 2 Pcs Bay Leaves (tej patta)
  • 1 Pc Black Cardamom (badi elaichi)
  • 15 / 20 Pcs Black Pepper whole
  • 4 Pcs Clove (laung)
  • 1 inch Cinnamon Stick
  • 3 Pcs Kashmiri Red Chillies whole
Final Tempering and Ingredients
  • 1 Tbspn Asafoetida (hing)
  • 1 1/2 Cups onion Diced into long thick slices of appx 1/2 cm each
  • 2 Tbspn garlic pound in mortar pestle
  • 1 Tbspn Ginger pound in mortar pestle
  • 2 Tbspn Green Chillies pound in mortar pestle
  • 1 tspn Turmeric (haldi)
  • 2 tspn Red Chilli Powder
  • 1 Tbspn Corriander Powder (dhania powder)
  • 1 Tbspn salt
  • 1 Cup Dark Rum (old monk preferably)
  • 1 Cup Tomato Puree
  • 1 tspn Lime Juice
Garnish
  • 1/4 Cup Corriander Leaves (dhania patta)
Servings: pax
Instructions
  1. Wash the potatoes very well. Poke holes in all the pcs, with a fork. Please see to it that all sides of the potato are poked
  2. Mix all the ingredients of the marinade into the curds. Mix well.
  3. Toss the potatoes into the marinade. Mix it well and keep covered in a refrigerator for 8 hours.
Making the final dish
  1. Pour the oil in a wok (kadhai), and set it on medium to high flame.
  2. When the oil is hot, but not smoking, add the ingredients of the intitial tempering. Cover it so that the flavours retain within the oil
  3. In exactly 30 to 40 seconds, open the lid and take all the tempering material out. Leave the oil inside the wok.
  4. Reduce the flame.
  5. Add the hing, and within seconds add the onions.
  6. Fry onions really well. Keep stirring. They should become brown but not burnt. This will take appx 25 to 30 minutes.
  7. Pound the garlic, ginger and green chillies in a mortar pestle, and add to the onions.
  8. Add the turmeric, corriander powder, salt and red chilli powder as well.
  9. Fry well.
  10. Drain the potatoes from the marinade. Keep the marinade aside.
  11. Add the potatoes. Mix well.
  12. Cover the wok, and leave the potatoes to steam. This should take appx 25 to 30 minutes again.
  13. Keep mixing once in a while so that it does not stick to the wok.
  14. When the potatoes are cooked, take off the cover and add the marinade.
  15. Mix well and let the marinade dry up.
  16. All this while the fire should be at medium to low. Keep it this way.
  17. When the marinade has cooked and dried up add the rum. (finally!!)
  18. Let it cook coating the potatoes by stirring and tossing.
  19. The colour will turn black.
  20. When the rum reduces to half, add the lime juice and tomato puree.
  21. Toss and mix well.
  22. When the tomato cooks, take off the fire. You will know its cooked when it does not smell raw anymore.
  23. Garnish with corriander leaves and serve hot with any form of Roti.
Recipe Notes

This dish requires patience. But your patience will be well rewarded when your palate tastes the punch of rum with the soft but spicy potatoes.

Use the hing liberally. If its very good quality you may reduce it a little, but its store bought use the entire specified amount.

Be careful with the salt. The marinade already has salt, then you add some more while cooking.

Please use all the ingredients as specified. The longer you marinate the potatoes, the faster it will cook. If you want some gravy (this is just coated in the rum and onion gravy - not a runny gravy), then add appx 1 Cup of water in the end, after the tomato cooks. Give it a good boil and you are ready to go.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: aloo vegetable, dinner time dish, evening with drinks, kaali dal, naan, potato, potatoes, rum, rum wale aloo

Red Chilli Chutney – From Bangalore.

May 23, 2016 By appu 4 Comments

In the din and pollution of Bangalore, exists a quiet retreat. The garden is lush, and in the centre of it all stands my favourite tree – The Parijat. There is something about the small white flower with the orange stems. It has a hard grip on my list of all time favourites. In the days of the old, my grandmother and her sisters in law, would break the orange stem, and make a dye with it. They used it to colour their sarees and wore them for auspicious occasions.

The parijat flower

The parijat flower

In that serene atmosphere, lives Rekha with her husband and daughter. When she got married, her very foodie husband was appalled at her cooking skills, so he took her to his mother’s home for some training. Rekha being Rekha, understood that way to her husband’s heart is through his stomach (as it is with mine!) She dedicated her self to traditional cooking training. I say “well done” husband, because otherwise, we would have lost out on eating out of the hands of one of the best cooks I have ever met.

Rekha is clean, neat and extremely efficient. Her recipes have been so well measured, that nothing goes waste.

In the next few weeks, I will be adding a few of her recipes. The food you must have eaten, but her’s are worth trying out once.

red chutneu feature

Here is a simple Red Chilli Chutney. I asked her the traditional name for it, she just shrugged and said – Red Chilli Chutney. Well then. So be it!!

Since the time I made it, I’ve had it with everything – toast, pooran poli, in a salad. I even layered the base of Lasagna sheets with it, before putting in the fillings. It is not as spicy as it looks.

Red Chutney with anything

Red Chutney with anything

The taste of the jaggery and imli (tamarind), blend with the chillies, giving it the right tang and a hint of spiciness. For the palate that does not mind experimenting with a little spice, this recipe is a must try. And it’s adorably simple.

Red Chilli Chutney

Red Chilli Chutney

Ingredients for the chutney. Sans the red chillies

Ingredients for the chutney. Sans the red chillies


Red Chilli Chutney - From Bangalore
Print Recipe
For the complex tastes that hit your palate, this is a very simple, easy and quick recipe to make. Phenomenally versatile....
  • CourseSauces and Jams, Side Dish
  • CuisineSouth Indian
Servings Prep Time
150 grams appx 15 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
5 minutes 5 minutes
Servings Prep Time
150 grams appx 15 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
5 minutes 5 minutes
Red Chilli Chutney - From Bangalore
Print Recipe
For the complex tastes that hit your palate, this is a very simple, easy and quick recipe to make. Phenomenally versatile....
  • CourseSauces and Jams, Side Dish
  • CuisineSouth Indian
Servings Prep Time
150 grams appx 15 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
5 minutes 5 minutes
Servings Prep Time
150 grams appx 15 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
5 minutes 5 minutes
Ingredients
  • 75 gms Kashmiri Red Chillies
  • 1 tspn Jeera (Cumin) seeds
  • 1 small Ball of Tamarind
  • 1 small Ball of Jaggery
  • 1/2 tspn salt
  • 1 Stem Curry Leaves
  • 4 pods garlic peeled.
  • 1/4 Cup Drinking water To blend.
  • 1/4 tspn Methi (fenugreek) seeds
Servings: grams appx
Instructions
  1. Take off the stems of the red chillies and soak them whole, in room temperature water.
  2. While the chillies soak, dry roast the methi, jeera and curry leaves, on a non stick pan. Roast till the jeera gives off fragrance and the curry leaves look just a bit wilted.
  3. After 15 minutes drain the chillies and throw away the water.
  4. Blend together, soaked red chillies, dry roasted methi, jeera and curry leaves, tamarind, jaggery, garlic and salt in a blender. Use a little water to blend.
  5. Make a coarse paste. Don't blend till its too fine.
  6. Stores well in refrigerator for a week.
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Filed Under: Chutneys Tagged With: garlic, jaggery, no oil, red chilliy chutney, spicy, tamarind, vegetarian, versatile, yum

Meet the Author

For the 21 years and some months that I have been alive, there has been this crazy, eccentric, always-charged-up woman with a full-time job of being a mother to 6 (2 children, 4 dogs).

In her spare time she blasts music on her DJ console, reads like a maniac, downloads shows (because God forbid she runs out of something to watch), runs an entire household, and to top it all off, manages a very successful catering business which makes the most delicious food in the entire world. Once you have her food, everything else will taste like stale socks.

This is what you call "Maa ke haath ka khana".

- Kanak

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