Double baked, pesto coated potatoes - note I don't have a proper name for this dish :-)

In all my life so far, I haven't come across a single person that says he/she didn't like potatoes. I for sure is not one of them. I am actually sad that these delicious roots get a bad rap all the time from health experts. When eaten the right way, these not only taste out of the world but also provide a multitude of nutrients. Just don't consume them as fries all the time :-)

These spuds didn't make a frequent occurrence in nammamma's kitchen, not sure why though. It was the occasional alugedde-eerulli huli (sambar made with potatoes & onions) that I craved for or the masala palya for dose. Do you ask what is so special about a sambar with potatoes & onions? My answer would be 'try it, atleast once in your life", this is a special, very special combination and the gravy just comes alive with the 'made in heaven' match of the two roots.

I am not talking about the huli today, nope but all this talk about potato-onion huli reminds me that I haven't made it in a while, should put it on the 'to-make' list. What I have today is an equally delicious and comforting dish made with potatoes. It meshes the freshness of mint with the bland potatoes and baking it until soft yet crispy with melted cheese on top.. I will stop describing it and give you the recipe so you can make it and enjoy too :-)

I have a MSN food app on my laptop which I visit sometimes when the picture catches my attention. A few weeks back (before Thanksgiving I think), they had many recipes apt for the season, there were a number of Turkey dishes, sweet potatoes served in many creative ways and then there was a double baked potato stuffed with more potatoes and topped with cheese :-). I loved the look of it and wanted to try it.

For the last few days, I have been busy and my usually full refrigerator & kitchen have a deserted look. With a teenager at home that feels hungry all of a sudden it has not been easy and as she was working on her never ending homework one of the weekends, she whined that there was nothing interesting to eat at home :-(. That whine sounds very familiar, if I remember right, that is the age at which nammamma gave me an ultimatum and said instead refusing to eat everything that was offered/available, I should start making what I wanted and thus happened my serious entry into the world of cooking. The conversations used to be somewhat on these lines, I would say that was hungry, amma would offer 1,2,3.. choices and I would keep saying I didn't like it or didn't feel like eating it. Amma would exasperatedly ask what I wanted to eat but I never had an answer since I didn't know it myself :-). Things always have a way of coming back.

Now though a fair complaint that is a substantially big insult to someone who calls herself a passionate cook and a blogger. So, I went into the kitchen and looked around to create something delicious and win DD back. With the image of the baked potatoes in my head, I used pesto I had made for pasta couple days back instead of following the original recipe to T. I not only coated the potatoes with the pesto but also gave some kick to the stuffing with crunchy onions and mixing some pesto into it. And viola, DD was all smiles after gorging down a plate of those baked beauties, mission accomplished :-). She is not interested in stepping into the kitchen though to make something on her own.

You can replace pesto with other chutney or sauces of choice but the nutty, minty pesto just took this a step ahead of other combinations. Give it a try and then experiment. The original recipe called for initially baking the potatoes (see the 'double baked' in the name, that is where it came from) for about 40 mins but since I didn't have the time, I opted to steam it in my rice cooker/steamer which took just 10 minutes to be done. I think baking it the first time slightly dries out the potatoes, hence the need for all the butter the original recipe called for. Steaming kept them moist and soft and I didn't use any fat other than the scant 1 Tsp oil to prepare the stuffing.

What do you need to make baked pesto potatoes? 
6-8 small (not baby) potatoes
2 Tbsp finely chopped onion
2 Tbsp grated cheese (I used mozzarella)
1/2 Tsp cumin seeds
1 Tsp oil
1/2 Tsp lime/lemon juice
for Pesto: 
2 Tbsp almonds
2 Tbsp walnuts
1 Tsp pine nuts
1 cup fresh mint leaves
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves
2-3 green chilies
1 tsp salt

How do you make baked pesto potatoes? 

• Scrub the potatoes well to rid of any dirt. 
• Cut each potato in half with the skin on. 

• Steam or boil them in hot water until just tender. 
• Let cool and with a sharp knife/spoon, scoop out the center of the potatoes leaving a thin layer to hold the skin. Reserve the scooped out insides. 

• Take all ingredients listed under Pesto into a blender and using as little water as necessary, grind it into a fine paste. 
• Add lemon/lime juice and give it a mix. 

• Taste test and adjust salt or green chilies. 
• Heat oil in a pan, crush cumin in palms, add it to the oil, let it sizzle. 
• Add chopped onion and let it sweat for a minute or two. 
• Mash all the scooped potatoes into a smooth dough, add it to the onion and mix well. 
• Add couple of tbsp of pesto into this mixture and taste test it. 

• Let it cook for just a min before switching off. 
• Preheat the oven to 400F, prepare a cookie sheet with a baking spray. 
• Take one of the potato halves, coat the insides with pesto, add a generous scoop of mashed potato mixture into the groove and stuff it in. 

• Top it with grated cheese. 
• Repeat for all potato halves. 

• Arrange them in the cookie sheet and bake for about 30 mins. 
• Take it out and serve warm as an appetizer or a snack. 

Notes: 

• I use small size red potatoes for this recipe, the skin is very thin. Golden russets work well too. 
• Bring the nuts to room temperature if you freeze them like me before making pesto. 
• Feel free to play around with nuts of choice in the pesto. 

Alu Palak - Perfectly delicious and friendly on the waistline

I started my Summer garden on a low key this time as I wanted to feel the soil and growing potential in our new home. But I am glad to see a perfectly green patch now as we are getting ready to bid a bye to the Summer. Squashes are growing longer and stronger, I have harvested fenugreek multiple times and the okra and beans are standing up as the bitter gourd plant continues to climb. I am just happy to see the green plants even if many of them do not have any veggies yet :-). The gardening gratification came with the greens - abundant spinach, chard, fenugreek and the lovely Dill. We are eating greens every day until everyone is blue in the face. I promised DD that I will give it a break for a while and BH has been strictly ordered to stay away from the Costco size Spinach bags he grabs on his occasional visit to the wholesaler. Yes, those occasional visits have the power to convert our home into an extension of Costco stores as he forgets that we still have loads of untouched bath tissues in the garage or big bags of baby bell peppers in the fridge or that we are growing a patch full of greens in our own backyard:-)

Back to my kitchen garden, my tomatoes flopped this time completely with a combination of bad location (read no sun light) and invasive roots underneath. I have learnt my lesson the hard way and will plan better next time, until then back to store bought, waxy tomatoes are my saviors. I have picked peppers(remember the Mirchi ka salan?) a few times and am watching the growing squashes like a hawk while also hoping to have a few other veggies before it is actually winter. All in all a satisfying gardening experience.

We are a greens loving family and I find ways to add green to the dishes. After a long time, I had the Spinach flavor while chopping the leaves and cooking it as it was REALLY FRESH. You won't believe the difference and the incredible flavor a fresh vegetable brings to a dish until you try it. It doesn't need any extra additives or spices to enhance the natural beauty. I made a quick Alu Palak which is a traditional Punjabi home recipe. Deep fried potato pieces are cooked in the mildly spiced, creamy palak sauce and enjoyed with hot rotis. I did my usual calorie counting on it and opted for the oven roasted way. The roasted potatoes were perfect in the sauce.

The first time I tried Alu Palak for an office pot luck a few years back, I had followed a friend's recipe to the T and deep fried the potato pieces, those were the days when there was no guilt associated with eating deep fried stuff every day, yeah they are called 'when I was younger' :-). One thing that was not instructed in the  recipe was that when you chop the potatoes, they should be patted dry to remove the moisture content before they got dropped into the hot oil. I am sure my friend's mom credited us with some common sense but given the fact that it was my early days of cooking and I didn't pay attention to the finer details, I dropped my fresh cut, juicy potato pieces into the hot oil and had a well burnt forehand to tell a story for a while. The Alu palak though turned out delicious with BH pitching in to both provide some TLC to the hurting wife and also take on the role of chef in the kitchen. Credit goes to aunty's well tested recipe. So if you do want to try the deep fried potatoes, make sure they are patted dry completely before dropping them in the oil.

Here is how I made oven roasted Alu Palak with the home grown spinach. As the green were very flavorful, I went low on the spices. It is a very forgiving recipe and you can play around with the spices to suit your taste. Use the below as a framework and experiment.

What do you need to make Alu Palak? 
4 cups tightly packed chopped spinach
2 medium sized potatoes
1 medium sized tomato
2 small green chilies
1X1 inch piece ginger root
1 small onion
1/2 Tsp crushed garlic (optional)
1/2 cup milk
1 Tsp cumin seeds
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1 Tblsp oil
1/2 cup water

Dry Masala powders:
1/2 Tsp red chili powder
1/2 Tsp garam masala
1/2 Tsp amchoor powder

How do you make Alu Palak? 
Prep work: 

• Wash, clean and chop Spinach.
• Peel and cut ginger into small pieces.
• Chop onions & tomatoes into small chunks. 
• Wash, scrub the potatoes and cut them into bite sized chunks. I used red potatoes and kept their thin skins intact for added nutrition. 
• Cover the potato chunks in water and parboil them for 5 minutes. They should be semi cooked and hard still. 

Making of Alu palak:

• Take the chopped spinach, green chilies and water in a sauce pan, and cook it until the water boils for a couple of minutes. Once the spinach is soft, switch off the stove and let it cool. 
• Heat 1/2 Tblsp in a pan, add the crushed garlic and chopped ginger and fry for a minute. 
• Add the chopped onions and saute until it starts to sweat. 
• Add chopped tomatoes and continue to cook until tomatoes turn soft. 
• Mix a Tsp oil and a pinch salt and coat it all over the potatoes, arrange them in a single layer on baking sheets and bake at pre-heated oven in a 350F for 45 minutes. Remove once after 30 minutes to turn them over. 

• Drain the water from the spinach, reserve it for later use. Blend the spinach & green chilies coarsely and keep aside. 
• Blend the fried onion, tomato mixture into a smooth puree.
• Heat the remaining oil in a pan, add cumin seeds, let sizzle. Add the onion-tomato puree. Add salt, reserved spinach water and the dry masala powders and let it cook until the mixture changes color slightly in about 5-8 minutes. 

• Add the spinach puree,  milk and continue to boil for another 5 minutes until the gravy thickens slightly. 

• Add the roasted potatoes, give it a mix and switch off the stove.

• Let the potatoes sit in the gravy for a 15-20 minutes to soak up before serving with rotis or ghee rice/fried rice. 

Notes: 

• You can deep fry the potatoes but I honestly think there is no value add and overrated especially in this recipe since oven roasted potatoes serve the purpose and taste just as well. 
• Par boiling the potatoes before baking them reduces the baking time in the oven and also gives that soft inside, crispy outside texture to the potatoes. 
• I usually put the potatoes with water in a microwave safe dish and microwave it on high for 5 minutes. 
• If you do not have an oven, par boil the potatoes (they should be semi cooked and firm) and saute with a couple spoons of oil in a pan to get the golden cover on the outside. 
• You can use cream or half & half for a thicker, creamier texture of the gravy. 
• We like a 'not-so-thick' gravy to eat with rotis, if you prefer you can make this thicker and drier by not adding the reserved water or cook the spinach with a little salt and no water.
• Sometimes I skip the tomato in this recipe and increase the amount of amchoor powder for the tangyness. This retains the rich green color of the spinach.

Thanks to one of my readers Kaveri for her comment, my healthy Alu Palak is going to her Show me your HITS which she is hosting this month for Sangeetha's HITS event

Dum Aloo - baby potatoes in creamy coating

Potatoes were one of those fancy vegetables (roots/tubers/spuds all that & more) growing up. Nammamma got potatoes only when we made bajjis(deep fried) or bondas or once in a while the favorite eerulli-aalugedde huli (Onion-potato sambar, believe me this combination in sambar is heavenly and I have stories to go with it, another time perhaps). Then as her repertoire grew, she made aloo parantha very frequently which used to be melt in the mouth with just the right kind of masala for the stuffing. My sister entered the kitchen and took our potato love a notch higher with her aloo tikkis - I am still on my quest to recreate that magic. Though every time my tikkis taste good, I still feel there is something missing in them, maybe just my akka's hands :-).

Then came the big brother, coming home for his 2 weeks vacations between hectic studying from the confines of his North Indian student life, he was grown up and all wiser for having gone that far from home. He would regale us with the stories from the college, hostel and obviously the food with spuds playing a huge role in the food. Well, he had it almost every meal you see :-). But potatoes grow on you, I haven't seen a person so far that said they didn't like potatoes, sure there are many of us who want to avoid/reduce the consumption because of the carbohydrates and sugar but we still love our tubers.

So this very North Indian dish got added into our family recipes from my brother, he makes some of the killer North Indian gravies I have tasted and his South Indian delicacies are always enhanced with a generous second helping of ghee :-). Either way, we tend to gain including around the waist. I do not claim that I remember the first time he made it at home or that I follow his recipe, but this is how I have reached my formula on the Dum Aloo and it turns out delectable every time and is a guaranteed crowd pleaser.

After that story of Dum Aloo, now I am onto where I got my recent bounty of baby potatoes. Seattle downtown has a charming, very popular market called Pike Place market in downtown, it is 9 acres in area spreading across multiple floors, spans indoors and outdoors and is surrounded by the beautiful land and waterscape of the Northwest. You will find everything from fresh farm produce to meat to antiques to designer clothes. We love to visit there especially in Spring and Summers, my daughter loves the WA grown juicy peaches and sweet Rainier cherries and I love to buy the fresh veggies. Like anywhere else, we frequent one specific store for all our farm fresh needs, according to DD Sosios is the best fruits stand and I agree with her in addition to the fact that the store helpers are super helpful and they give you ample samples to taste:-). Last week, in addition to a bunch of fruits we ended up bringing home a bagful of baby potatoes. They looked so adorable and I didn't have the heart to cut them into pieces or anyway butcher them, so they went straight into creamy sauce and we had the delicious Dum Aloo.

You can make Dum Aloo with bigger potatoes cut into pieces but traditionally and tastewise try and use the baby potatoes. It does make a difference.

What do you need to make Dum Aloo? 
12-14 baby potatoes
1 small red onion or shallot - roughly chopped
2 medium tomatoes - roughly chopped
10 cashew nuts (you can replace with almonds with a slight difference in the texture)
1X1 inch piece fresh ginger - chopped fine
1 clove of garlic (increase if you like garlic or omit completely) - crushed slightly
2 Tblsp yogurt
1 Tblsp salt (adjust to taste)
2 Tblsp oil
1 Tsp kasoori methi (dry fenugreek leaves)
1/2 cup water
1 Tblsp finely chopped cilantro

Dry masala ingredients: 
2 dry chilies
1/2 Tsp black pepper corns
1 Tsp saunf
1/2 Tsp cumin seeds
1 Tblsp coriander seeds
2 - 1 inch piece of cinnamon
1 star anise

How do you make Dum Aloo?

• Wash and scrub the potatoes clesn, poke a fork randomly a couple of times in each potato.
• Put the potatoes in a microwave safe bowl, fill it with water till the potatoes are completely merged. 
• Microwave until the potatoes are just tender, my MW takes 8 minutes. 

• Take the potatoes out of the hot water and let them cool down a little, peel off the skin. 
• Heat a heavy bottom pan on medium heat, add all the ingredients listed under 'dry masala ingredients' and roast them for 2-3 minutes until you get a nice aroma, take them off the pan and let cool. 

• Roast cashew nuts in the same pan for 2-3 minutes until they turn crisp and light pink in color, keep aside to cool.
• Add a Tblsp of oil to the same pan, add ginger, garlic fry for a minte, add chopped onions and let them sweat for a minute, add tomato pieces and continue to cook until it turns soft and mushy. Switch off and let cool. 
• Make a dry powder of all the roasted dry ingredients, add cashew nuts to the same mixie jar and blend it into a fine powder.
• Add the fried ginger-garlic-onion-tomato into the mixie and blend into a smooth paste, add a couple spoons of water of needed.
• Heat the remaining Tblsp of oil and add the ground masala paste into it along with salt, 1/2 cup water and let it come to a slow boil, test for taste and adjust if needed. It needs to be slightly strong on spices as potatoes will absorb the flavors.
• Add the prepared potatoes, crushed kasoori methi and yogurt and let it boil for another 10 minutes on low heat. Switch off, top it with finely chopped cilantro and serve with rotis or jeera rice.

Notes:

• Pricking potatoes with a fork helps it to absorb the masala flavors better.
• Take the potatoes out of the boiling water as soon as done to arrest further cooking, you want the potatoes to be still firm and holding shape when it goes into the masala.
• You can add 1/2 Tsp of amchoor powder for a tangy taste while boiling the masala, I used a day old yogurt and hence didn't add the powder.

• I do not add any garam masala powder to this recipe, if you need to adjust the spice level make use of the store bought powders towards the end.
• Unlike my other North Indian curries, I do not blanch tomatoes,onions or cashews. The toasted flavor perfectly complements the baby potatoes in taste. 

Cajun Potatoes - baked potato wedges

Days are just flying by, sometimes I feel like I started blogging just days back but looking at the posts and the other blogs I have discovered in the process, I realize it has been months. Infact Sattvaa entered its 6th month of blogging in June. I am back here with another Blog hop, an event introduced by Radhika of Tickling Palates. I love the event as I get the opportunity to visit new blogs which I may not have come across in my daily blogging and also get introduced to so many of the talented bloggers out there.

This month I am paired with Faiza who blogs at Faiza Ali's kitchen from UK. You will find recipes from Indian rice biryanis to Italian bruschetta on her blog. I haven't explored all her recipes yet but will definitely go back. I chose Spicy cajun potatoes from her blog for two reasons - one, every one at home loves potatoes in all forms and shapes, two - I jumped as soon as I saw that it was spicy. It is a very simple recipe and is a mouthful of flavors. A plateful of Cajun potatoes were gone in minutes after taking it out from the oven as I had to scurry around to get a couple of decent pictures :-).

I love Cajun flavors, if you have tasted the Cajun trail mix, you know what I am talking about. A couple of years back, one of my colleagues at work had brought a big Walmart bag of Cajun trail mix and as we were working late into the evening on a project, it was our snack. The mixture of roasted nuts in the specially blended Cajun spices makes this quite addictive. I have bought it many times since then especially to motivate (read bribe) my team. All I need is to send a group email and say there is a box of cajun mix and people come into the office and then you can talk work :-), I know it is sneaky. Candies and cajun mix are hot favorites at work.

Though I have been baking potato wedges with various combinations of spices, I had never zeroed in on this particular Cajun blend. I am glad I came across it during blog hop, thank you Faiza! for this now family favorite. Enjoy this simply delicious Cajun baked potatoes as a snack or a side dish. Faiza has used Thyme and Oregano in her preparation, I skipped Thyme as I didn't have it.

What do you need to make the Cajun potato wedges? 
3 medium sized red potatoes
1 Tblsp olive oil
1/2 Tsp red chili powder
1/2 tsp black pepper corns - freshly ground
1 Tbslp fresh chopped oregano
1/2 Tsp dry thyme or 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1/2 lemon

How do you make Cajun potato wedges? 

• Wash and cut potatoes into wedges. 
• Prepare the Cajun blend by mixing all ingredients except for potatoes and lemon juice.
• Mix in potato wedges and ensure every wedge is well coated with the mixture. 

• Let it marinate for 1/2 hour. 
• Pre heat the oven to 400F, line the marinated wedges in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake for 30-35 minutes. 

• Check after 15 minutes and turn the potatoes over once. 
• Squeeze the lemon juice on top and serve the wedges hot.

Notes: 

• I like to use red potatoes for baking as they hold their shape well under the heat. You can use any variety of potatoes but avoid the floury types. 
• Marinating the potato wedges in the spice mix for a minimum of 20-30 minutes ensures that they absorb the flavors well. 

This plate of cajun potatoes goes to Blog Hop-18

Snow storm and a warm lunch - Poori & Saagu

So, when we moved to the Pacific Northwest from the midwest, we thought we were done with the snow, every one we talked to whined about how rainy the area is and gloomy it becomes in winter. I am 'romantic to the core' and was completely in awe of the beautiful surroundings, mountainous terrain and the sky reaching ever greens and fell in love with my new home. I love the slow rains (unlike the thunderstorms), moderate temperatures (warm summers and cool winters) and was happy when the old timers said 'It doesn't actually snow but gets gloomy', I was done with snow and so settled in happily at my new home :-). Well.. looks like somebody had different plans, Seattle area is seeing the snow storm it hasn't in 27 years, so we are home bound, working from home and school is closed. But I am not complaining, I just realized again that I love snow especially when I don't have to maneuver the roads.

When the three of us are home on a week day which is a rare occassion, it is lunch time and cold outside, what do we collectively wish for? Something hot, deep fried (sinful), which is exactly what we had for lunch when it was snowing outside - poori (deep fried Indian bread) with potato saagu and maagai (an Andhra delight made with raw mango).

We eat Poori with potato saagu or vegetables saagu or potato palya (dryer version of the saagu) or chole (a North Indian delicacy made with garbanzo beans) and always with maagai (I know this is the second time I said that name on this post, I promise I will post the recipe soon). The potato saagu I have here is not very spicy but flavorful and usually what you get in Mysore restaurants if you happened to order pooris.

Amma got married when she was just out of high school (yes, it was a child marriage :-)), she left the sheltered life at mother's place for the first time and moved to the unfamiliar place with her new husband. My FIL got her samosas to snack when he came home from work and amma wondered it was poori-bhaji but didn't dare ask her new husband why it was packaged like that :-), she broke open the samosa and ate the outer shell with the stuffing like she would eat poori-bhaji at home. She has learnt to eat samosa now and loves her poori-bhaji any day. So this one is for my lovely amma.

What do you need to make Pooris?
1 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup water
1 Tsp salt
Oil to deep fry
1 Tsp ajwain seeds/om kalu/vamu (optional)

wheat flour, salt & ajwain seeds

Poori dough resting

Dough made into small balls, ready to be rolled

Rolled out discs, ready to be fried

How do you make Pooris?

1. Make a stiff dough with the flour, salt, ajwain(if using) by adding water little by little.
2. Keep it covered to keep the moisture intact for 15 minutes
3. Heat oil to deep fry
4. Pinch off a small lime sized dough, smoothen it and roll it into circular discs of about 1/2 mm thickness. 
5. Deep fry the discs one by one in the hot oil, slowly turning it over till both sides becomes light golden

Puffed up poori

Poori turned over to cook on the other side

Tips:

1. Do not keep the dough for more than 20 minutes as pooris absorb more oil.
2. The dough should be stiffer than regular chapati dough. 
3. Ajwain seeds not only give a nice flavor to the pooris but also help in easy digestion of the deep fried stuff.

What do you need to make Potato saagu?

4-5 medium potatoes - boil, peel and mash them with some chunks 

1 medium onion - choped into thin, long slices

1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)

1 inch of fresh ginger root - cut into thin julienne

a small bunch of cilantro/coriander leaves

2-3 green chilies - slit vertically into half

1 cup of water

1 Tblsp of cooking oil

1 tsp mustard

1/2 tsp cumin

How do you make potato saagu?

1. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, cumin, let mustard crackle
2. Add cut chilies and chopped ginger and let it roast in oil for a minute
3. Add chopped onions and let it become light pink
4. Add the boiled, mashed potatoes in with salt and add in the water to bring it to a gravy consistency
5. When the saagu starts to form small bubbles, add the chopped cilantro and let it all boil together for a couple of minutes
6. Switch off the stove

Potato Saagu

Ready to bite into..

 Variations:

1. Add frozen green peas to the saagu if you like.

Teaser about Maagai: 
This is a summer special pickle from Andhra, BH just loves it. It is preserved and used the whole year. It is a concentrated, spicy pickle and we make pachadi (chutney) using the concentrate with seasoning and mix it with home made yogurt/curd while serving.