Dum Aloo

Fried potatoes cooked into a rich spiced gravy. That’s just an effin win for the books. No holiday is complete without dum aloo.

Dum aloo always have a wow factor to them. The dish is incredibly easy to make but also somehow easy to turn into something that looks like an upset stomach. Perhaps it’s because you actually need to know how to make a rich gravy and properly layer the flavors versus just throw everything into a pan and wait for it to congeal. Ew, or worse, a dish that’s just red liquid with some floaty bits. If you avoid those two outcomes I think you’d have solved at least half of life’s problems. If you haven’t, well…hopefully you’re funny.

There are several versions of dum aloo, the original being Kashmiri, of course. But from Kashmir to Punjab it went, and we, of course, bastardized it and made it into the delicious Punjabi dish that it is. More aromatic spices and the quintessential Punjabi flavors that we all love and crave. I feel similarly about haughty men – and as expected they too have the same effect as spicy food – cause indigestion and lead to bouts of, “Why did I do it?”. Sigh, nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen.

What to pay attention to, besides the useless jibber jabber, are the directions of when to add each of the various spices. Put them all in together and you won’t get the rich aromatic flavors. Cook them too long and you’ll get a bitter flavor. Don’t cook them enough and you’ll have a raw and harsh flavor. Basically, as with any of my rather useless helpful hints – just follow the directions and it’ll work out just fine. Also, the traditional dish calls for whole baby potatoes, however, in Punjab, I’m assuming because someone woke up one day and said, “F@#k that noise!”, we use cubed potatoes – either work, so you do you. Now be gone with you, go make merry.

Love potatoes as much as we do? Try these: