There’s nothing more comforting than meltingly-soft potatoes enveloped in creamy, spicy-sweet sauce – even when it’s dinner for one at the Modha residence.

Nobody likes cooking for one, do they? For me, it’s a tedious task knowing I’m the only one who will get to sample my efforts. I’m a feeder – I come from a long line of feeders who taught one another to feed others until they could eat no more. Like my mum, I’ll make dinner by the bucket load regardless of whether I’m feeding one mouth or ten. It’s most definitely in our blood.

I understand this is the case for lots of Indian girls who are told from a young age that finding the perfect husband involves filling his belly with spicy food, carbs and sugar. Either it’s the way to a heart or the way to heart problems – I forget which one.

That’s not to say I started cooking to find a fella. Hell, I started cooking because I was an eight-year old chubster with a penchant for pasta. It just so happened that the future Mr K.O (yes, I got engaged!) loves eating as much as I do. In fact, Kashmiri Dum Aloo was one of the first dishes we shared together in my favourite Indian restaurant. And anyone who knows how to feed me, the Feeder, is a keeper.

Enough about me, more about the food

This dish should be slow-cooked with a lid on. An old school trick to stop any steam escaping is to seal the lid with a ring of wheat flour dough. This type of cooking is known as dum cooking. Dum simply means ‘warm breath’ to connote the steam inside the pot. Once cooked, the dough seal is broken and the beautiful aromas are released – of course, the bread is eaten along with the curry. However, if you don’t fancy doing that, you can use a cartouche to lock in any moisture. A cartouche is just a round lid made of greaseproof paper that’s placed directly on top of the food in the pot to slow down the reduction of moisture in cooking.

The balance of spices in this dish will depend on your taste and varies from recipe to recipe. My version mainly uses dried red Kashmiri chillies, ground fennel seeds, ground ginger and green and black cardamom. This deep combination of spices is balanced by the use of tomato purée and either single cream or yoghurt. Don’t hold back on seasoning this with plenty of salt and sugar – they truly bring the spices to life.

Kashmiri Dum Aloo

(Serves 4)

Ingredients

450g new potatoes (I used Jersey Royals), leave the skin on
1 tbsp oil
2 tbsp concentrated tomato purée
1 400g tin chopped tomatoes
270ml water
1 tbsp grated ginger
3 large cloves garlic, crushed
3 tsp sugar
3 tsp salt
300ml single cream or whisked plain yoghurt
2 tsp honey

Oil to deep fry the potatoes

For the spices:

½ tsp green cardamom seeds, ground
2 tsp fennel seeds, ground, plus 1 extra tsp for adding at the end
4 dried red Kashmiri chillies, ground (don’t bother soaking them)
½ tsp black cardamom seeds, ground
½ tsp cumin seeds, ground
1 tsp coriander seeds, ground
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cinnamon

Chopped coriander, ground fennel and Kashmiri chilli flakes to garnish

Method

1. Wash and soak the potatoes in cold, salted water for 15 minutes. Drain and pat dry.

2. Heat enough oil to deep fry the potatoes in a large wok to around 180°C. Fry the potatoes until golden all over. Don’t worry about cooking them all the way through at this point. Drain on a piece of kitchen paper and set aside.

3. In a large casserole dish, Dutch oven or pan with a tight-fitting lid, gently heat 1 tbsp oil. Add all of the ground spices, concentrated tomato purée, fresh ginger and garlic. Cook on a medium/low heat for around 5 minutes, stirring all the time. If you find it’s sticking, add a little hot water and continue to cook until the water has evaporated away and the spices are aromatic.

4. Add the tin of chopped tomatoes, 270ml hot water, salt and sugar. Stir. Add the potatoes and mix again.

5. Make a cartouche or cut a round of greaseproof paper to the size of the inside of your pan. Sit it directly on top of the curry and put a lid on top of the pan.

6. Turn the heat down to the lowest it can go and cook for at least 30 minutes or until the potatoes are meltingly tender.

7. Once the potatoes are cooked, remove the lid and cartouche. Turn the heat off and allow the curry to cool for 10 minutes. Add the honey and cream or yoghurt, stirring quickly and all the time until it’s fully combined. Stir in the extra 1 tsp ground fennel seeds.

8. Garnish with chopped fresh coriander, ground fennel and Kashmiri chilli flakes.

I like to serve this with Saffron Golden Sella Basmati Rice (I'll post a recipe soon!) and either Peshwari Naan or chapattis.

This is great if you’re planning on satisfying and impressing lots of hungry tummies, or in need of comfort when cooking for one (scoff any leftovers the next day).

Love Sanjana

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I stuffed myself with Palak Paneer last night. I feel terrible about it and actually had a bit of trouble sleeping. I think it’s time to give that beautiful cheese a break (at least for a little while, anyway).

On The Rebound

What’s a girl to do when she’s decided to cut the one true love out of her life?

Then it dawned on me; I’m going to replace paneer with something similar, something I won’t feel as guilty about. Hi tofu, remember me? We used to have a healthy relationship before I lost all my inhibitions to full-fat Indian cottage cheese.

Simple Infusions

If you ever asked me what my favourite spice was, I think I’d probably cry. There are so many to choose from and limitless possibilities in terms of creating breathtaking new flavours.

Cardamom is one of those spices that’s never really at the forefront of a curry. Well let me tell you something, it really should be given the chance. A combination of both green and black cardamoms impart musky flavours that are so characteristic of the spice, to a simple curry. They are the shining stars of this dish.

Somewhat unconventionally, I adopted the western method of infusing single cream with the spices to get out of them, the most subtle flavours possible. I then strained the lightly crushed spices out of the cream with a tea strainer, leaving behind a perfectly smooth cardamom-scented cream to add to my luxurious tomato sauce.

Balance

Everyone knows tofu can’t be classed as real food unless it’s drowned in something mouth-wateringly flavourful (sorry, it’s true). In this curry, intense black cardamoms impart a smoky base flavour to hold up the fragrant menthol notes of the more liberally used green cardamoms. Equilibrium. Is. Everything.

I thought about adding vegetables to this but why ruin a perfectly balanced dish with something that would only be there for the sake of it. Forget it; all this mild, creamy, tangy tofu curry needs is the crunch of finely sliced, sweet spring onions to bring it to life.

You won’t even miss the paneer.

Cardamom Tofu Curry

(Serves 4)

Ingredients

600g firm tofu, pressed to remove water and deep fried until golden
2 tbsp sunflower oil
1 small onion, chopped very finely
1 clove garlic, minced
2 green chillies, chopped finely
-inch piece ginger, minced
4 tbsp concentrated tomato paste
250ml water
1 tsp garam masala
2 tsp salt
1 ½ tsp sugar
2 spring onions, trimmed and sliced finely at an angle
4 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

For the cream infusion:

300ml single cream
9 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
2 black cardamom pods, lightly crushed
1 dried red Kashmiri chilli, lightly crushed

Method

1. For the cream infusion, pour the single cream into a small saucepan and add the lightly crushed green and black cardamom pods and Kashmiri chilli. Gently bring the mixture to the boil and then remove from the heat. Allow to cool completely and then pass through a tea strainer to remove the cardamoms and chilli. Set the infused cream aside.
 

2. Heat the oil in a large non-stick saucepan and add the onions, chilli, garlic and ginger. Sauté until aromatic, about five minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook for a further 4 minutes, stirring all the time. Pour in 250ml hot water, garam masala, salt and sugar and stir through. Cover with a tight-fitting lid and cook on a medium heat for ten minutes, stirring occasionally.
 

3. Remove the lid from the pan and quickly whisk in the infused cream mixture, ensuring it does not separate. Add the tofu, spring onions and chopped coriander. Stir for a final time and serve hot with pilau rice and naan.

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The past few days have been spent planning an elaborate baking mission composed of sweet treats to make your heart cry out for a detox – though I’m not yet ready for said detox.

Biryani is a bit like a newborn kitten – except you don’t cook nor eat newborn kittens. It requires heaps of concentration, patience and love.

Each individual component needs to be prepared to just the right level before the ingredients can be assembled in a harmonious fashion, and then gently steamed to create an insanely delicious smelling and tasting dish to fight over at the dinner table.

In the last post we discussed the origins of Mughlai cuisine and what makes it so majestic, and this fruity, nutty aromatic rice is right on point. Juicy apricots and pineapples are layered up with fluffy rice, spicy potatoes, sweet onions, aromatic saffron and kewra water (screwpine extract).

I’m not going to lie to you, you are likely to do a double take when you see the ingredients list. Take courage, my recipe provides you with a straightforward process to follow to create a true masterpiece. In truth, the assembly of biryani is not unlike the process used to make lasagne – it’s all in the preparation, so be prepared.

The following method is very detailed because I want to give you a complete guide full of handy hints and tips to make the perfect biryani for any occasion, and not only this one.

(serves 6, or 8 as part of a large meal)

400g basmati rice
340g baby new potatoes, cut into quarters
320g onions, sliced into thin strips
60g dried apricots, chopped, chopped into 2cm chunks
20g dried pineapple, chopped into 2cm chunks
20g whole almonds
20g whole pistachios
10g unsweetened desiccated coconut or 30g fresh coconut, grated
1 pinch saffron soaked in 4 tbsp hot water
1 tbsp kewra water
250ml hot water + more for boiling the rice and potatoes
4 tbsp oil or ghee
Salt

1 ½ tsp minced ginger
2 tsp minced chillies
1 tsp cinnamon powder
4 whole cloves
1 tsp ground green cardamom seeds (flowery, aromatic flavour)
¼ tsp ground black cardamom seeds (smoky, heady flavour)
¼ tsp whole fennel seeds
¼ tsp pomegranate seed powder (sharp, sour taste – available in most Indian shops)
1/8 tsp ground mace
1 small pinch ground nutmeg
1 tsp salt

Method

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