Potato and Onions in Yogurt, My Pick At the Potluck

Find the Potato and Onions in Yogurt in this collage.

A day prior to the Potluck as I was freezing the menu, Shrinidhi came to tell me he was getting along a Potato Salad. Knowing my interest in cooking he immediately described what he had learnt from his Mom. I went Yum~! A new recipe for my blog.

Tell me the authetic name, not your anglicized Potato salad. That is not acceptable. He did try naming it, for a man who was away from this country for more than a decade it was only a fair attempt. In Tulu, he said, Alu gadde something something...I agree with his wife, who is a Bengali that it did sound completely made up and needed a verification and certification by his Mom. Now how do I do that? Luckily there is a granny in the team so I turned to her, to which Sapna added its called Alu bhaji (sounded like Marathi for pakoda). Well I decided ultimately to go by the ingredients for the namesake.

So here I am presenting Shrinidhi's Mom's recipe of a delish salad that caught my taste buds by surprise by its simplicity in a potluck that had food from different states of India.

Ingredients

4 potatoes boiled and cubed
2 onions chopped fine
1 heaped teaspoon urad dal/ split black lentils
10 curry leaves
2 red chilies broken into pieces
1/2 litre fresh yogurt/ curd
salt to taste
2 teaspoons coconut oil

Heat the coconut oil to a point of smoking. Inhale the divine aroma :). Add the urad dal, fry till golden. Then crispen the curry leaves and red chili to smokiness. Now fry the onions just to get rid of the raw taste. Add the potato dices. Put off the heat. Mash the potatoes a bit with the back of the spoon. Mix in the yogurt or curd. I would prefer yogurt as it is more creamier but curd too works the traditional way.

Shrinidhi says this was a staple homecoming meal at his parents home in Manipal. They enjoyed it with hot steaming rice with more coconut oil drizzled on it. He has survived on this Potato salad in all his stays in Europe where a vegetarian tends to loose appetite for obvious reasons. I could live just on this salad without rice or chapati for accompaniment. As always I try to find similarities in cuisines, to me it is like a South Indian tasting Aloo chaat. It has the potential to freak you out as you squeeze out the juices of the yogurt drenched red chili to turn up the heat of a rather cool salad.

AND here is our...

Potluck Menu

Rice: Bisibele Bhat, Tamarind Rice, Lemon Rice, Veg Pulao, Curd rice

Indian breads: Chapati, Puri, Kozhakatai, Akki Roti with chutney

Curries: Chana Masala, Shahi paneer, Aloo-matar, Kadala curry

Starters: Kothimbir Vadi with Bedekar's garlic chutney and Ketchup, Potato wafers. Banana wafers.

Salad: Sprouts salad, Potato Onion in yogurt, Mix Veg slices

Desserts: Apple crumble, Nolen Gurer Sandesh, Vanilla Icecream, Gulab Jamun, Srikhand, Soan Papdi, Plum Cake.

Drink: Tang-Orange

Its easy to guess it was Kothimbir Vadi from me and I already wrote about the Apple Crumble. The Potluck in the true sense was a Melting pot of all recipes from North-South-East and the West. Quite a reflection of India and its food, we all appreciated the diverse cultures. United we are as the saying goes "Teams that eat together stay together". That one is an adapted one!

Well with this post I am crossing the FINISH line of the Nupur's 7-day recipe marathon. Yay! My Fellow Marathoners were inspiring all the way. I met new bloggers through this event. Thank you every one for making it fun.

Thank you Nupur for this idea. I know I enjoyed participating in this event immensely. Hope you enjoyed being a marathoner inspite of the Kitchen plumbing fiasco.

Finally before the clock strikes 12 here and we move into a brand New 2010. Let me hit the publish button.

Happy New Year... Bloggers! Readers!! All you out there!!!
May there be sunshine in your lives by God's grace.