Dum Aloo Recipe makes for a truly rich, creamy, restaurant-style version where baby potatoes are slow cooked in a curry paste of onions, cashews, yogurt, spices and herbs. Make this unique Mughlai style potato preparation for special occasions and serve with a side of roti, chapati, naan, paratha or steamed rice.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 30 minutes
  • Cook time: 30 minutes
  • Total time: 55 minutes
  • Yield: 4
  • Category: Main Course
  • Cuisine: Mughlai, North Indian

Ingredients

  • 250 grams (15 to 20) baby potatoes
  • 2.5 cups water (- for cooking baby potatoes)
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 10 cashews
  • ⅓ cup water (- hot, for soaking cashews)
  • 100 grams (1 cup) onions (- roughly chopped)
  • 1 inch ginger
  • 5 garlic cloves (- small to medium)
  • ½ teaspoon fennel seeds
  • 2 tablespoons water (- for grinding)
  • ¼ cup cup curd ((yogurt))
  • 2 tablespoons ghee (- you can also use 2 tablespoons oil)
  • 1 inch cinnamon
  • 2 cloves
  • 2 green cardamoms
  • 1 tej patta (- small to medium, (Indian bay leaf))
  • ½ teaspoon shahi jeera ((caraway seeds))
  • ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
  • ½ teaspoon red chilli powder (kashmiri red chilli powder)
  • ½ teaspoon coriander powder ((ground coriander))
  • ½ teaspoon garam masala
  • 1 cup water
  • salt (as required)
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons coriander leaves (- chopped, (cilantro))

Method

Cooking baby potatoes

  1. Rinse and scrub baby potatoes throughly in water to get rid of any mud or dirt attached to their peels.
  2. In a pan or saucepan, bring the water to a boil.
  3. Add the baby potatoes to the hot boiling water in the pan.
  4. Cover with a lid and cook the potatoes for 12 to 15 minutes on medium to medium-high heat.
  5. Cook until the baby potatoes are almost tender and done. Ensure not to overcook them.
  6. When almost cooked and done, drain all the water and set the potatoes aside on a plate to cool at room temperature.
  7. Peel them one by one, when they are warm or have cooled. Prick the baby potatoes with a fork. If you prefer, you can keep the peels on them.

Making onion, cashew, yogurt paste

  1. When you keep the potatoes for cooking, soak 10 cashews in ⅓ cup hot water for 20 to 30 minutes. Drain the water after the cashews have soaked and set them aside.
  2. In a high speed blender or mixer-grinder, take the roughly chopped onions, soaked cashews, chopped ginger & garlic, and fennel seeds.
  3. Add 2 tablespoons water and grind to a smooth and fine paste.
  4. Once the paste is finely ground, add curd to it in the blender or mixer-grinder.
  5. Blend for a few seconds until the curd mixes very well with the onion paste. Do not over do the blending.

Sautéing spices & onion-cashew paste

  1. Heat ghee in a pot or pan. Once the ghee becomes hot, then on a low to medium heat, add the following whole spices - cinnamon, cloves, green cardamoms, tej patta and shahi jeera (caraway seeds). Let the spices crackle.
  2. Keep the heat to a low or you can turn the heat off. Then add the prepared onion-cashew-yogurt paste.Take care while adding the paste in the pan as it splutters.
  3. Mix very well with a spoon.
  4. Cover the pan with its lid and cook the curry paste on a low heat. The pan needs to be covered with a lid as a lot of spluttering happens.
  5. In between do check after every 2 to 3 minutes so that the masala does not stick onto the pan. Also stir very well.
  6. The paste needs to be cooked till the color changes and you see some specks of ghee floating on the top and the sides.
  7. Next add the following ground spice powders - turmeric powder, red chilli powder or kashmiri red chilli powder, coriander powder and garam masala powder.
  8. Mix the spice powders very well with the sautéed curry paste.
  9. Add the baby potatoes and mix them with the paste.
  10. Pour water. Season with salt as required and mix very well.

Making dum aloo

  1. Seal the pan tightly with an aluminium foil. Then cover the pan with its lid.If you do not prefer a foil, then use a tight fitting lid which does not have any vent that won't allow any steam to escape from the pan.
  2. On a low heat dum cook for 10 to 12 minutes.
  3. Turn off the heat and allow the gravy to rest for 3 to 4 minutes. Then open the lid and the foil.
  4. Add the chopped coriander leaves. Mix very well.
  5. Serve restaurant style Dum aAoo with chapatis, naan, pooris or jeera rice.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.