American baby Aloo......

Last week as I was browsing the Indian store, found a stack of potatoes, in which I could spot  the baby potatoes also....I picked them up ( around 8-10) in hopes to prepare a traditional Kashmiri Aloo, but ending up experimenting these

I was trying to find a name , and my Husband suggested that since these are American potatoes ....it should be American Baby Aloo :)

Ingredients

5 -6 Baby potatoes

Gravy
2 Tbsp broken Cashewnuts / 4-5 whole
4Tbsp Curd
1 medium sized tomato
1 dry red chilli ( to give it a good color)
1 green chilly

Other Ingredients

1/2 Onion finely chopped
1/2 Onion grated
1 tomato grated
1/4tsp turmeric powder
1Tbsp red chilly powder ( choose the one which gives you more color but is less hot)
1tsp corainder powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
A pinch of asafoetida / Hing
A pinch of Saunf powder / fennel seed powder / coarsely crushed 
A pinch of chat masala
Salt To Taste
Full Cream - 3Tbsp
2Tbsp Oil

Oil for deep frying
Cilantro / Corainder leaves for garnish

How I made these

Thoroughly wash the potatoes
In a vessel boil water and add some salt , place the potatoes in the boiling water for 5 minutes
Once par boiled drain and let it dry / use a cloth to pat dry them
Prick the potatoes with a fork on all sides , to ensure that it cooks evenly from inside while fried
Heat oil in a pan and deep fry the potatoes

Once you are able to see the fork pricks clearly / the potatoes are cooked and are deep brown remove and drain on an absorbent paper

Now for the gravy

Heat oil in a deep vessel / pan ( prepared for a slight mess if you don't use a deep pan cos the gravy will bubble all over your stove top)
Once heated add asafoetida and the chopped onions
Saute for a minute and add the grated onion, cook for 3 - 4 mins or until the onions are cooked well
Now add the grated tomatoes and cook for 3 -4 mins, stirring it occasionally 
Mean while combine all the ingredients for the gravy and give it a good blend for a smooth textured gravy
Add this to the pan along with the dry masala 's , saunf and salt

Simmer the flame and let it cook for 5 - 6 mins / until the oil is visible at the sides of the dish
Once done add the potatoes and let it cook for another 5mins
Remove from heat add the chat masala and garnish with corainder
Serve with rice / rotis

I kept aside a part of it and added cream to the rest

NOTE's


- If you are on your diet plan , you can grill the potatoes at 150 degrees , by marinating them 15mins earlier with salt , turmeric, red chilly powder and oil 
- If you want the onions to cook faster and completely add a pinch of salt 
- The dish is not very hot , because of the addition of cream, but if you still wish to give it a more sweet touch you can add in 1/4tsp sugar / honey / jaggery
- The gravy gets thicker on sitting for a while , so add cream white reheating, rather than adding it before
- If you want a more thicker gravy , you can increase the quantity of cashewnuts



For those who want to cook this using a microwave please let me know, shall post the same :) or if you have a different version please share it with others also


Happy experimenting !!!!!

Food Signatures

FOOD SIGNATURES !!!

This is interesting info... 

You are what you eat, so eat well. A stupendous insight of civilizations past has now been confirmed by today's investigative, nutritional sciences. They have shown that what was once called 'The Doctrine of Signatures' was astoundingly correct. It now contends that every whole food has a pattern that resembles a body organ or physiological function and that this pattern acts as a signal or sign as to the benefit the food provides the eater. Here is just a short list of examples of Whole Food Signatures. 

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye...and science shows that carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes. 

A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart is red and has four chambers. All of the research shows tomatoes are indeed pure heart and blood food. 

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows that grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food. 

A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds are on the nut just like the neo-cortex. We now know that walnuts help develop over 3 dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function. 

Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys. 

Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet the body pulls it from the bones, making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body. 

Eggplant, Avocadoes and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats 1 avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? .... It takes exactly 9 months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them). 

Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the motility of male sperm and increase the numbersof sperm as well to overcome male sterility. 

Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics. 

Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries.

Grapefruits, Oranges, and other citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts. 

Onions look like body cells. Today's research shows that onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes.



'The news isn't that fruits and vegetables are good for you, it's that they are so good for you, they can save your life .'