Potato flavoured with carom seeds

The dish in hindi would be aaloo ajwain. Ajwain is really tiny but looks similar to fennel seeds. It is a modified version of the aloo jeera recipe. I didn't pressure cook the potato separately, instead let it cook with the spices. 

Do you eat slowly enjoying all the different flavours when it all explodes in your mouth...trying to guess what all might have been added to the dish? "Prerequisite to proper digestion is to chew your food slowly, not gulp it down" is a quote from "Chokher Bali", a novel by Rabindranath Tagore. The story is set in pre-British India (in Bengal). It is slow, but rife with emotions. I don't think I have read any other story where the emotions and characters were described with so much asperity. The prose is exemplary. It's about a doting mother, Rajalakshmi, who takes care of her grown up son so much that her son, Mahendra, doesn't even wish to marry. But when he does marry, he gets so attached to his wife, Asha that he neglects his mother. A relative and widow, Binodini comes to stay with them and the dynamics of relationships in the home are upset. Chokher Bali meaning mote in the eye is the name that Asha gives to Binodini when their friendship blossoms. Read on to know more..

The very secret ingredients are..

Potato - 3, medium, peeled

Spring onions - 4

Ginger - 1"

Garlic - 5 or 6

Green chili - 1

Tomato - 2, small

Carom seeds - 3/4 tsp

Chicken masala - 3/4 tsp

Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp

Pepper - a pinch

Pink rock salt, crushed - 3/4 tsp

Water - 1/2 cup

Olive oil - 3 tsp

Heat a saucepan with 2 tsps of oil. Add 1/2 tsp of ajwain and roast for a few seconds. Add chopped spring onions, garlic, ginger and chili. Stir 3 mins. Add chopped tomatoes. Stir for a few minutes. Add all masalas, salt and pepper. Stir until the raw smell of the masalas disappear. Take off from heat and allow to cool. Grind to a coarse mixture.

In the same saucepan, add remaining oil. When it heats up, add 1/4 tsp of ajwain. Stir for a few seconds. Add cubed potato, ground masala and water. Stir so that the masala coats the potato. Keep covered, stirring in between. When the potato gets cooked (might take 5 to 7 mins), remove lid. Add chopped spring onion leaves and stir to combine.

Serve hot with roti or paratha. And remember to enjoy the burst of flavours :-)