They say, in India, just like language, the cuisine changes in every few kilometres. Assuming if this analysis is atleast 20 years old, and with the growth in population in these 20 years, by now the taste and cuisine in our country should change in every centimetre😉. Probably an exaggeration, but the fact of growing popularity of cosmopolitan culture, in addition to more and more families moving to apartment living, it won’t be incorrect to say that if not centimetre, our taste and cuisine change in every few metres. Which means, there are high chances that the chicken curry you prepare will be very different from the chicken curry prepared by your next-door neighbour.
Although the present circumstances have made the fact more obvious, but the relevance of the above-mentioned fact cannot be confined only to current generation. Since inception, every house or to be more precise every person has his or her own special and different way to treat a dish. If for someone it is the hint of cumin, for another it is the aroma of ghee that does the talking. If someone swears by adding squeezed lemon juice at the end, then for another it is always the adding of crushed ginger that concludes the cooking. Whatever it is, every house and every cook have their own secrets, that they swear by to make any dish a masterpiece.
But, even though they called secrets, but we human being by nature derive some special satisfaction out of sharing. Thus, many creators in the kitchen have recorded their recipes in their special diaries, which they whole heartedly handed over to their loved ones. This is because of the same desire of sharing, that during lunch hour you get to hear one colleague excitingly sharing his or her special recipe to the next colleague, when the first one is duly appreciated by the second one for the lunch he or she got from home. And this is the same urge to share, that makes the search engine filled with recipe pages when sought for any recipe. And yes, this is the same yearn for sharing, that I am posting the recipe of ‘Phoolkopi Aloor Torkari Or Cauliflower & Potato Curry’, which is a very humble dish regular during winters at my home.
And as I have mentioned earlier, that every house has their own way of preparing a dish, this Cauliflower & Potato Curry also tasted different, each time I had it in different places. Also, when I searched in internet as a process of research activity before starting a blog, I was amazed to see each and every recipe for the same dish was so different. This somehow made me happy and grateful for the fact, that because of the internet and someone’s desire to share, we are so lucky that we have the access to so many masterpieces at the tip and tap of our finger.
And now, coming back to the recipe for ‘Phoolkopi Aloor Torkari’ or ‘Cauliflower & Potato Curry, it used to be a complete vegetarian dish at my home, prepared by my mother or my grand-mother. But, as I grew up and with experiments, I somehow learnt onion and cumin powder make a good combination (yes, onion is not considered vegetarian in lot of Indian houses), and over the time have added onion as another inevitable ingredient for this dish.
So, to all the cauliflower lovers, here is one more recipe of ‘Phoolkopi Aloor Torkari’ or ‘Cauliflower & Potato Curry’ for you to explore.
Click here and explore more curry recipes.
Recipe: Phoolkopi Aloor Torkari Or Cauliflower & Potato Curry
Preparation Time: 8 minutes Cooking Time: 50 minutes Equipment Used: A knife, a peeler, a saucepan, a wok, a turner Yield: Â 3 bowls
Ingredients:
- 1 medium to big cauliflower
- 2 big potatoes
- 6-8 tablespoon mustard oil
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 red chilli
- 5 pieces of cinnamon sticks (1.5 cm length)
- 1 small onion
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 & ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon roasted jeera powder or cumin powder
- ½ teaspoon Bengali garam masala powder
- 1 green chilli broken into half
- 2 inches X 1.5 inch ginger
- 1 teaspoon ghee
Method:
- Boil quarter saucepan water to soak cauliflower in the water
- Take a cauliflower and rinse the cauliflower under tap water
- Dry the cauliflower with a towel and take out the florets from the cauliflower stem
- Put the florets soaked in the boiled water
- In the meantime, take 2 big potatoes, peel and cut them to big dices. Each potato should be cut into 12 dices
- Leave the potato pieces soaked in water
- Slice 1 onion
- Heat a wok
- Heat mustard oil in the wok, once wok is hot
- Temper the oil with bay leaf, red chilli, and cinnamon pieces
- Fry the sliced onion pieces
- Add the potato and cauliflower pieces, followed by turmeric powder, ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon sugar
- Add jeera powder and garam masala powder
- Mix and cover the wok and let the vegetables cook on low flame
- Check after 15–20 minutes, the water from the vegetable should evaporate and the vegetable pieces are tender
- Add 1 cup water
- Taste and adjust salt and sugar. I have added 1 teaspoon more salt and another ½ teaspoon sugar
- Slit 1 green chilli into the curry
- Grate the ginger and add to the curry
- Simmer the curry for approximately 5 minutes and reduce the curry further
- Adjust salt and sugar if required
- Switch off the flame and add 1 teaspoon ghee
Boil water to soak cauliflower in the water.
Take a cauliflower and rinse the cauliflower under tap water
Take out the florets from the cauliflower stem.
Put the florets soaked in the boiled water.
Take 2 big potatoes, peel and cut them to big dices.
Slice a onion.
Heat mustard oil in a wok, once wok is hot.
Temper the oil with bay leaf, red chilli, and cinnamon pieces.
Fry the sliced onion.
Add the potato and cauliflower pieces.
Followed by turmeric powder, ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon sugar.
Add jeera powder and garam masala powder.
Mix and cover the wok and let the vegetables cook on sim.
After 15-20 minutes add 1 cup water.
Taste and adjust salt and sugar.
Slit a green chilli into the curry.
Add grated ginger.
Simmer and reduce the liquid.
Switch off the flame and add ghee.
Tips:
- Soaking cauliflower in hot water will make the pieces tender, that will aid in fast cooking. It will also help killing the worms if there is any left in the florets
- If you want melt in mouth cauliflower pieces, then leave the flame on while the florets are soaked in water, but on sim. However, the pieces might break while cooking.
- Try to keep the cauliflower floret pieces little big while taking them out from the stem. It will add to the taste
- You can avoid onion in this recipe, if you are not comfortable with the same
