Lili Bataki ~ Baby potatoes cooked in Green Gujarati Gravy

A week back, I planned to make something using my cute baby potatoes… I use them wisely everytime as I can’t afford to spend them for any dish that’s not finger-licking good! Think… How much I love these tiny beauties <3 Even I asked my mum about her secret recipe (or call it a secret spice-mix or gravy or whatever) and she shared with me, but all that time she was a bit surprised as I never ate it more than a spoonful of it before! But to be very honest, hubby loves it and so I wanted to give it a try! While making it, I recalled a funny incident associated with it…

I always loved when I catch ‘Shikaar’ for my cooking experiments! One such person is my brother-in-law… He always loved manchurian and so I used to make n bring it everytime I visited in-laws before marriage. Once I went to him with a bowl of dry manchurian and he said “Chef Quality” and of course, I was quite happy. But he was damn hungry and so asked MIL for more food… On the spot, she brought the subzi that my mum sent for MIL (as she loved it) :) He took the 1st bite… And spoke out immediately “That’s a masterchef quality”!!! Phewwwww… I couldn’t stop laughing when I said “After all, she’s my mum” :P

But the truth is… I simply adore each of her dishes and I’m truly blessed to have learnt these many things from her, but I still doubt whether they’re gonna be so perfect like she makes??!!!” :) This is her recipe, which I used…

Makes: 2-3 servings

INGREDIENTS:

7-8 Baby Potatoes
1 tbsp Dessicated Coconut
1 tsp Roasted Peanuts
1 tsp Coriander Seeds
1 tsp Sesame seeds
1/2 cup Coriander, roughly chopped
1″ piece of Ginger
2 Garlic Cloves
2-3 Green Chillies
1 tsp Kasoori Methi
1/2 tsp Cumin Powder
1/4 tsp Garam Masala
Salt, to taste
1/2 tsp Cumin Seeds
2 tbsp Cooking Oil
A pinch of Asafoetida

STEPS TO FOLLOW:

1. Boil potatoes and peel them. Prick them using fork and saute with a pinch of salt in a tsp of oil until they starts getting light brown in color.
2. Heat a pan and dry roast coriander seeds and sesame seeds together for 3-4 mins.
3. Transfer them to a mixture jar along with coconut, peanuts, coriander leaves, ginger, garlic and green chillies.
4. Grind them all together to make a smooth paste.
5. Heat oil in a deep vessel and add cumin seeds.
6. Once it crackles, add asafoetida and freshly ground paste. Cook it for 2-3 mins and add kasoori methi along with all the spices.
7. Add pre-cooked potatoes in it and coat them well with green gravy (add a tbsp or 2 of water if required).
8. Serve hot with phulka roti!!!

SJ’s NOTE:

• You can eliminate using green chillies and use 1/2 tsp red chilly powder instead.
• Also, thickened cream can be added to make a rich green gravy!