The ever simple aloo chawal

Aloo chawal (#tempered #potato & rice) are probably made all over #Pakistan, #India, the #subcontinent essentially. The names and recipes vary. It is probably the most simplest form of a recipe that is packed with flavours. Mostly #eaten with #pickles, #yogurt, salad, a myriad of #chutneys, #kababs, the list is endless.

There is nothing better than a bowl of piping hot #aloo #chawal with yogurt and a salad on a hot karachi afternoon. Takes me back to being a child, sitting in my parents room, right after school freshly showered, ready to dig into this delicious meal.

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Ingredients

• 200 g #basmatirice (soaked for 30 mins)

• 1 meduim potato or 2 small potatoes - diced

• 30 ml vegetable oil or ghee

• 5-6 curry leave

• 2 tsp cumin seeds

• 2 black cardamom

• 1 small onion sliced

• 1 medium tomato

• 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

• salt to taste

• 2 tbsp red chilli flakes

• 1/2 - 1 tsp #turmericpowder

• 2-3 green chillies

Method

• In a pan heat some oil and temper cumin and #curryleaves, once the infusion process starts and you see #cumin seeds doing cha cha cha add in sliced onions and sautee

• We do not want to give colour to the onions, so once it starts sweating due to the heat, stir it till onion further limps up and add the rest of the dry spices

• Add in the potatoes and fry for tad bit, just so that they get coated with the spices and warm up a bit (in my personal opinion, frying these goodies like this give more flavour and a slightly golden brownish edge) *

• cook for a few minutes and then add tomato along with #ginger #garlic paste

• We just wanna cook the tomato till it softens up. Once that happens, we add 2 cups of water and soaked #rice

• Cover it and let it cook, in about 10 - 12 minutes the water will start evaporating, when you start seeing the rice and tiny bubbles appearing on the surface of the rice add in whole green chillies, cover and lower the heat and let the rice cook in steam. This method is called dum.

• Once the water evaporates and the rice is nice and fluffy it is ready to eat.

• Try it with slightly salted #yogurt, or cucumber yogurt

I hope you enjoy as much as I did while typing the recipe out for you all!

Till next time

* Thanks to Syeda Beena Bukhari for reading the recipe days after it was published and reminding me that I had forgotten to mention the amount of potatoes and how to use them in the recipe! (Tee hee)