Kashmiri Dum Aloo is a beautiful delicacy of potatoes in aromatic, spiced gravy, cooked to perfection, and served here with Roomali Roti - a very thin and delicate, layered Indian flatbread. This is an authentic Kashmiri Dum Aloo recipe, which has been researched quite a bit before putting it together. It is a no-onion, no-garlic, vegetarian recipe.
Heat water, add salt. Once it comes to a boil, add the potatoes, par boil it. Please make sure the potatoes are not over cooked. Peel the potatoes and prick these with either a fork or tooth a pick from all the sides, making sure keeping the potatoes intact.
At this point, you have 2 options: 1) deep fry the potatoes 2) drizzle olive oil and dry roast it in an oven (healthier version). I preferred the deep frying version. For deep frying, heat oil, add potatoes. Fry on medium heat, until nice, golden brown. This takes some patience, so feel free to multi-task on preparing the gravy while frying the potatoes. It will take a good 15-20 minutes to fry. Once done, remove the potatoes from oil, keep it aside on a dish lined with absorbent paper.
Heat ghee (or oil-ghee mixture, or olive oil - whatever you may be using) in a non-stick pan, on a medium temperature. Add cardamoms, cinnamon, bay leaves. Saute' for a minute or two.
Whisk yogurt, add it to the above mixture, along with chili powder and asafetida. Saute' for a couple of minutes.
Add about 3-4 cups of water, coriander powder, fennel powder, ginger powder. Stir and saute' on a medium heat for a few minutes, until the mixture comes to a boil.
At that point, add the deep-fried potatoes, khoya, garam masala, shahi jeera, salt. Stir and cover it. Let it cook for about 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add sugar towards the end, let it cook for another couple of minutes.
Remove from heat. The dum aloo at this point wouldn't have a lot of gravy. Lot of it gets absorbed by the potatoes. The aloo covered in the just some amount of gravy is the right consistency for this dish.Serve it hot with roomali roti or parathas!
Instructions for making Roomali Roti:
Mix the whole wheat and all purpose flour in a vessel. Add salt. Mix. Heat the milk and water (separately). Add milk to the flour, mix, add required water to make a soft, pliable dough. Knead very well. The dough should become elastic. Cover and let it rest for half an hour to one hour.Note: I did not add any oil/ghee to the dough. The rotis were still soft. You may add some if you prefer.
When ready to make roties, knead the dough one more time. Form medium sized dough balls, to make rotis as big as the tawa allows.
Roll one of the dough ball into a small roti of about 3″ diameter. Do the same with another dough ball. Brush some oil on one of the rotis, dust it all over with rice flour. Place the other roti on top of it and now roll it together – as big and thin as you can.
Heat the tawa. Make sure the tawa is very hot, before putting rolled roti Put the roti on hot tawa. Let some small bubbles form on one side Turn it, let it cook on the other side. At this point, you can remove from heat. I also tried to cook the roti directly on flame, a bit on both sides – but that is optional. While cooking the roti, make sure you don’t over cook it or it will become crisp, as it would be quite thin. You want to keep it real soft and with minimal spots.
Once removed from heat, separate the 2 roties. You should be able to easily separate it. Apply ghee / olive oil on each roti and fold it in triangles. Serve hot with Dum Aloo or other subji of your choice.