priya's bengali potatas bravas (aloo bhaja)

Every British Bengali child's (and adult's) favourite side dish has to be Aloo Bhaja (or for want of a fancier name: Bengali potatas bravas). There is probably not a single Bengali household that doesn't have their own, finely refined, recipe that they follow. So this is not aimed at those households. This post is aimed at those who haven't been so lucky to have their family recipe handed down to them, find themselves 'out of the home' for the first time for uni or work, or have never tried Aloo Bhaja (where have you been?)

This is my mum's personal recipe and as a lot of you will know: first generation Bengali mums have an encyclopedic knowledge of 100s if not 1,000s of delicious Bengali recipes and my mum is no exception. With cooking so intuitive to her, she is also not much of a 'measurement' person so when discussing this recipe, mum provided measurements in the form of 'handfuls' and 'pinches', so I have translated this for us mere mortals where cooking is not yet intuitive.

Give it a go and I hope you enjoy it!

ingredients

The following measurements should be sufficient for a few portions to be eaten as a side dish or snack:

• One potato, cut into small cubes

• Tumeric - 0.75 tsp

• Salt - for taste (I added 1tsp)

Extras, as desired

• Onions

• peppers

Method

• Place the potato cubes, tumeric, and salt together in a mixing bowl and mix together until each potato piece is sufficiently covered.

• Add a sufficient amount of oil to a wok, fryer, or frying pan with a deep base for deep frying and put on a high heat.

• Test the oil temperature with one piece of potato and if it starts to fry, the oil temperature is sufficient for frying.

• Drop the potato pieces into the wok/fryer/frying pan and fry until golden and crisp.

• For extra crispiness you can double cook the Aloo Bhaja by part frying them, then setting them to a side for a few minutes and then placing them in the oil again for a second lot of frying.

Best served on their own, or with plain rice and a simple dhal. For a British Bengali twist, why not dip them in good old fashioned ketchup. You can also add chilli powder/chilli sauce to give them a little 'kick'.