Potato Onion Gravy (Batat Piyav Ambat)

Ambat is a classic Konkani dish, one of comfort foods. Ambat is prepared with different vegetables & toor daal. Toor dal gives a thick base to coconut gravy's. It's essentially a spicy curry eaten with rice for lunch and dinner. Another recipe from my MIL. Pretty simple, easy to make.

Ingredients:

• 2 medium potatoes
• 1 medium onion
• 1/2 cup grated coconut
• 1/4 cup toor dal
• 1/2 lemon sized tamarind
• 4 dried red chillies
• Salt to taste

For seasoning:

• 1 tablespoon oil
• few curry leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds

Serves: 2

Preparation Time: 45 minutes

Preparation Method:

Pressure cook toor dal along with cubed potatoes and onions, until the dal is soft and mushy. Meanwhile prepare the masala.

Preparing the masala:

Fry red chillies with few drops of oil for few minutes, until you get the aroma of fried red chillies. 

Allow them to cool and then grind them with tamarind, coconut and salt into a smooth paste.

Add the boiled contents into a cooking vessel. Add the ground masala to it.

Add enough water to give you the consistency of a gravy and bring it to boil.

Simmer for few minutes and remove off heat once the rawness of the masala goes off. Season it.

Seasoning:

Heat oil in a tadka pan, add mustard seeds. 

When they start popping, add curry leaves and fry for few seconds. 

Add the seasoning to the gravy and mix.

Serve hot ambat with rice.

P.S: If your toor dal takes longer to boil then boil the dal separately. The potatoes may not need as much pressure cooking as the toor dal.

Find more Konkani cuisine curry recipes here. 

Tags: Spicy, gravy, ambat, vegetarian, lunch, dinner, daal, curry, Konkani recipe, Konkani dish, Konkani cuisine, Udupi cuisine, Mangalore food, Konkani food, comfort food, potato