Potatoes in seasoned curds (Batate Gojju)

My weeknight dinner: A bowl of rice, scrumptious potato gojju and some buttermilk chillies! Heavenly dinner ready in just 30 minutes! And it's comfort food at it's best.

Potatoes are cooked and are added to seasoned curds to make a lip smacking dish. It's the simple seasoning that makes this potato dish amazingly flavourful and delicious. Serve this potato gojju as an accompaniment with rice or serve it as a side dish for lunch and dinner. Serve them along with some spicy buttermilk chillies if you have them (called as takka mirsang in Konkani).

A very quick recipe perfect for times when you need to fix a quick meal or are too lazy or tired to cook on a busy weekday. This yummy dish gets ready in 30 minutes with almost no prep.

This is an age old recipe. My granny used to make this potato gojju whenever she had to fix something quick for dinner and it tasted so heavenly. I still remember that taste from when I was a little girl like it was yesterday. My mom follows granny's recipe to this day. I have a few modifications to suit my needs. Below is the authentic recipe along with modifications mentioned. My twist to this recipe (which I love) is I add some buttermilk chillies (takka mirsang/teek mirsang in Konkani) along with the seasoning to this gojju. The buttermilk chillies add loads of flavour to this gojju along with lots of asafoetida and make this gojju scrumptious.

Ingredients:

3 medium sized potatoes
1 cup curds
2 green chillies
2 tablespoons of grated coconut (optional)
Salt to taste

Seasoning:

3 tablespoons of oil
1/4 teaspoon of mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon of urad dal (optional)
2 dried red chillies
2 leaflets of curry leaves
Lots of asafoetida powder or a pinch of crystal asafoetida
4 buttermilk chillies (optional)

Serves: 2-3

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Preparation Method:

1. Peel potatoes, rinse them, cube them and pressure cook them for a whistle until they are soft.

2. Once the pressure is off the pressure cooker, remove the potatoes out and drain all the water completely.

3. Smash the potatoes a little using your hand such that you have tiny clumps of potatoes, tiny pieces of potatoes and few big chunks of soft potatoes. So that you have a mixture of textures.

4. Add the potatoes into a mixing bowl along with curds and salt. if you are serving it as an accompaniment for rice add 1/4 cup of water if needed to make it a little watery in consistency. If you are serving it as a side dish keep the consistency thick without adding any water.

5. To the bowl add finely chopped/nicely smashed green chillies, grated coconut (optional), crystal asafoetida melted in water and mix well. Check and adjust salt.

If you are in a hurry or need an easy fix to crystal asafoetida you can add asafoetida powder to the seasoning.

6. Seasoning: Heat oil in a tempering pan, add in mustard seeds. When they start popping, add in urad dal, buttermilk chillies (optional) and fry them for 30 seconds. Then add in broken red chilli pieces, curry leaves, lots of asafoetida powder (if you haven't added melted asafoetida before) and let them sizzle for 10 seconds. Add the seasoning to the bowl and mix well.

Serving suggestions:

Serve this potato gojju along with rice as an accompaniment or as a side dish.

Variations:

1. Buttermilk chillies when are added to the gojju get soft within few minutes. If you like them crunchy serve them on the side along with rice and gojju.

2. My granny and mom nicely smash together grated coconut, green chillies and salt using a mortar and pestle. If brings out the spiciness of the green chillies.

Find more Konkani cuisine side dishes here.

Tags: Vegetarian, spicy, lunch, sides, dinner, easy to prepare, less time to prepare, Konkani recipe, Konkani dish, Konkani cuisine, Udupi cuisine, Mangalore food, Konkani food, bachelor recipe.