Potato Peas Curry (Batate Batani Ghashi)
Gashi in Konkani cuisine, are coconut based thick gravys prepared using different vegetables. Ghashi/ghasi are spicy curries prepared to go with rice for lunch and dinner. Potatoes and peas are a match made in heaven. When used together in a coconut gravy with caramelised onions they taste absolutely delicious. This curry is called batani ghashi or batate batani gashi in Konkani. Batato means potato and batani refers to green peas in Konkani. This curry takes great with dosas like bakri polo too.
When you add soft well cooked cauliflower florets along with well cooked potatoes & green peas, they all 3 dance together in joy in a beautiful coconut gravy. Surely will make you dance in joy too.
Ingredients:
- 1 big potato
- 1/2 cup of fresh green peas
- 1 cup of cauliflower florets separated (optional)
- 5 dried red chillies
- Tamarind - 2 kabuli chana sized
- 3/4 cup grated coconut
- Salt to taste
Tempering: 2 types
- 1 big onion finely chopped
- 2.5 - 3 tablespoons of oil
OR
- 1.5 tablespoons of oil
- 1/2 teaspoon of mustard seeds
- 2 leaflets of curry leaves
Preparation Method:
1. Peel green peas. Peel & dice potato. Add both of them into a pressure cooker along with 1 cup of water and salt. Cook them for just 1 whistle or else they tend to over cook and get mushy.
If you are using cauliflower florets separate them into pieces, wash them, add them to hot water for 5 minutes along with rock salt & turmeric. Add them on top of potatoes & green peas & pressure cook. Why? Cauliflower cooks faster. They get extra soft & dissolve if are added at the bottom. Totally dissolve in the curry later. So make sure you add them on top of green peas & potatoes.
Alternatively you can also cook cauliflower florets separately in a cooking vessel with salt & water until they have just softened up, rest of the cooking shall happen in the hot water if you keep it closed, they'll further cook in the curry. You can control it's cooking better this way to get perfectly cooked cauliflower.
2. Meanwhile, prepare the masala for the curry. Fry dried red chillies for a minute using few drops of oil in a tempering pan until you a get a nice aroma of fried red chillies. Remove them from heat and let them cool completely. This step helps remove it's raw flavours and makes them crispy, hence they powder easily when ground next.
3. Once cool, grind them along with grated coconut and tamarind into a smooth paste using as much water as required.
4. Add this ground masala to a cooking vessel, add in cooked potatoes & green peas into it and mix well.
(If your green peas, potatoes & cauliflower are super soft already, then add them in the end, after the masala is diluted & is almost cooked through on boiling. Otherwise they'll mush up & make the curry super thick in a few hours.)
5. Add in required amount of stock - the water used to cook green peas & potatoes. Add enough to make the curry semi-thick in consistency.
Keep it slightly on the watery side as it'll thicken up on cooking, thicken even more on cooling down.
6. Bring the curry to boil. Check and adjust salt.
7. Once the curry comes to a boil, simmer it for few minutes until the rawness of the masala goes off. Taste and you'll know it.
8. Then temper the curry, the way you wish, using caramelized onions or using mustard & curry leaves.
9. Tempering the curry using onions:
a. Heat up a tempering pan. Add in oil and add in finely chopped onions. Fry them until they start to brown. Saute in between to ensure uniform frying.
b. Add this tempering to the curry and mix well.
Optional - Allow the curry to simmer for a minute so that the seasoning gets infused into the gravy.
c. It is ready to be served along with rice.
10. Mustard-curry leaves tempering: If you haven't added caramelized onions to the curry & want a simple mustard-curry leaves seasoning then remove the curry from heat once the rawness of the masala goes off. (in step 7) Then to temper it, heat oil in a tempering pan, add in mustard seeds. Once mustard seeds start popping, add in curry leaves and let them sizzle for few seconds. Add this tempering to the curry and mix well. Serve the curry hot with rice.
Side Note:
- You can cook potatoes, green peas either in a pressure cooker or in a cooking vessel.
- If you're cooking them in a cooking vessel, then first cook green peas until they are half done using 1 cup of water and salt. Then add in potatoes and cook them together until green peas and the potatoes are almost done and soft.
- If you want a thick curry, be mindful of the amount of water you add to the curry.
- To get a thick curry you can also grind the masala using few rice grains. Rice grains thicken the curry a little.
- If you don't want the smooth texture rice grains add to the curry but want the curry thick, then you can use a little extra coconut to make the curry, use little less water.
Watch it's making here:
Find more Konkani cuisine curry recipes here.
Tags: vegetarian, curry, peas, potatoes, onion seasoning, side dish, lunch, gravy, spicy, Konkani recipe, Konkani dish, Konkani cuisine, Udupi cuisine, Mangalore food, Konkani food.
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