Tareko Alu

Alu, aka potatoes, have become such a universal and versatile vegetable that almost every cuisine features its own special styles of cooking them.

Tareko Alu, Delicately spiced fried potatoes is another simple recipe from Nepalese Kitchen by Loke Rajye Laxmi Devi. I cut down on the oil a bit as the recipe called for a cup of mustard oil and all I had was about 4 Tablespoons. It still turned out fine.

Stirring in the spice paste towards the end and cooking it just enough till rawness went away made this quite aromatic and delicious, almost like an appetizer or snack to be eaten as-is.

Ingredients
4-5 medium white wax potatoes, cut into wedges
1-2 chilies slit lengthwise (optional)
3-4 Tablespoon mustard oil
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste

spices to grind:
4-6 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
3-4 green chilies
1 teaspoon black peppercorns

Preparation

1. Soak the potatoes while getting the ground paste ready
2. Combine the spice and grind to a fine paste, keep aside
3. Par-cook the potatoes in the mcirowave, if preferred - I like it as it cuts down on cooking time and I don't have to deep fry
4. Heat oil in a cast iron pan which can hold all the potatoes in a single layer; when smoking, add the fenugreek seeds
5. Once the fenugreek crackles, add the potatoes, turmeric and salt and stir a bit to coat well and allow to sit over medium high heat to brown on one side
6. Add the spice paste and stir to caot well, and flip the potato wedges to the other side without breaking up
7. Allow to get lightly browned, off heat and serve hot with roti or rice