Bengali Aloo {Black Pepper Potatoes} {SRC}

I don't think I've ever had Bangladeshi cuisine before.  So for this month's Secret Recipe Club when I saw Bengali Aloo I decided to give it a try...plus anything with potatoes I love!  This month I was assigned Couscous and Consciousness written by Sue.  Sue lives in New Zealand.  She is a yoga instructor and eats a mainly vegetarian diet.  Sue likes to make things from scratch and use products that are free range, organic, seasonal and locally produced as much as possible.

Smashed Potatoes {SRC}

Today I am posting for The Secret Recipe Club.  This month I was assigned Karen's Kitchen Stories.  Karen lives in Southern California and works in HR.  Karen's blog is her way of documenting her recipes which is the exact reason why I started blogging!  She has tons of bread recipes so I immediately knew I was going to love her blog!  I love to bake bread and love the way the house smells after baking a loaf of bread.  But this month has been really busy and I knew I wasn't going to have time to bake bread.  So I decided to make Karen's recipe for Smashed Potatoes.

Roasted Tandoori Potatoes

I love potatoes!  I love potatoes so much that I add them to just about most curries I make.  Usually when I make Khorma, my plate will have more potatoes than meat.  So when I got the opportunity to come up with a recipe using The Little Potato Company's Creamer Potatoes I jumped on the chance.

Aloo (Potato) Cutlets

When my husband and I got engaged, he invited my family over for dinner.  Back then I knew very little about cooking.  He prepared several dishes plus 2 desserts.  I was so impressed and a little worried because I could never have pulled something like that off.  After getting married he taught me a lot.  I was so used to Hyderabadi cuisine that I didn't realize there was such a wide variety of Indian/Pakistani dishes out there.

One of the dishes he made were these Aloo Cutlets.  He had gotten the recipe from his sister.  I love anything with potatoes and these were so good.  They are very easy to make.  You can adjust the green chillis and black pepper to suit how spicy you would like them to be.

Hash Brown Egg Nests

My last post was for Herb Seasoning.  I used that seasoning in these Hash Brown Egg Nests.  My husband had bought egg whites from CostCo.  So you can imagine there were a lot of egg whites. He asked me to make something with them.  The first thing that came to my mind was Angel Food Cake but he didn't want dessert.  So after some searching I found these on SkinnyTaste.  I made them close to the original recipe but they were bland for us.  So I increased the seasonings, added some Herb Seasoning and mixed in some whole eggs.  I also omitted the cheese and mixed in some parsley and coriander.  They were much better.  The only thing I don't like about this recipe is that they take awhile to bake if you want them for breakfast.  I like things that are fast.  I don't want to be waiting around for an hour for breakfast to be made.  You can probably make the egg nests and prepare the egg filling ahead of time but I have yet to try this.  If we ever do have a bunch of egg whites this is definitely going to be on my list of things to make.

Roasted Potatoes with Roasted Garlic

In my previous post I wrote about how to roast garlic.  I used that roasted garlic in this recipe.  I love roasted potatoes but I have never been able to get the crisp exterior and creamy interior until now.  Try to keep the wedges the same size.  This recipe is very versatile.  You could add lemon pepper seasoning or some herbs.  Look forward to trying them in different ways!

Aloo Gobi (Potato and Cauliflower Curry)

For a long time I've been looking for a good Aloo Gobi recipe.  My husband had gotten me the Best Ever Indian Cookbook a few years ago.  It really isn't a very good cookbook.  The pictures are really good but pictures can be deceiving.  All the recipes I've made turned out average at least until this one.  This is the best Aloo Gobi I've made to date.  When I saw this recipe I didn't have high hopes because of my past tries with recipes from this cookbook and this recipe didn't have any of the typical ingredients you find in all Indian recipes....onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic....but it actually turned out pretty good.  I love how there are no onions to chop and fry.  It makes this a quick dish to cook.  I didn't change any of the ingredients.  Just some slight modifications to the method.

Baked Samosas

I love samosas..who doesn't?  But I hate the idea of heating up a ton of oil and standing there deep frying them.  It's so time consuming.  So I was so excited when I saw a recipe for Baked Samosas on Aarti Paarti.  It looked so simply and so fast to make.  I had never heard of ajwain seeds.  My mom had some so I took some for her to try it out.  It gave the samosas such a wonderful aroma.  I didn't make the mango chicken chipotle filling Aarti did because it seemed like too much work, my husband doesn't like chipotle and I was scared of what those flavors combined would taste like.  So I just did a potato and pea filling.  You could put any filling you want inside.  For the dough I didn't have a couple of the ingredients...cake flour and buttermilk.  For the cake flour I used all-purpose but just used less.  For the buttermilk I substituted yogurt.  I've also made these using plain old 2% milk and they turned out good.  The filling posted below is for double the dough recipe.

Note: My cumin-coriander powder is 1 part cumin to 1.5 part coriander.

Easy Khorma

I originally got this recipe from my sister in law.  I had passed it to friend.  We went over for dinner one day and my friend had made this chicken dish and it was so yummy.  I asked her what the recipe was and she said that it was the recipe I had given her.  She had used red chilli flakes instead of cayenne pepper and she roasts and grinds her cumin, coriander and garam masala powders.  She also used a lot more oil than I do.  I took her changes but I used less oil.  I also added a potato because I love potatoes.  I don't like a lot of garam masala so my khorma doesn't have a strong garam masala taste.  Mine turned out mild since my red chilli flakes were not very hot.  You can substitute 1 pound of veal or lamb for the chicken.

Kali Mirchi Gosh (Black Pepper Beef)

When I bought that huge package of mushrooms I also bought a huge pack of green beans I almost forgot about.  So I decided to make my mom's Kali Mirchi Gosh with Beans and Potatoes.  The major change I did was how I cooked the beans.  My mom seperately boils then and salt and peppers them.  To me that meant another pot to wash so I just dumped them in the pot when the meat and potatoes were done.  My potatoes also didn't taste seasoned after cooking so I sprinkled salt and pepper on them.  Next time I would add 2 potatoes.