Potato kurma recipe or aloo kurma (restaurant style)

Potato kurma is a very commonly found recipe in almost all the restaurants. Often, aloo kurma is served in a lovely and rich yellow gravy. There are many ways to make this yellow gravy and I have my own version of it. This recipe is a lot similar in taste to what is served in restaurants and there are certain preparations for this recipe, so I have written a detailed post with step-wise pictures.

There is another version of potato kurma in my site which is a spicier version to what I am posting today. Restaurant style gravy is lot milder than what we make with lots of poppyseeds (gasagasalu). I love preparing this yellow kurma gravy with any mild main course like vegetable pulao, jeera rice or coconut rice.

In today’s recipe, I use a combination of badam (almonds), poppyseeds (gasagasalu), chana dal (senaga pappu) and grated coconut to make our yellow gravy.

One most important tip to make this recipe delicious is you have to simmer the gravy for atleast 10-15 minutes to get a rich and lovely flavor. This gravy also goes well with roti, paratha and roomali roti.

Aloo is a favorite to us all, so if you are interested in more aloo recipes, you can check out my dum aloo, aloo jeera, aloo baingan, aloo mutter, aloo kofta and aloo paratha.

Serves: 2

Cooking time: 30 mins

Preparation time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

Potato – 3 medium

Tomato – 1 small (roughly chopped)

Green chili – 1 (slit lengthwise)

Coriander or dhania powder – 1tbsp

Cumin or jeera powder – ½ tsp

Turmeric or haldi powder – ½ tsp

Red chili or lal mirch powder – 1 tsp

Garam masala powder – ½ tsp

Yogurt/curd/cream – ¼ cup (well beaten so that lumps are not present)

Coriander leaves – 1 tbsp (very finely chopped)

Mint or pudina leaves – 6-8 (very finely chopped)

Salt – to taste

Oil – 2 tbsp

Whole dry spices:

Cumin/jeera seeds – 1tbsp

Cloves – 3

Cinnamon – small piece

Black peppercorns – 6

For masala paste:

Badam or almonds – 6

Poppyseeds or gasagasalu – ½ tsp

Chana dal or senaga pappu – 1 tbsp

Grated coconut – 1 tbsp

Preparations:

Boil the potatoes, peel the skin off and dice them into chunks.
Blend the tomato and make a smooth paste.
Heat tsp oil in a pan and roast the chana dal, once it changes color add the coconut and remove from heat. Let it cool.
Soak the badam and poppyseeds in 2 tbsp water for 15 minutes. Then, add the chana dal and coconut to this and blend to a smooth paste.

Procedure:

Heat oil in a pan and add the whole dry spices. Fry till they leave a nice aroma.
Add the tomato paste and fry for few seconds until it is cooked and leaves oil.
Add the green chili and turmeric powder and fry for few more seconds on low heat.
Then add the blended masala paste, beaten curd, dhania powder, jeera powder, red chili powder and give a good mix.
Simmer covered on the lowest heat possible for a good 10 minutes until it starts leaving oil on the sides.
Now add water (adjust it as per the gravy you need, I added 1 cup), boiled potatoes, enough salt and simmer covered for another 5 minutes.
Finally add the mint leaves, garam masala and cook for few seconds.