January 31, 2007

MATAR ALOO IN COCONUT-ALMOND SAUCE

Matar Aloo is my contribution to Pooja of 'creativepooja's VOTW. This week's special is 'Green Peas'!!Thank you for hosting Pooja!:))


Green Peas:


What's Matar Aloo?! Matar is Green Peas and Aloo is Potato in Hindi and they are smothered in Tomato-Coconut-Almond sauce.YUM!! Well...Alu Matar is a very popular dish in North India and elsewhere.I thought I would give it a South Indian twist and make it Matar Aloo since there are more Green Peas than Potato in this dish!I had a choice of choosing either frozen Green peas or dry Green Peas,I chose the latter because of firmer texture than the soft frozen Peas.Let get cooking,shall we?!:)


Matar Aloo in Coconut-Almond Sauce!




You Need:
1 tbsp butter,1/2 tsp Cumin seeds,1 cup dried Green Peas soaked overnight and cooked just until soft but mushy,1 Potato cubed,1 tsp each Ginger and Garlic paste,1 small onion minced, 1 big Tomato or 1/2 cup Tomato sauce, 1tbsp each Coriander seeds pd,Cumin seeds pd,1/2 tsp red chilli pd,salt,Cilantro and 1 tsp Sugar.
To Grind: 2 tbsp dry or fresh coconut,2 tbsp toasted Almonds and 1/2 tsp Garam Masala.

How To:


Melt butter,add cumin seeds.Add cubed Potatoes,saute until reddish.Put in minced onion until it gets color,then add Giner-Garlic paste and saute for a minute.Add in all the dry spices,stir fry until you see little butter on top.Add in Tomato.





Keep stirring until Tomato sauce thickens and you see the shine of butter in the pan.Add 1 cou of water,salt and cooked Green Peas with it's cooking water if any,(Do not add too much water,sauce should thickish), 1 tsp sugar and simmer gently.




Meanwhile,grind coconut,almonds,garam masala until very smooth and add to simmering Matar Aloo and mix well.Simmer (must be on low heat to prevent coconut fro curdling)gently for 10-15mins until thick and butter shows up on top.Adjust the salt and chilli pd to your taste.




This dish tastes great the next day,please have some patience!!
Serve Matar Aloo with either Poori or layered Parathas, lemon slices and sweet onion slices on the side!!



With Pooris(Indian Fried Puffed Bread):





With Layered Round Parathas(Wheat Bread) :





Enjoy a wonderful lightly spiced Matar Aloo!:))

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

HEHEHEHE.... ours is the same combo for VOTW!!!!!

yours is peas potato and mine is potato peas :)
Yours is south indian version and mine is gujju :)

Coconut almond sauce sounds yum!!!!

FH said...

And Coffee lady, we both are Indyaans!!!HeeHee!!

Jokes apart, yeah!! Aloo Matar is the most loved dish for Indians,isn't it? I love it!!I chose to make it a little richer,tastes great after a day.Enjoy!

USHA said...

Wow!thats wonderful entry for pooja's this week veg event..

Coconut-Almond saucehmmmmm....sounds rich, should taste surely rich too...

Unknown said...

That's rich entry for VTOW..looks delicious.I ma trying hard to comment of your plate idly post (foodie's hope)..blogger is not allowing me..:))anyways will try again later...

FH said...

Hi Usha,glad you liked it.It tastes great a day after,hope you try.Thanks!:))

FH said...

Hi Mahesh,thanks girl,hope you try!

About FH,I think it is the browser problem.Mozilla and Netscape works for most.I am trying to get some help for that for 3 days now!Hope it works for you later.It is frustrating for me.

Anonymous said...

I just ate lunch and my mouth is still watering from all this yummy food ; ) Never had Matar Aloo, only Aloo Gobi.

FH said...

Hi Get Zapped.Thank you.Only solution for that is to cook some Matar Aloo for dinner next weekend!!Sounds great or what?:D

Anonymous said...

Wow, with almonds and coconut!! This goes right to top of the must-try list. Looks lovely!!

Deepa said...

....yummmmyyyy....

Pooja said...

Hey Asha,
tell me from where you get idea to make this kinda twists in your plate? north indian dish with south indian richness....this is wonderful! I love it . I need to try it this way now. I love aloo matar a lot , now will make it your way soon .
thanks for your delicious entry :)
-Pooja

Sia said...

this is not fair ashakka:( i eat light breakfast and light lunch so that i dont fall asleep in office and u tempt with aloo matar in coconut n almond sauce:( bhooo...hoo....
and once again i cant post comments on FH... will try again... god!!! i forgot yesterday was wednesday... he he he...

FH said...

Hi Linda,thanks.Cook it and keep it in fridge overnight and have it with any bread next day.Believe me,it's worth the wait.They don't taste that good the same day.Enjoy!

Hi Deepa,thanks girl!:) I got you confused with another Deepa at FH and then clicked on your name to make sure.Hope you try and make some Matar Aloo, B'lore girl!:)

Pooja,nice twist ,eh? It just came to me that everybody knows Aloo Matar,why not change some and make it southie!!Worked beautifully!Try!

Sia,wait until you go home to open Fh,because it might not work from the office!It will be there for a whole week,so it's okay!:))Make it on the weekend and enjoy.

Lakshmik said...

Hi Asha

Delicious curry. Thanks for the recipe.

Anonymous said...

that sounds and looks really yummy Asha.
Will try it soon !!

Jasmine

sra said...

you aren't one of those kinds that worry about their waistlines, I guess! coconut, almond, peas and potatoes indeed! it looks yummy.

sra said...

actually, my entry is almost as calorific, what am i talking about!

FH said...

Hi sra.No madam!! Never in my life I dieted!!! I eat good food in small amounts atleast every 4 hrs during the day and I am healthy as a horse so far.Touch wood!!:D

YO YO dieting devastates the system,more prone to develop Osteoporosis in later life.Many women donot realize that, which is sad!

Well, enjoy and have a great weekend!:)

FH said...

Hi LakshmiK.Thank you,hope you try.Enjoy the Super bowl!:))

Thank you Jas!Glad to see you here!Cant get into FH,I guess as some have trouble too.Click on the sidebar FH link,hope that works!:)

Deepa said...

Could you please change the link-clor.. its kind of hard to identify the text and links :)
Deepa from Beta just to avoid confusion

Suma Gandlur said...

Asha,
Love your dish.Visting your blog thru Pooja's. I could not leave a comment on your plate idlis.Where did you get those plates? Is it in India?
I see comments from others but don't know how they are accessing it.None of the links are working on FH.
Thx

FH said...

Deepa woman,hold on!!:D:D
I did change the link color at FH! I just came here to do that now.But look at Suma's comment below your's!It's not the color but the link itself is not working for some readers to get in to FH, for most of them it does!!

Hi Suma,Thanks.
It's the brower problem.Try through Mozilla,Netscape or Firefox if you can.Info for Plates are in the first paragraph,link and the URL are there already.Try that.Hope it works for you!:)

Creativecook said...

Ooh! sounds so good! I cannot resist making pooris when I make anything with potatoes, go figure.

Deepa said...

Asha.. May be i posted the comment just as u were editng the link color..
I shall see the links to which suma is refering to
Deepa from Beta

Gattina Cheung said...

Asha, hope all these technical problems (different browers/ link colors) don't drive you up to the wall... Although the highlight (color) of the link can't be shown (the links can work), it's fine with me, I take my time, follow the trail of aromatic dishes from yours :D Your matar aloo really looks lovely. And thanks for pointing out their English names, it surely helps the expats or me!

KA said...

Asha
I was trying to launch your FH webpage since yesterday but it loads half way through and stops even with the T1 connections. I was unable to comment on that site. May be if you can take a look at how much bandwidth each request is taking and reduce the size of response it might be good.

FH said...

Hi Rinku,Pooris and Potato dishes are always go together,don't they?I love them too although I don't make Pooris often!:D Enjoy.

Deepa,I did change the colors at last!:D What's Bandwidth as another comments(KA's) below you says?I have no clue,may that helps!Thank you for all your help,I do appreciate it Deeps!Hugs!!

Gattina,I just feel uneasy that some of you have to through the ordeal to get to FH,that's all!:)I am trying.I always put English words there for non-Indians to understand,which is only proper.Thanks girl,give it a try!:)

Hi KA! Thanks for trying!I have been having problems since 2 weeks now.I donot know about Bandwidth at all,got to talk to somebody who knows for help or go to Google help to find out.I will,thanks again.Have fun on Sunday!:))

Anusha said...

I made this the past weekend to go with chappathis and it was just delicious! Loved the almond flavor! Will post my result soon.. :) Also tried a spin off on your herbed cream cheese - thanks for the idea!

FH said...

Hi @! I am so happy you enjoyed both of them.That's the way to go lady,enjoy the V day!!:))

KF said...

Asha,Thank u for visiting my blog,I am going to make this and let u know how it comes out..
see you

FH said...

You are welcome KF!Enjoy the recipe.

KF said...

Asha,I made this curry and became a hit,also I made annita's Kallapam, both became a good combination...Really good..Thank You .(sorry didn't take photo)..

FH said...

Told ya!!;D
Glad you enjoyed it.Another recipe you can try Mysore Greenpeas Saagu with Pooris.Excellent tasting!!