Aloo Bhatura With Spicy Beet Chicken Curry.

“Spicy Beet Chicken Served With Aloo Bhatura” …. A spicy chicken curry with the added goodness of beetroot …. An awesome colour and an equally delicious dish. A perfect combination of beet chicken curry when served with the ultimate choice of all times “Aloo Bhatura” … A deep fried Indian Bread (Poori) …. A famous Punjabi dish made with flour, potatoes and spices …. I have added in some my own variation of spices to the dough …. sure to be a hit for dinner parties ….. Totally Yumz …

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Aloo Bhatura is something that is loved more than the plain Bhatura’s in my home. This is so because we love potatoes in any form. And this Bhatura is simply soft and yummy that if you add on spices you can relish them as they are. But yes, they do taste much more awesome when served with spicy dishes both veg or non veg. Specially chicken or mutton curries in Non Veg. and Kurma in Vegetarian. Though I used to prepare this often some years back, it had literally vanished from my kitchen in the last few years. For various reasons, somehow, I cannot manage to prepare and post dishes as much as I would like too. As mentioned earlier, my hand written recipe diaries have come out and I am going through them as and when time permits. I came across this one when I was searching for something else. Those days being very busy with business I never got the time to write down the recipes properly. I scribbled them randomly and never made an Index, which would have helped me a lot today. I must be having at least 7-8 diaries in all, well I have come across that many at present in my library. How many more are stacked behind, I have no knowledge. 

But, yes I am very excited, with writing in blog my recipes so that it remains in one permanent place forever and for me too it becomes that much easier to search. Thanks to google for giving this awesome opportunity for us. I would like to tell all my friends who are reading this to also use this opportunity and come up with your own blog. It gives immense satisfaction, when someone really prepares your dish and their family loves it. Go ahead, what are you waiting for, if nothing think it up as documentation of our kitchen cuisine for our own family in generations to come. That would be a lovely contribution to our family from us, wouldn't it be ? I started this with that very intention as my cousins, nieces, relatives and above all my dear friends would keep asking me to send them recipes and each time I had to write it down as I hardly saved them. One of my closest food group friend, who is unfortunately no more, who died at a very young age, whose void can never ever be filled kept encouraging me to post in her group. Once I started doing it, the queries started pouring in more and it was my hubby who came to my rescue. Having relished and enjoyed my cooking for 25 yrs he felt I should start a Blog so that my friends and family could just go there and look up to the recipe. Rest is history. OK now that I have bored you enough, let me go straight to the making of Aloo Bhatura recipe … The recipe is really simple one ….

Wash and scrub well one large sized or 2 medium sized potato. Say about 150 gms. Put the potato along with enough water to reach upto ¾ th level of the potato in a pressure cooker pan. Pressure cook on medium heat to 4-5 whistle. If they are large they should get cooked deep within too. Let the pressure drop on its own. Once you are able to open the pressure cooker lid, allow the potato to cool a little bit for 5 minutes. Now gently peel of the potato skin and put them in a large wide bow. Mash the cooked potato with a potato masher or with hands till it is smooth and even. Remember, the potatoes should be mashed very well without any lumps or so as it will be difficult to roll on into puri if small pieces remain. 

Grind to coarse powder: Put all the following ingredients into a small mixer jar masala grinder and grind to a coarse powder …. 1 tsp jeera powder, 1 tsp ajwain (oam/vovo), ½ tsp black pepper powder, 2-3 green chillies cut into pieces, ½ tsp hing powder, ½ tsp haldi / turmeric powder, ½ tsp sugar powder or sugar, 4-5 fresh Ajwain leaves, 4-5 curry leaves 1 tsp fresh coriander leaves and salt to taste. Do not add in any water. 

Add the coarsely ground powder to the mashed potato along with 1 tblsp of oil and 2 tblsp of curds. Mix all well. Now add in 2 cups of Maida and 2 cups of wheat flour and knead to a dough. Do not add in any water. The dough should be firm and tight like that of poori. So knead it well and add in more maida if necessary to the dough while kneading. I have mentioned an approximate amount of flour you may add in more or less as per the requirement. This is so because the level of water content in potatoes differ. So may pull on more flour while kneading and some may not. So please do use your judgement. To be safe keep adding as you go on kneading, without adding all the flour in one go. That way you will be able to judge the amount of flour needed in a better way. Cover the dough with a tight lid, wet cloth or invert an vessel over it to seal it within and keep this away for 2-3 hours. Knead the dough again adding 1 tblsp of oil till all the oil has been absorbed by the dough with elasticity texture. Now make them into large and equal lemon sized balls. You will get around 14-16 balls depending again upon the bhatura size you want. I made them medium sized. Flatten the balls a bit and dust them with maida evenly all round and then with the help of rolling pin roll out to make medium sized bhatura of about 3-4 inch diameter. Roll the bhatura a bit thicker than our normal poori. Bhatura is always rolled a little bit thick. Arrange the bhatura’s on a paper and keep them ready for deep frying. Do not roll and keep the bhatura’s for more than a few minutes, they will dry up and then not puff up well when deep frying. So roll them out in batches if you have to make more bhatura’s. 

For deep frying of the Bhatura : Heat plenty of oil in a thick bottomed deep kadai. When it reaches smoking point, reduce the heat to medium and wait for a minute. Check the right temperature of oil by putting a small piece of dough into the oil, if it rise’s up immediately, and floats on to the top and also does not get burnt, it can be assumed you have got the right temperature for further frying of the prepared bhatura’s. Now gently slide in the bhatura one at a time, the bhatura will first sink down and after a few seconds, then slowly start to rise up, press it with a slotted spatula at this time gently. This is to ensure it puffs up evenly. As you apply gentle pressure on the bhatura they will start blowing up into a round ballong sort. When the bottom side is cooked which takes only about a few seconds once it puffs up flip it over carefully and allow it to cook on other side for few seconds till it’s lightly browned. Remove with the help of the slotted spoon so that the excess oil get’s strained into the kadai. Place the bhatura’s on a plate layered with absorbent paper for the excess oil to be drained. Proceed with the remaining prepared bhatura ball in same method. Serve them hot immediately as it is, all puffed up as flat one’s are never appealing. These taste yummy with spicy chicken / mutton curries so also with vegetarian kurma. I served this this time with Spicy Beet Chicken.