Katchhi Village Potato Curry

In a tiny hamlet called Luria, near the Pakistan border in the desert of western Gujarat, I watched and took photographs as my hostess, Sona Bai, washed and peeled potatoes and then lit a small fire indoors. Her twelve-year-old daughter, Liku, chopped shallots and tomatoes and minced garlic. Sona Bai fried the potatoes in oil, then added the other ingredients and cooked them together into a simple curry (the spices, even the mustard seed, went in after the initial cooking of the onion and p