Name: Tamarind Potatoes
Yield: Serves 8 to 10
Cuisine: India
Ingredients: 1 cup boiling water; 3 bay leaves; 3 cinnamon or cassia sticks; ¼ cup mustard oil; About 1½ cups water; 1 tablespoon sugar, or to taste; 2 tablespoons minced ginger or ginger mashed to a paste; 2 to 3 teaspoons salt; 3 tablespoons tamarind pulp; 2½ to 3 pounds waxy potatoes, preferably new potatoes, washed; 1 teaspoon turmeric; ¼ cup minced garlic or garlic mashed to a paste; 2 cups grated onions; 1 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste

Preparation info

Serves
8 to 10

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Mangoes & Curry Leaves

By Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid

Published 2005

About

This is a great dish to serve when you have eight or ten at the dinner table. Like Parsi Potatoes and Snow Peas, it starts with plain boiled potatoes that are peeled and chopped, then cooked with flavorings in a combination of stir-frying and simmering. The name says it all: alur dam, meaning “tart potatoes.” There seem to be as many versions of it as there are cooks in the Subcontinent; this one comes from Bengal.