Dubki Wale Aloo
May 23, 2016, Updated Jan 02, 2018
Dubki Wale Aloo is a simple potato curry made with minimal ingredients! It's best enjoyed with kachori or Indian breads like paratha and poori.
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Spicy potato curry made with potatoes and nothing much really! Dubki Wale Aloo are best served with khasta kachori or with Indian breads like paratha and poori!
This weekend was pretty interesting. If you follow me on twitter and Instagram then you might be aware that I attended my first ever food blogger conference this weekend in Salt Lake City! It was quite an experience to say the least. There were hundreds of bloggers from all around the country, lots of great speakers and tons of food. It was great to meet people who share the same passion as you. Also, it was so great to finally put a face to some of my bloggers friends. I have followed a lot of them for quite long and it was great to see them all in person. I think it was a great escape for me personally from all that has been going on in my life. For 3 days, I was into this blogging world where it was all about food and how to grow your audience and build your brand. Well back to reality now!
Before I left for the conference I made one of my favorite Indian snack, kachori and aloo. I shared kachori recipe with you guys on Saturday and today I am sharing the recipe for the aloo (spicy potato curry), that is served with kachori. This particular style of potato curry is called Dubki Wale Aloo in northern parts of India especially in Mathura/Agra. Dubki means “to swim”, so it’s like potatoes are swimming in the curry! This recipe is fairly simple but very flavorful.
To get the authentic taste of dubki wale aloo, I highly recommend using mustard oil to cook this. In my house in India, we use mustard oil in 90% of our recipes. Mustard oil has a very strong smell so a lot of people don’t cook with it but trust me, it works so well in most north Indian recipes. The thing with mustard oil is that you need to heat it really well before adding in the seasoning. If the oil isn’t heated enough, it will taste bitter. So heat the oil till it gets really hot, to the point you see some fumes coming out of it. Then add the seasoning and everything else.
I add little cornstarch to my recipe. It thickens the curry a bit and that’s the exact texture I wanted. I always used to get these kachori-aloo at the railway stations and that aloo was always little thick and crushed. You also need to let the curry simmer for a bit so that all flavors can come together nicely. Dubki wale aloo also taste fantastic with rice or paratha or simple roti. It’s one of those things which you can make in a very short time and with minimal ingredients. This recipe is vegan because I have used oil to cook it. You may use ghee to make it more delicious! Hope you guys like my recipe for dubki wale aloo. I was pretty excited by the way it turned out, it tasted exactly like what I used to buy at railway platforms 🙂 .
Method
Heat 1 tablespoon of mustard oil in a pan. Heat the oil really well else you will get a bitter taste. Once the oil is really hot, add cumin seeds and methi seeds. The seeds will sizzle right away. Add hing, chopped ginger and dried red chilies and saute for few seconds. [Crush the red chilies before adding them to make the curry spicy, if you want to keep it less spicy add the chilies right away, without crushing them]
Add the boiled and crushed potatoes. Also add turmeric powder, amchur, garam masala powder and kashmiri red chili powder. Mix and cook for 30 seconds.
Add water, salt and give a good stir. Lower the heat to medium.
Let the curry simmer. Take a potato masher, and mash the potatoes a little. You don’t need to completely mash them but they should be quite crushed.
As the curry is simmering, dissolve 1 teaspoon of cornstarch in 1-2 tablespoons water and add to the curry. The curry will thicken a bit.
The curry should simmer for around 15-20 minutes in total or till all flavors come together. Add chopped cilantro and remove pan from heat.
Serve dubki wale aloo with khasta kachori or with any paratha of your choice!
* Adjust the amount of water in the recipe if you want a thinner curry. Remember that the curry continues to thicken as it cooks so adjust accordingly.
* The potato I used was huge, in India you would probably need 4 regular potatoes for this!
Dubki Wale Aloo
Ingredients
- 1 large potato or 2 medium boiled and crushed a little
- 1 tablespoon mustard oil
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1/4 teaspoon methi seeds also known as fenugreek seeds
- 1/4 teaspoon hing powder also known as asafoetida
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger
- 2 dried red chili broken
- 1/3 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1/4 teaspoon kashmiri red chili powder
- 1/4 teaspoon garam masala powder
- 1/4 teaspoon amchur powder also known as dry mango powder
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 1-2 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
- 2.5 cups water
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Heat 1 tablespoon of mustard oil to a pan. Heat the oil really well else you will get a bitter taste. Once the oil is really hot, add cumin seeds and methi seeds. The seeds will sizzle right away.
- Add hing, chopped ginger and dried red chilies and saute for few seconds. [Crush the red chilies before adding them to make the curry spicy, if you want to keep it less spicy add the chilies right away, without crushing them]
- Add the boiled and crushed potatoes.
- Also add turmeric powder, amchur, garam masala powder and kashmiri red chili powder. Mix and cook for 30 seconds.
- Add water, salt and give a good stir. Lower the heat to medium.
- Let the curry simmer. Take a potato masher, and mash the potatoes a little. You don't need to completely mash them but they should be quite crushed.
- As the curry is simmering, dissolve 1 teaspoon of cornstarch in 1-2 tablespoons water and add to the curry. The curry will thicken a bit.
- The curry should simmer for around 15-20 minutes in total or till all flavors come together. Add chopped cilantro and remove pan from heat.
- Serve dubki wale aloo with khasta kachori or with any paratha of your choice!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Dubki Wale Aloo
Simply delicious. Definitely family favourite.
glad to know Caroline 🙂
Hello , just wanted to confirm , ur recipe says 1 large potatoe and serves 4 is there a mistake here ? M new to cooking so just confirming and am trying this recipe for the first time.
as a side yes it does serve 4 since you add water and make it a curry. And a large russet potato used here much be around 300-400 grams so it’s quite big.
Can you use regular vegetable oil? LOVE POTATOES!!
you may, mustard oil just gives it more flavor 🙂