2 Potatoes 4 Subzis: Part 1

Imagine you are back from office after long and hectic day to find no vegetables in fridge. Only your true friends onion and potato are still with you. With no energy to go out again & buy veg and definitely not in mood to cook some elaborate recipes, you can try one of four variations of potato subzi. All these recipes are very tasty and too easy to make. The main theme is obviously potato and you do variations in tempering and the fat used for tempering.

Part 1 : Batatyachya Kacharya (a.k.a. Stir-fried potatoes)


You need

2 medium size potatoes (washed and dried)
1 small onion
Salt to taste

For tempering
3-4 tbls oil
1 tsp mustard seeds (or you can use 1/2 mustard+ 1/2 cumin seeds)
2 green chillies
1 tbls turmeric powder
pinch of hing (if you like)
5-6 leaves of Curry leaves

1.Peel the potatoes (or you can keep skin on) and chop it into equal size vertical pieces. Size does matter here as it will ensure that all pieces are cooked equally at almost same time. Don't make too big pieces as it will increase cooking time and with too thin pieces subzi may burn fast.Try to do french fries size.
2.Chop onions also vertically.
3.Now prepare tadka by heating oil in pan. Once heated add remaining items from tempering.
4.Add onions first, fry for couple of seconds and then add potatoes fry for a min or so.
5.Now cover pan and turn down heat (lowest mark on your gas stove). After 6-8 mins check if potatoes are cooked, stir them for some time and cover again if not cooked yet.
6. You don't have to add water at all as the water from onion is enough to cook potatoes. 2 imp points to note here: don't turn up heat as it will burn potatoes from outside but they will not be cooked properly from inside.Don't put potato wedges in water as they'll stick to pan and it will be difficult to clean the pan. Chop them and immediately add to pan.