Potato Box Curry (உருளைகிழங்கு கறி) - Do it yourself Video

The most flexible side dish to make, for eating with rice and rasam or roti's / flour tortilla's for a quick lunch (especially when you get 60 minutes for lunch, where you bike back from your department to apartment in 10 mins, make something, eat, clean dishes, drive back on time) is the potato box curry.

It goes with anything!

This video shows you in real time how to make this in under 10 minutes. If you are not picky about roasting the potato to a nice golden brown and getting them crispy 7 minutes should be plenty.

The only thing that is easier to do than this is making french style green beans or Okra using frozen cut vegetables. The taste isn't exactly super dee duper for those, but with some frozen coconut and south indian "gundu" milagai (round red chili) you can get that to be nice too.

Many a season's entire lunch menu was these quick curries on a rotation basis.

It is a treat the kids love. They eat the curry by itself like a snack!

Hope you have fun making this simple curry..

ps. The background noise shows you that sometimes 4 bathrooms in a house is not enough if you have two girls. Unless they come up with a potty that can have two girls go at the same time.. well forget that thought. It wouldn't work. Even then they will fight for the same sub potty. Girls!

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Intense viewing..

Photo doesn't need a caption..

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Aalo Rose

The recipe for the previous post, in pictures.

The final result:

First the Rose Aalo:

Microwave for 2 minutes, then drain the hot turmeric/Salt water out.

Bake at 350C for 20 minutes.

Make sure you use a paper towel and soak up the extra oil before serving.

Now something to do with the carved out pieces of potato. Make them into a quick Bhajji that can go along with the roti's.

Unfortunately, the bhajji was all gone before it could be served with the roti's.

Now, this would not be possible except for a commitment to San that the kitchen will be handed over to her in the same condition as before the cooking started!

Gents, please wash all dishes and wipe off stove, countertop etc. if you plan to do this experiment!

A Warning: While the Roses looked pretty inviting and were tasty, the core of the rose was way too hot, while the outside surface had cooled. So do NOT bite into the rose or you will burn your tongue! You may have to wait a little for it to cool down.

Julie and Julia was a good movie. It has inspired me to go back and do something in the kitchen.

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Have you ever tried..

To take a potato,
Peel it
Cut a base out
then carve a little flower out of the potato
immerse it in a ceramic bowl with just enough water with salt and turmeric powder
microwave it for 2 minutes
then take the bright yellow rose out
coat it with oil mixed with salt, asafoedita and red chili powder
then bake it in the oven at 350C for 15 mins

If not, try it and do let me know how it turns out...

I will show you how my little rose turns out on Saturday night!

ps. this inspired by watching Julie and Julia.

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Snacking away ay, snacking awayyy ay..

Yeah yeah.. For some reason Ian Anderson is doing the rounds in my head, but that is another story.

This weekend, the boss finally allowed me to go freak out at the local costco to buy healthy snacks. You see, a month without potatoes has left me with a big void to fill!

What can I eat as snack food if Pringles, baked lays, chips (bbq, sour cream and onion flavors), kettle chips, veggie chips (which are really potatoes with different veggie flavors), samosas, aloo parathas, puffs, etc. are all off the table?

Trying to give up potatoes and living in the USA is like living in a small island and giving up sea food!

The wife and MIL are begging me to break the self imposed "vrath" because of various reasons. The obvious one is that it seriously limits the stuff they can dish out. The not so obvious, devious reason is that a potato free man tends to take the remaining foods more seriously. His tastebuds have somehow become more sensitive..

What can I compare this to? Have you ever gone to an ENT doctor in your high school, early college years to get your ears cleaned with a syringe?! You walk out of that clinic and all of a sudden you feel like the world of sound is open to you. You come back home, switch the cassette player on and start hearing those odd chimes that Ilayaraja so strategically placed in the background, stuff you completely missed just before the cleaning session? Something like that.

Suddenly, I can detect the ratio of salt/chili/tamarind to the second decimals. Now that is really getting on the wife and MIL's nerves. They would rather have me stuff myself with bland potato filler than be more critical! Looks like it is harder on them than for me.

Well, the 34 size pants still fit and that means the aloovrath goes into its second straight month!

Only one problem. The brain still sends the hand to an imaginary cup on the couch when watching TV or working on the laptop at odd hours, well at any hour for that matter and when one goes to the kitchen and surveys all those potato thingys on the shelf one tends to get depressed and grabs chocolate instead. That problem has been corrected and the women of the house decided to give away all the candy stash or hide it from me. So the hunt for new healthy snacks began this week.

We have now purchased

1. Dry roasted Edamame (soy beans) - truly amazing (Sea point forms brand I believe). Low fat, high protein, as good as peanuts (which as you all know is a no no in this house).. loving it

2. Mrs. Mays almonds (they are back in costco) - delicious!

3. Pretzels (yes, they are high carbs, and we have to chip off the salt crystals before eating them).. but they are a better alternative to other junk foods

4. Mixed nuts (cashews, almonds, walnuts, pecans) - no peanuts, no peanut oil. What more can we ask?

5. Pistachio Crisps (by True North) - very yummy and supposedly healthy!

Add to this the usual Honey nut cheerios and we could make a new type of mixture (granted it wont be as good as grand sweets), but it will be a mixture that is high protein, medium carb and is potato/peanut/sesame seed free!

All these have been purchased on one condition. None of this shall go to waste!

Based on what is being crunched and munched right now as this post is being typed, we can be assured that it wont!

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