Luchi And Potato Curry

Luchi with Aloo Curry has been mine and R's favourite breakfast item right from our childhood days. These days, we have it for Sunday brunch after R gets back from his cricket games.

My luchi's are a combination of puri and luchi actually. Puri is made with wheat flour, also known as atta. Luchi's are made with refined flour aka maida. My luchi are made with 1:1 atta and maida. Since I and R cannot avoid unhealthy and oily food, I try to come up with compromises like this :)

Posted this also for Anita's A Mad Tea Party "It's Party Time!". Lots and lots and lots of Puri - Aloo Bhaji recipes in there!

Update on 09/08/2007 - Round-up link is here.

Luchi (Makes about 20)

Ingredients

Refined Flour (Maida) 1.5 cup
Wheat flour (Atta) 1.5 cup
Salt 1.5 tsp (as per taste)
Canola Oil 3 tbsp (or Ghee) + additional oil for deep frying

Mix maida, atta, salt and canola oil. Add water 2 tbsp at a time to knead and get the desired consistency. Keep aside covered for about an hour. Knead again.

Make small balls of the dough. Using a rolling pin, roll out the balls into circles. If you get approximately circle shapes, that also works :)

Heat oil. Check if the oil is ready by dropping a tiny pinch of the dough into the oil. If the dropped pinch of dough bounces up to the surface immediately, the oil is ready for frying luchi.

Tip from Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals - Another method to check if the oil is ready is by putting the handle of a wooden spatula into the oil. If bubbles appear, then the oil is ready for frying.



Drop the rolled out luchi slowly into the oil. Keep pressing the luchi softly in the oil so that the luchi can puff up. Take the luchi out of oil using a slotted spatula. Place the luchi on a tissue paper to absorb away the excess oil.



Best eaten hot with potato curry or potato fry or meat curry (Oriya "Mangso Tarkari").

Potato Curry (Makes 6 servings)

About a month back, I tried the potato curry recipe as per Latha's Masala Magic's Potato curry. Don't think I will ever go back to my old recipe for potato curry. This turns out real yummy and makes the house smell so good also. The smell of chana dal, urad dal, curry leaves and mild hing when used as tempering is heavenly! Following is the same recipe with minor changes, as it suits our taste.

Ingredients

Potato - 5 Large
Onion - 1 Large
Green chilli - 3-4
Curry leaves - 10-12
Ginger paste - 1 tbsp
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Salt to taste

For seasoning - 1/2 tsp sugar, 1 tsp mustard, 2 tsp chana dal, 2 tsp urad dal, pinch Asafoetida or hing

Step 1

Cut potato into halves. Boil with water and some salt. After the water boils, reduce the heat to Medium and cook covered for another 15 mins.



Step 2

Heat oil. Add sugar and mustard seeds. As soon as the mustard crackles, add chana dal, urad dal and Asafoetida. As soon as the chana dal-ural dal is roasted, add the chopped green chillies, curry leaves, chopped onions and minced ginger. As soon as the onion turns golden-brown, add turmeric pd. and mashed potato. Add salt to taste. Add 1/2 cup water so that the spices mix well with the potato. Cook for 10 mins on Medium heat. Garnish with coriander leaves and 5-6 drops of lemon juice (optional if you don't like it sour).



Serve with roti or phulka or puri or luchi. Also goes well with Chakuli pitha (an Oriya bread item similar to the South Indian Dosa).

Alternative method:

Heat oil. Season with a pinch of sugar, mustard seeds, chana dal and urad dal. Add sliced onion, green chillies, minced ginger, curry leaves. Once cooked, add mashed potato, pinch of turmeric and water to mix everything well. Add salt. Garnish with coriander leaves.