Jeera Potatoes

This dish is easy to follow and is quite versatile as a side dish to be paired with the protein of your choice. It also serves well cold and heats up well as leftovers.

Taste: Simplicity: Cost:

Recipe by Ranjit Singh Puwar

Tested by Ruyi Wang

Ingredients

Oil - enough to cover the bottom of your pan
1 teaspoon salt
5 green or red birdseye chillies
1 tin of plum tomatoes
1 heaped tablespoon cumin seeds
750g potatoes (any variety but Maris Piper works best)
Optional: Fresh coriander as a garnish

Method

Put the oil in a large pan; a good amount of oil should be used to stop the potatoes sticking and for maximum flavour. Approximately half an inch up the side of the tray.
Add a heaped tablespoon of Cumin seeds and toast until fragrant. Lower the heat and add finely chopped green chillies and salt. Sauté until chillies are cooked, usually about 1 minute.
Add the tin of plum tomatoes, crush to a sauce. Cook and simmer, stirring occasionally so the mixture does not stick to the pot, until you have a thick sauce and the oil separates, around 15 mins.
Cut your potatoes into pieces, the same size as you would have roast potatoes. Add the potatoes to the pan, turn the heat up, and make sure all potatoes are coated for about a minute or two.
Put back on a low heat and cover. This is important: the slower you cook them now, the better they will be. Also, try not to overcrowd the pan if possible, because that will also increase the cooking time.
Do not keep lifting the lid, they need the steam to cook. If the pot is not covered, they will not cook. Make sure you stir gently, move the spoon across the bottom of the pan, and don't mash the potatoes together. Do this every 5 minutes so they do not stick to the bottom because they can easily do so if enough oil is not used.
The mixture should stick to the potatoes and not be too watery by the end of cooking.
When the potatoes are 90% cooked (you can test this by sticking a fork into a piece and seeing if it meets minimal resistance), remove from the pan, transfer to a baking tray and put in the oven at 180°C for around 15 minutes or until cooked. Remove when cooked and slightly crispy. They should be slightly crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle. You will know you have cooked them properly if the yellow/orange colour has seeped into the potatoes when you break them.
Remove from the oven and sprinkle on finely chopped coriander (optional).

Best served with Jeera Chicken (same recipe but with garlic added). Also Serve with mint yoghurt, salad, rice (see Cooking Basics: RiceLink opens in a new window) or naan.