Tuesday, September 11, 2012

I cooked: Aloo Gobi (Indian Butter Spiced Potato and Cauliflower) (MasterChef)

Gosh, I do love these cook-alongs... it makes me get out of my comfort zone and cook something which I do not usually cook at home. So, for my third entry for "Cook Like A MasterChef", I will be sharing a recipe for an Indian butter spiced potatoes and cauliflower dish, better known as Aloo Gobi.



Aloo Gobi is a traditional North Indian vegetarian curry made with potatoes (aloo), cauliflower (gobi) and Indian spices. The recipe I chose to use is taken off MasterChef Australia, by their sponsor Western Star. The ingredients were easily accessible in KL and the recipe was easy and straightforward.

Although the black mustard seeds (biji sawi) and garam masala are listed as optional on the original recipe, try not to skip these ingredients (unless you cannot get hold of them) since I feel that they are essential spices in this dish. Personally, I felt that the yoghurt wasn't a necessary addition, I liked the dish more without the yoghurt as the taste of the spices were more prevalent. Btw, I only added half the yoghurt amount as stated in original recipe so do tweak this as you please. I used freshly grated turmeric instead of ground turmeric, which gives it the dish a lovely vibrant yellow hue (but what a chore trying to remove the stain from your fingers and plates!).



Overall, we loved this aloo gobi recipe, and will definitely be making it more often from now on.  I do hope that you will give this a try at home.



Aloo gobi (Indian Butter Spiced Potato and Cauliflower)
Recipe adapted from MasterChef Australia
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
100g butter (you can also use ghee or 2 tbsp vegetable oil)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp fresh ginger, finely grated
2 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds (jintan putih)
1 tsp turmeric (I used freshly grated turmeric)
1 tsp garam masala
400g potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
300g cauliflower, cut into large florets
1 cup water
2 long green chillies, finely sliced (I used red chillies)
1/4 cup coriander leaves, to garnish
Scallions, finely chopped, to garnish (optional)
200g fresh natural yogurt, for serving (I used 100g but this could be omitted)
Salt and pepper to taste

Grated turmeric


The ingredients for aloo gobi


Black mustard seeds and cumin seeds


1. In a large frying pan or wok over medium high heat, melt butter, then add onion, garlic, ginger and spices (turmeric, black mustard seeds, cumin seeds and garam masala) and cook for 2 minutes until fragrant and onions are golden.



2. Add potatoes, and gently fry for 1 minute. Then add the water and season to taste with salt and some pepper, stir to coat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

3. Remove the lid and stir in cauliflower and chilli, and cook for a further 10 minutes, until cauliflower and potatoes are tender and glossy. There should only be just enough liquid to moisten the vegetables.

4. To serve, spoon onto a serving platter, scatter with coriander and scallion and drizzle with yogurt.




This is another nice way of getting your children to eat cauliflower!


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I am submitting this to the "Cook Like a MasterChef" bloghop which I am co-hosting with Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Anuja of Simple Baking. To join, simply cook or bake any recipe (from the contestants, judges or even sponsors) from any MasterChef websites or cookbooks (any countries) and blog hop with us for the whole month of September 2012.

Your post must be a current post i.e. posted in September 2012 - please do not link older posts.

Please mention Cook like a Star in your post and link back to Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Anuja of Simple Baking and Baby Sumo of Eat your heart out.

You can get the HTML code here: get the InLinkz code (Click on the link, copy and paste the HTML code into your blog post where you want the blog hop list to appear. Make sure you are in HTML mode when you paste in the code)

Happy cooking! Do check out the other bloggers recipe below:


Full set of photos can be viewed on my Facebook page here. 

31 comments:

  1. I think Mr Mah will love this dish, since he loves Indian food. :)

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    Replies
    1. Maybe u can surprise him by preparing it this weekend ;)

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  2. Replies
    1. Not really ah.. few types only... but the spice makes it nice and fragrant.

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  3. Ooh, this is branching out from your usual dishes. I try to eat vegetarian whenever I can.

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    Replies
    1. Hehe what do u mean? Are u saying I dont eat enough vegetables?;P

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  4. Oooo...I think I would love this. Must give it a try. I don;t really like our cauliflower though - bland, no fragrance...not like the cauliflower overseas.

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    Replies
    1. Really? Got difference? .. lol I never really noticed.

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  5. Hi Yen, are you kidding me...!! Here you are creating an Indian dish and so perfectly. And you are so right, the spice-garam masala should'nt be missed as it gives a lot of flavour. Loved your use of fresh turmeric. Normally we don't use yogurt in this dish. So happy to see you cook such an authentic dish.Way to go!!

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    1. Aww Amrita, thanks so much for your compliment. I am just trying my best to recreate the dish as per the recipe. I've had it a few times in restaurants before so I knew that I shd use the garam massala. I really enjoyed this, will try n cook more curries at home ;)

      And thx for letting me know that the authentic version doesnt use yogurt cos I didn't like the yogurt in this original recipe either.

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. This is definitely my favourite when I eat at Indian restaurants...

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  8. one of my most-liked indian recipes too! creamy and comforting, and not too spicy, heh! :D

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    Replies
    1. Hehe it's not spicy at all, can totally omit the chillies just for you.

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  9. This is such a crowd pleasing dish! We always seem to order it when we go for Indian food :D

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    Replies
    1. From the comments today, I gather this is a must-order dish for almost anyone.

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  10. Gorgeous dish!! Really salute you for having the patience to do all the chopping and scrubbing! Haha.. but when the end dish is delicious, it's all worth it, right?

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    Replies
    1. Haha what to do, wanna cook nice food so have to do all the chopping and scrubbing lor.. anyway this one not too bad la... the prep time is quite short and not tht many things to wash. The gwailo recipes usually more tedious.

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  11. So much effort went into that dish! But Aloo Gobi is such a crowd pleaser. Can't go wrong with it. :D

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  12. i got something planned but don't know whether wud have time for cook like a star. haha, this month got a lot of submissions.

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    Replies
    1. No worries la dear, if u cant find time, then jus join our next bloghop. Jaga yrself and yr baby ;)

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  13. Way to go Yen!! an authentic Indian dish cooked to perfection!! Very impressive!!
    And your instincts are right, we dont add yogurt to this. The only thing I would like to suggest you for any future Indian dishes is that, you add the mustard seeds after the oil is heated and let it crack (tempering) and then proceed with adding of onions or garlics. Thats the way we do it in our Indian kitchens.
    And sorry for a late comment as the situation at my home is chaotic. My hubby, daughter and MIL all down with fever and plus having a really busy week at the college also. So much to do and only 24 hrs in a day!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Anuja, don't worry abt the late comment. I hope your family is feeling better now. It's no fun when ppl in the house is sick - I can totally relate.

      Thanks so much for the tip abt the mustard seeds, I think Malay style cooking also does similar steps, fry the spices first to release the fragrance. ;)

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  14. Hi Baby Sumo,

    Never thought that I can cook a simple cauliflower dish this way... These cauliflowers and potatoes look like they are "soaked" up with flavours and colours.

    So nice to know that you are enjoying hosting and cooking along with us. I'm so happy to have my co-hostess for this event :D

    Zoe

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    Replies
    1. Hi Zoe, I am having so much fun with this cook along and my family is having fun eating all the different things I cooked for them. My daughter likes the potatoes in this dish very much. The biggest fan is my mum, she says its as good as the restaurant ones. Makes me so happy to hear that! ;)

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  15. A lot of food :) I support "Cook like a Star" too :)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the support, maybe u can cook a recipe and join us too? It will be fun!

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