Dum Aloo - Bengali Style

Time taken	45 -60 min
Serves	Serves 4
Ingredients	• Potatoe -500gm/1kg • 3 tsp coconut peices • Ghee (cooking oil) 2-3 tbsp . • Coconut paste 1/2 tsp . Tomatoe paste 2/3 tsp • Paste of red chili 1/2tsp .depending on how spicy you want it to be  • Tez patta (Bay leaf) 2 nos.made into small peices • Cloves /cardomom sticks :2- 3 nos each , garam masala 1½ tsp • Cummin powder 1 tsp • Coriander powder 1 tsp • Yoghurt/dahi -2 tsp • Ginger paste 1 ½ tsp. • Green chili (whole) 2/3 nos. • Turmeric powder ½ tsp. • Salt to taste , ( sugar half spoon - optional)
Steps	Peel , wash and cut medium sized potatoe into 5/6 pieces. Mix the potatoes with salt and turmeric and keep for 15/20 mins. Take mustard/white oil in a pan and add bay leaves and little cummin seeds to it , also add the cloves and the cardamon sticks. When this begind to crackle add the potatoes and stir fry. In a separate pan mix all the speices ,yoghurt ,cocnut paster and mix well together. Also fry/saute  the diced coconut and keep aside . once the potatoes are  yellowish brown , add the mixture of speices to it and cook in the slow fire till the potatoes become tender and the spices are mixed well  add water . (for 500 gms of potatoes ideally one and half glass of water needs to be added , adding warm water is a better option ) . Once the water boils in to a blended gravy  add the fried coconuts and when  the potatoes appear soft the cooking is done . Ifyou intend to keep the aloordum little dry the you can slow cook the gravy till it becomes dry. You need to be careful so that the potatoes do not get quashes are start sticking to the vessel. Add ghee and garam masala before taking the same off the oven . you can also add kaju and kismish paste to it
Garnish	Serve hot. You can also add coriender leaves to the cooking in place of ghee & garam masala. This dish can also be cooked by adding onion paste however the onion less version is used as an additional side dish with bhog for pujos
Benefits	It is easy to make yet is tasty and can be eaten with rice / roti/nan.