Aloo Peek-a-boo

It all started with Joka. She got married. She started cooking. And then she made something.

I was looking for a nice dish to cook in cashew nut gravy, and she told me about something she had made. I could see it being cooked in front of my eyes. The highlights were cashew nut gravy …. aloo stuffed with cheese!

Only one word comes to mind ….sinful!

I forgot her recipe so I adapted a recipe off the net called Shahi Aloo Kaju. Of course, that recipe was like apka sadharan ghisa pita recpie. This one has a far more oomph to it. I call it Aloo Peek-a-boo.

(in cashew nut gravy) for the seriously lactose tolerant

What you need

Allo Peek-a-boo, What you need

Small sized Potatoes : 300 gms

Cashew nuts : 4 tblsp

Onions : 2 nos

Ginger : 1 inch

Garlic : 1 clove

Chillies : 2 nos.

Jeera: 2 tsps

Garam Masala : 2 tspns

Turmeric Powder : a pinch

Curd : 1/4 cup

Milk : 1/4 cup

Cheese : 2 slices

Oil, for frying

Salt

Let’s Do This!

(Optimized Process)

Phase 1: Soak the cashew nuts in a glass of water. This will get them soggy and they’ll grind easy. Put that away.

Kaju, in the Before

Phase 2: Clean the potatoes, cut them in half and put them on boil. They should be soft enough to scoop out their insides with a spoon. This will take about 15 minutes on a high flame. So in the meantime, we go to

Phase 3: Chop up the garlic and ginger. We’ll be grinding this, so rough chops will do. Chop the onions nice and fine. Slit the chillies lengthwise, wash and cut the coriander leaves and you’re good to go.

Phase 4: Where it all comes together

Kaju, in the After

Step 1: Take the soggy cashew nuts, garlic and ginger and grind, baby, grind.

Add a little water so you get a nice paste.

Step 2: Check on the potatoes. Assuming their done, make like a psychologist and peel off their layers. Next, we’re going to get the inside scoop on them.

I have a confession to make. When I went to Baskin Robbins, I stole one of

Potatoes in the heat

their tasting spoons. I knew it would come handy one day. Well it did. Turns

out it’s a great tool for what we’re going to do next.

Use a spoon to scoop out some of the potatoes. Save the chunks you take out. Next, take the cheese slice and make a little pieces that you can place inside the scooped out holes. Put these on a tray, cheesy side up and inside the microwave, so that the cheese melts. To stop the cheese from drooling, you can make a cut to flatten the heads of the potatoes, so that they can stand up to the heat.

No Fill, Filled, Sinfully Filled

Step 4: Heat some oil on low flame in a kadai. Throw in the jeera. Fry it a bit. Next, toss in the onions, chillies, garam masala and turmeric powder to keep the jeera company. Once the onions show their true colors (golden brown), put in the cashew nut paste that we’d grinded earlier.

The gravy has a tendency to stick to the bottom, so you’ll have to keep stirring it in.

Step 5: Add the curd. Keep stirring and again watch out for the bottom

The broth thickens

sticking. When the gravy thickens, proceed to

Step 6: Add the milk and half a glass of water, about 2 tsps of salt, the

potatoes and the coriander leaves. Keep stirring while mixture thickens and the potatoes get coated nice and good.

Step 7: Switch off the flame. Sprinkle some coriander leaves and some cashew nuts for garnish and voila!

Aloo Peek-a-boo!

Notes:

Variation : Put in half a cashew inside the scooped potato, before stuffing the cheese in. You could put in a raisin there as well

Tangent : Maybe using less potatoes might make it look like one of those koftas that they serve in restaurants

Tangent: Try using no onions at all