Tandoori Aloo / Grilled Potatoes

The other day we had some sudden guests !! The entire family comprising of the doting mother/grandmother, sons and their wives, and one little pert, mischievous 2 year old visited us, most probably the mother had forced them all. The reason for the visit was that the younger son had recently married, and the couple had been brought to seek the blessings of 'elders'!! I had been assuming that at 37 I was still a young lady until then!

The first thing the son noticed was the book rack. This is something I am very very proud off, and am very possessive about the books I own. Not that they are very costly or that I am arrogant, it is just that each and book has a smell I am familiar with, each page carries a story and because some of my books have helped me find good friends. The son was most fascinated by my collection of cook books, and called his wife at once to examine the lot! After they left, I cleaned the rack lovingly fingering each cook book! It was then that I discovered, to my own amazement that I had over 40 Cook Books!! I am rather ashamed to admit that I haven't tried even a single dish from a few:( It was then that I decided that I would honor the writers and cook a dish from every book, hopefully by the end of this year!

In doing so, I find that I keep repeating dishes either from Neeta Mehta's books, or from one of the baking books from Classic Essential Breads, Cakes, and more recently The Bread Book by Sara Lewis. Sometime back I found a thin green book that had somehow gone unnoticed - The Samsung Book of Indian Microwave Cooking by Tarla Dalal which came along with the Microwave. I was still choosing a dish to cook from this book when P bought a big packet of baby potatoes. I am a little lazy about scraping, grating and the like and try to avoid any food that may require such arduous tasks! P says I am a snobbish chef who likes to have assistants doing my menial jobs - who else but P! I woke up one morning, and found cleaned, scraped baby potatoes dunked in cold water. P obviously expected me to prepare dum aloos of which he is a huge fan, that too on a weekday. Any other day I would have lost my temper at the thought, but this time I could almost picture the delicious tandoori aloo I had seen in the book, and rolled up my sleeves so to say, to get going!

I made mine using Tarla Dalal's recipe as a guide, and not a Bible! The recipe uses baby potatoes with jackets, but I prefer the scraped version as it is more hygienic than the former! I tried a low fat version using sofit's tofu instead of cream, and only a teaspoon of oil for the entire quantity! This one is a winner all the way, and is a wonderful appetizer for parties, especially if you have calorie conscious guests!

Ingredients:
2 cups baby potatoes
A teaspoon of oil
1/4 tsp. - Kashmiri chilli powder
1/2 a lime

To grind:
1/2 tsp. - dried kasuri methi
1/4 tsp. - peanut butter smooth (I had only the chunky version in my pantry but the smooth one would be great)
5 to 6 small tofu cubes (Sofit is good for this)
1/2 tsp. - grated garlic
1 inch - ginger grated
About 2 tsps. - dhana jeera powder
A pinch of amchoor or chaat masala
Chilly powder as per taste

Garnish:
Thin rounds of onion sliced, separated into rings. It looks tempting if you grate some beet, and mix the rings in it so that onions turn pink.
Dhania leaves

Method:
1. Wash, scrape and clean the potatoes.

2. Pierce them with a fork and place them all around the circumference of the microwave turntable with a small bowl of water in the centre. This prevents them from shrivelling.

3. Microwave on high for about 6 to 8 minutes till the potatoes get just done.

4. Heat the oil in a microwave safe bowl, add the prepared ground paste and salt (Please adjust spices to suit your taste as these things are a matter of personal choice rather than measurements). Micro high for a minute. Mix again.

5. Add the potatoes, and toss well. Micro high for 2 minutes.

END RESULT: