This easy and delicious Punjabi style Dum Aloo gravy is perfect for families who want to savor this lovely dish without spending hours in the kitchen. Leverage your pressure cooker and make it in about 30-minutes.
Peel the potatoes and make 4 equidistant one-inch slits around the potatoes using a knife.
Add 2 tablespoons of oil or ghee in a pan kept over medium heat. Add cloves, black cardamom, black pepper and cinnamon stick, hing. Let them sizzle for about 30 seconds.
Add potatoes along with 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Fry them till they are evenly browned from all sides (about 6-8 minutes) [see note]
Add oil to the steel insert in an Instant Pot. Press the Saute function. Use the Adjust button to move the selection to “Normal” and wait till the display reads “Hot.”
Add hing, onions, ginger, garlic and fry them till they have softened. Add pureed tomatoes, along with Kashmiri chili powder, and mix well. Let the mixture come to a boil [takes about 2-3 minutes].
Add the sautéed potatoes along with the spices and mix them in. Add about 1/2 cup of water.
Pressure cook on high for 10 minutes. When the cooking cycle is complete, quickly release pressure.
Stir in yogurt, garam masala, and roasted fenugreek leaves. Simmer in the Instant Pot for about 5 minutes.
Serve hot with parathas or rice.
Notes
To make it a one-pot meal, shallow fry the potatoes in the Instant Pot and then set them aside. I do it separately because I do steps 2 and 3 in parallel ie. I fry the onions and shallow fry the potatoes at the same time. Helps me cut the cooking time by 6-8 minutes.
Deep frying vs shallow frying - The original dum aloo recipe calls for deep frying potatoes but I prefer to shallow fry them to cut back on calories. You could deep fry them if you prefer to make it the authentic way.
Soaking potatoes - Traditionally, the potatoes are soaked before shallow or deep frying. Soaking the potatoes removes starch and makes for crispier potatoes. I did not notice a huge difference in taste or texture, so I skip this process to save time. The process involves -
Add a teaspoon of salt to two cups of water. Mix well.
Immerse the peeled and slit potatoes in water for about 10 minutes.
Remove the potatoes from water and pat dry them before shallow or deep frying.
Adding cashew paste - Soak the cashews in warm water for about 10 minutes, discard the water and then puree the cashews along with tomatoes. This adds a nice creamy texture to the curry.
Use potato wedges instead of baby potatoes - Peeling the small baby potatoes can take a long time, so substitute them for medium-sized potatoes and cut them to wedges. Reduce the pressure cooking time from 10 to 2 minutes just like we do in this Aloo matar recipe.