Aloo phulkopir niramish dalna recipe with step-by-step pictures. Phulkopir dalna is an authentic dish of our bengali cuisine where phulkopi/gobi/cauliflower and aloo(potatoes) are fried in oil and cooked in a ghee garam masala flavoured niramish(no onion garlic) gravy.
Dalna is a bengali term that mostly indicates a traditional niramish or veg curry(no onion garlic) of the cuisine of Bengal. In dalna, its main ingredients are first fried in oil and then cooked with aloo in a ghee garam masala based gravy.
Just like in this phulkopir dalna, phulkopi/gobi or cauliflower is the main ingredient of this recipe fried in oil with aloo and cooked with the masala. Even you can see almost the same cooking style has been applied in making all dalna recipes such as dhokar dalna, echorer(jackfruit) dalna, potoler dalna recipes.
As aloo or potato is an integral part of our Bengali food so like other dalna recipes this phulkopir dalna is also incomplete without aloo. Even as dalna recipes are part of our traditional niramish kitchen, therefore, this phulkopir recipe is prepared without onion and garlic.
This aloo phulkopir niramish dalna is a very common bong dish, especially cooked during winter. As in winter, due to the huge availability of fresh cauliflower, newly harvested potatoes, and fresh green peas attract us to make it at home. It is mostly served with luchi or paratha in breakfast, with rice and dal in lunch, or with roti or chapati in dinner.
Though, this cauliflower curry is cooked without onion and garlic however it tastes great. To make it tasty, its gravy is made of ginger-chili paste and cumin-chili powder with the tangy addition of tomato, curd, and balanced with sugar. Even whereas hing or asafoetida makes a similar flavor of garlic and ghee-garam masala brings that rich aroma in this curry. Moreover, potatoes and green peas are the perfect accompaniment of cauliflower to make this curry more scrumptious.
As cauliflower is a seasonal vegetable of winter and except winter it was not available in the market. So in olden times, all cauliflower-based bong dishes including this dalna only made in winter. However, now fulkopi is easily available throughout the year. Due to that availability, this fulkopir tarkari is common in my kitchen at any time of the year. That is the reason for sharing this recipe with you all.
You may try some of my other Niramish(no onion garlic) Bengali Curries, such as phulkopir roast, Chanar Dalna, Niramish Aloo Dum, Cholar Dal, Sabji Diye Bhaja Muger Dal, Labra Tarkari, Shukto Recipe.
Let’s learn how to make this Bong style aloo phulkopir niramish dalna at home. Must try it in your kitchen and share your valuable feedback about this recipe in the comment section below.
Aloo phulkopir niramish dalna recipe
Prep time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 35 mins
Total time: 45 mins
Served for: 5-6 people
Course: Main course
Cuisine: Bengali/Indian
Author: Moumita Paul
Ingredients
- 1 medium phulkopi or cauliflower
- 3 medium aloo or potatoes
- 1/2 cup of green peas
- 1-inch ginger or 1 1/2 tsp ginger paste
- 2-3 green chillies
- 3 tbsp curd or tok doi
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 3/4 tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder
- 1/2 tsp chilli powder
- 1 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/2 tsp garam masala powder
- 1/8 tsp or a pinch of hing or asafoetida
- 1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds
- 2 Bay leaves
- 1 1/2 tsp sugar
- Salt(as required)
- 3 cups of water
- 1 tbsp ghee
- 7-8 tbsp mustard oil
Instruction
How to make Aloo phulkopir niramish dalna recipe with step by step pictures
Preparation
- Take a medium-size cauliflower and take out its florets, cut it into the medium. Take 3 medium size potatoes peel them out and cut them into 4 pieces and take half a cup of green peas, I took the frozen one but you can take the fresh one too.
- Add 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp turmeric powder to the potatoes and mix it well. Keep it aside.
- Then put a pan on the stove 2-3 cups of water, let the water gets hot. Then add 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp turmeric powder to it & stir it well.
- When the water starts boiling add the cauliflower to the water and blanches it for 3-4 mins. Remove the cauliflower from the pan and keep it aside for later use.
- Get the masala ready by adding 1 tsp cumin powder, 1/2 tsp red chilli powder, 3/4 tsp kashmiri chilli powder, hing, 1 tsp salt & 3/4 tsp turmeric powder in a bowl with ginger-green chilli paste. Add little water, mix it well to make a smooth masala paste. Keep it aside for using later.
How to make aloo phulkopir niramish dalna
- Heat a pan on medium flame, add 7-8 tbsp mustard oil. First, fry the potatoes till getting golden brown color. Remove it from the pan and keep it aside.
- Then fry the blanched cauliflower till gets the same golden brown color. Remove it from the pan and keep it aside too for later.
- Add 1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds and 2 bay leaves in the pan, let it fry until the aroma comes. Then first add the chopped tomatoes, after a little frying of it, cover the pan.
- Just after 1-2 mins remove the cover and add 1/4 tsp of salt to get the tomatoes soft, stir it well, again cover the pan for 1 more min.
- Once the tomatoes get soft then add the masalas prepared earlier. Add 1 & 1/2 tsp sugar, mix it well. Fry the masalas until its raw smell goes off.
- Add the well-beaten curd or yogurt and mix it well with other ingredients kept in the pan. Then add a little water and bring it to boil.
- Once the gravy starts boiling, add the fried potatoes to it and covers the pan. Let the potatoes cooked into the gravy.
- After 10 mins of cooking, add 2 cups of water into the masala gravy and let the gravy starts boiling. Once the gravy starts to boil, then again cover the pan till the potatoes get cooked.
- When potatoes are almost cooked add the fried cauliflower to the gravy. Then again cover the pan.
- Once the florets are also cooked then add the green peas. As frozen peas are very soft so I add them later into the gravy. However, if are using fresh green peas then you can add it with cauliflower too.
- When the green peas are also cooked, then add 1/2 tsp of garam masala powder to it, mix it well. Cover the pan again to let the garam masala infused into the gravy. Even let the gravy slightly dry.
- Once the gravy gets slightly dry then remove the cover of the pan and lastly add 1 tbsp ghee to it. Mix it well. Cook it for a few secs and cover the pan. Then immediately turn off the heat.
- Aloo diye phulkopir niramish dalna is ready. As I served this curry with rice and dal so I don’t make it too dry. However, its dry gravy is best for serving with roti, chapati, luchi, or paratha.
Tips
- Basically, dalna is prepared in a slow cooking method. However, you can use a pressure cooker for a quick version. Like to save your time you can cook the potatoes in the pressure cooker. But don’t pressure cook the cauliflowers if you are not an expert in cooking in a pressure cooker. As cauliflower doesn’t take much time to cook so because of pressure cooking it may get overcooked and spoil the taste of the curry.
- If you are using fresh cauliflowers then instead of blanching you can also soak the cauliflower’s florets into the salt-based water. This procedure will also help to remove the insects that come with cauliflowers.
- The consistency of this gravy can be dry or light, is up to you. Basically, people who love phulkopir rassa keep more gravies. Or make it dry if love phulkopir kosha type texture.
- Though here I used sugar to balance the tanginess of curd and tomatoes, even make it more delicious too. However, you may use more or less sugar as per your sweet taste.
- Sometimes cauliflower smells bad then must blanch cauliflower in hot water before frying. As I always blanch the cauliflower florets in hot water seasoned with a little turmeric powder and salt. You may do the same as mine.
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