Bengali Niramish dum aloo recipe with step-by-step pictures – This is a traditional Bengali aloo dum recipe cooked with no onion and garlic. To celebrate any puja or rituals at our home, we avoid making food with onion and garlic, and then this niramish aloor dum is the best option to relish with luchi or paratha. Though it perfectly goes with bengali kachori, chapati even with roti or phulka.
What is niramish aloo dum?
A ghee and garam masala flavored Bengali style spicy potato curry cooked with no onion and garlic. Boiled potatoes are cooked in a gravy of ginger-green chili-tomato paste along with curd/yogurt, hing(asafoetida), cumin- coriander-red chilli powder. The addition of bhaja masala or dry roasted spices, at last, enhances its taste and flavor as well.
Sometimes boiled potatoes are tossed in oil before adding to the gravy. In wintertime, green peas are also accompanied with aloo and green coriander used in garnishing.
Aloo – Generally in winter, newly harvested potatoes especially baby potatoes are used to prepare this dish. Whereas the rest of the year Chandra Mukhi aloo is the only option.
Green peas – Same as newly harvested green peas accompany this dish only available in winter. However, for the rest of the year, frozen peas are our all-time savior.
Please stay with me to know how easily and quickly I prepared this dum aloo bengali recipe in my kitchen. And please, don’t forget to let me know how this niramish aloo dum worked at your home by leaving a comment in the comment section below.
You may like my bengali aloor dum recipe, koraishutir kochuri or green peas kachori, authentic radhaballavi recipe, cholar dal recipe for breakfast.
Bengali Niramish dum aloo recipe(with no onion garlic)
Prep time: 15 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins
Served in: 25 mins
Served for: 4-5 people
Course: Breakfast/ Dinner
Cuisine: Bengali/Indian
Author: Moumita Paul
Ingredients
- 500 gms Baby potatoes/ Chandramukhi aloo
- 1/2 cup Green peas
- 1 medium-sized Tomato
- 1/2 inch Ginger
- 2 Green chilies
- 2 tbsp Curd/yogurt
- 1/2 tsp Cumin powder
- 1/2 tsp Coriander powder
- 1/2 tsp Red chili powder
- 3/4 tsp Sugar
- 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
- 2 Bay leaves
- 1/4 tsp Cumin seeds
- 1/8 tsp Hing/Asafoetida
- Garam masala(2 cardamoms, 2 cloves, and 1/2 inch cinnamon stick)
- 3 tbsp Mustard oil
- Water (as required)
- Salt (as required)
- A handful of chopped coriander leaves
For making the bhaja masala or dry roasted spices
- 1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
- 1/2 tsp Coriander seeds
- 2 pcs Dry red chillies
Dry roast these three spices together and ground it to make a fine powder from it.
How to make Bengali niramish dum aloo with step-by-step pictures
Instruction
Boil the potatoes
- First, wash the baby potatoes(around 500 g) thoroughly under running water.
- In a pressure cooker, add baby potatoes(without peeling the skin) with 2 cups of water.
- Place the pressure cooker on medium heat and wait for one whistle. Turn off the heat.
- Remove the lid of the pressure cooker when all the pressure is released automatically. Perfectly boiled potatoes in the pic.
- Let the boiled potatoes cool down and then peel the skin.
Fry the potatoes
- Heat a pan on medium flame, and add 2 tbsp mustard oil to it.
- When the oil gets heated up, add aloo to it and give stir to it.
- Now add 1/4 tsp turmeric powder and 1/2 tsp salt to the pan and mix it with the potatoes.
- Fry the potatoes till it gets nice golden color from both sides.
- Then remove all the fried potatoes from the pan.
Making masala paste
- First, take a small blender jar or mixer jar, and add 1 medium tomato, 1/2 inch(5g) ginger, and 2 green chillies to it.
- Then add 2 tbsp curd, 1/2 tsp cumin powder, and 1/2 tsp coriander powder to the blender jar.
- Then add 1/2 tsp red chilli powder and whole garam masalas(2 cardamoms, 2 cloves, and 1/2 inch cinnamon stick as shown in the pic) to the blender jar.
- Now add 1 tbsp water and make a smooth paste of it(as shown in the pic).
Cooking aloor dum
- Then take the same pan, place it on medium heat, and add 1 tbsp mustard oil to it.
- Once the oil is heated up, add 1 bay leaf and 1/4 tsp cumin seeds to the pan.
- First, stir it and then add 1/8 tsp hing to the pan and stir it once again.
- Now add the masala paste(kept in the blender jar) to the pan and stir it nicely.
- Then add 3/4 tsp sugar to the masalas just to balance its tanginess. And mix it well.
- Then add the green peas(1/2 cup = around 75 g) to it and stir it nicely with the masalas.
- After that, add 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp turmeric powder to it. Mix it well.
- When the raw smells of masalas go off, and masala leaves oil means tiny bubbles of oil visible from the sides of the masala, then add 3/4 cup of water to it.
- Now raise the flame of your gas oven to the highest point, and bring it to a boil.
- When it will start boiling, then add the fried baby potatoes to it. Stir it well.
- Then you can add a little salt if feel requires.
- Now, slow down the flame to the lowest point of your oven and cover the pan with a lid.
- After every one minute remove the lid and stir it well. After about 4-5 mins of cooking, add a handful of chopped coriander to it. Stir it well.
- Then raise the flame to medium heat to get the desired consistency of its gravy.
- When you get the right consistency of this gravy, then turn off the flame.
- Lastly, add 1 tsp ghee to it and stir it well.
- Here I’ve used bhaja masala or roasted spices powder(which contains 1/2 tsp cumin seeds, 1/2 tsp coriander seeds, 2 dry red chilies) to sprinkle on the top of this aloo dum. If you don’t want to sprinkle the roasted masala, you can skip it.
- Then serve this hot bengali puja special niramish dum aloo with luchi or puri, roti or phulka.
Tips about this recipe
- Curd, Tomato, and Sugar – Here adding of little sugar is a must, that will balance the tanginess of curd and tomato.
- Fresh Green Peas – If you are using fresh green peas, you can blanch the green peas before cooking. But frozen green peas are already soft so don’t need to boil them separately.
- Types of gravy – I choose quite thick gravy for having with rooti, luchi(poori) or porota(paratha). However, to have it with niramish bengali pulao or plain rice, add a little more water to get a less thick consistency of the gravy.
- Hing – As garlic produces the flavor in oil, hing also develops a quite similar flavor. That is why hing is mostly used in all niramish recipes as a substitute for garlic.
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