Niramish Dum Aloo recipe | Bengali Aloor Dum without onion garlic

Niramish Dum Aloo recipe step by step – Niramish Dum Aloo is a spicy Bengali potato curry made with aloo, hing, ghee & garam masala powder and no onion and garlic is used. Such recipes are mostly prepared at bengali homes on any puja occasions when avoid making food with onion and garlic. For those bengali niramish days, this niramish aloo’r dum is one of the best dishes to relish with Luchi, paratha, radhaballavi, bengali kachori, chapati even with roti or phulka at breakfast or dinner.

What is Niramish Dum Aloo?

Niramish Aloo Dum is 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- kashmiri red chilli powder. The addition of bhaja masala or dry roasted spices, at last, enhances its taste and flavor as well. Make it with the help of simple step by step pictures.

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.

Which Aloo is best to use in this dish – 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 for making this niramish alu dum.

Green peas add-on to enhance the taste – Same as notun aloo newly harvested green peas can accompany this dish only in winter as per the availability. However, for the rest of the year, I use frozen peas as my all-time savior. Though not mandatory just enhance the taste.

Please stay with me to know how easily and quickly I prepared this bengali dum aloo recipe in my kitchen. And please, don’t forget to let me know how this niramish alur dum worked at your home by leaving a comment in the comment section below.

You may like some of my other Bengali niramish dishes for breakfast

Bhoger aloo dum (without onion & garlic)

Koraishutir kochuri or green peas kachori

Authentic radhaballavi recipe

Cholar dal recipe(with coconut)

How to make Niramish Dum Aloo recipe

Instruction

Boil the potatoes

• Thoroughly wash the potatoes (baby potatoes / chandramukhi alu around 500 g) under running water.
• Take a pressure cooker, add potatoes (take whole baby potatoes, or if medium, cut into halves, or if big, cut into 4 pieces), and do not peel out the potato skin.
• Add 2 cups (500 ml) of water to the cooker.

• Place the cooker on medium heat and wait for one whistle. Then turn off the heat.
• Remove the lid of the cooker when all the pressure is released automatically.

• Let the potatoes cool down and then peel out the skin.

Fry the potatoes

• Heat a pan on medium flame, and add 2 tbsp mustard oil to it.

• When the oil gets hot, add the potatoes to the oil and give a good stir.

• Now add 1/4 tsp turmeric powder and 1/2 tsp salt to the pan and nicely mix it with the potatoes.

• Fry the potatoes until nice golden color on all sides.

• Then remove all the fried potatoes from the pan.

Making masala paste

• Take a blender jar, first take 1 medium tomato, 1/2 inch(5g) ginger, and 2 green chillies in it.

• Add 2 tbsp curd, 1/2 tsp cumin powder, and 1/2 tsp coriander powder with it.

• Also add 1/2 tsp red chilli powder, 1/2 tsp Kashmiri red chilli, and whole garam masalas (2 cardamoms, 2 cloves, and 1/2 inch cinnamon stick with it.

• Now add 1 tbsp water and make a smooth masala paste with all ingredients kept in the blender jar (as shown in the pic).

To Cook Niramish Dum Aloo

• Heat the same pan (used for frying aloo) on medium heat, and add 1 tbsp mustard oil to it.
• Once the oil gets hot, add 1 bay leaf and 1/4 tsp cumin seeds to the pan.

• Let crackle the cumin, then add 1/8 tsp hing to the pan and stir it well.

• 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 (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 the pan. Mix it well.

• When the raw smells of masalas go off, and the masala leaves oil then add 3/4 cup of water to it.

• Now raise the flame of your gas oven to the highest point, and bring the gravy to a boil.
• When the gravy will start boiling, then add the fried baby potatoes to the gravy. Stir it well.

• Then you can add a little salt to the gravy if 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.

• Sprinkle bhaja masala on the top of this aloor dum. If you don’t want bhaja masala, you can skip it.
• Bengali Niramish Dum Aloo is ready, serve it hot with luchi (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 aloor dum gravy for having with rooti, luchi(poori) or porota(paratha). However, to have this alur dum 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 bengali niramish recipes including this alur dum as a substitute for garlic.