India: The World Vegetarian

Roopa Gulati · India: The World Vegetarian

This variation on a classic dish from Rajasthan is made with relatively few ingredients by Indian standards. Pounded chillies are blended with yoghurt and cooked with caramelised onions and shedloads of garlic in ghee. Whole black cardamom is the lead spice here and its naturally smoky flavour is a good match for the robustly flavoured masala and softened potatoes. This is not a dish for the faint-hearted. I've opted for Kashmiri chillies (milder than the traditional mathania used in abundance throughout Rajasthan), which also bring a lovely reddish hue to the finished dish. Don't be too finicky about removing every seed - a couple of stray ones are good for emboldening the masala. Serve these potatoes with a crisp salad, cooling yoghurt and chapatis.