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Disclaimer: Since some buses have been burnt because I have used turmeric in alu posto I must stress once again that most of my recipes are built on instinct, inspired by what I see around me and my taste preferences. They are NOT text book versions of dishes assuming that there could be a single definition of 'authentic'.
To clarify I use cumin or even onions in alu posto because I like the flavours of both. I didn't use turmeric earlier but started doing so after seeing yellow alu postos served in Mumbai Bengali restaurants.
\
Noone has taught me this version, it is my version of alu posto and not the quintessential alu posto and it works for me.
So follow the recipe at your own risk.
29/7/12 Update
Cooked alu posto after ages today. For a series of cooking demos for an agency which is planning to create an online lifestyle channel.
Skipped onions today to make it traditional.
The recipe...heat oil, add green chilli and dry red chilli, kalo jeere, parboiled potatoes, turmeric, jeera or cumin (my fav spice not traditional) , chili powder...stir...add crushed posto & water paste...cook... read on
Here's the cooking video
The original post:

Alu posto is a rare Bengali vegetarian classic. It's popularity cuts across folks from different communities. But then potatoes are addictive. As are poppy seeds! And no animals are harmed are in its making. So alu posto's universal popularity is no surprise. And, of course, there is the little detail of it being a very light and delicately flavoured dish.
Intrigued by the 'Seventies Show' tag? Well alu posto means potatoes (alu) cooked in poppy seeds (posto). The Flower Child of the food world.
I had not posted this recipe as most Bengali food blogs have it. We served it to Australian food blogger, Spice and More , and her lovely family when they visited us on Sunday night. Mama and Papa loved it and wondered why I hadn't put up the recipe so far. (The kids were jet lagged and sleeping inside).
Taking up from the earlier poppy discussion, Spice and More told us about how she was once stopped at Singapore airport when she was taking khous khous in for cooking. Now who would explain the magic of Lebanese cooking to the sniffer dogs and their vigilant masters?
I used to count days for my trips back home when I moved into Mumbai. My mom's alu posto would call out to me.
Survival warranted that I learn to make it myself. It is quite a simple recipe actually which I have learnt through trial and error. I have trained my cook, Banu, to make it. She made yesterday's version and I must proudly say that she did a very good job of it.
So here's how you can make a heady alu posto for four:
Ingredients:
This is best enjoyed with steamed rice. You can also have them with rotis or plain parathas. There is nothing to stop you from having them with bread or by itself either.
It is addictive. You have been warned.
Disclaimer: Since some buses have been burnt because I have used turmeric in alu posto I must stress once again that most of my recipes are built on instinct, inspired by what I see around me and my taste preferences. They are NOT text book versions of dishes assuming that there could be a single definition of 'authentic'.
To clarify I use cumin or even onions in alu posto because I like the flavours of both. I didn't use turmeric earlier but started doing so after seeing yellow alu postos served in Mumbai Bengali restaurants.
\
Noone has taught me this version, it is my version of alu posto and not the quintessential alu posto and it works for me.
So follow the recipe at your own risk.
29/7/12 Update
Cooked alu posto after ages today. For a series of cooking demos for an agency which is planning to create an online lifestyle channel.
Skipped onions today to make it traditional.
The recipe...heat oil, add green chilli and dry red chilli, kalo jeere, parboiled potatoes, turmeric, jeera or cumin (my fav spice not traditional) , chili powder...stir...add crushed posto & water paste...cook... read on
Here's the cooking video
The original post:
Alu posto is a rare Bengali vegetarian classic. It's popularity cuts across folks from different communities. But then potatoes are addictive. As are poppy seeds! And no animals are harmed are in its making. So alu posto's universal popularity is no surprise. And, of course, there is the little detail of it being a very light and delicately flavoured dish.
Intrigued by the 'Seventies Show' tag? Well alu posto means potatoes (alu) cooked in poppy seeds (posto). The Flower Child of the food world.
I had not posted this recipe as most Bengali food blogs have it. We served it to Australian food blogger, Spice and More , and her lovely family when they visited us on Sunday night. Mama and Papa loved it and wondered why I hadn't put up the recipe so far. (The kids were jet lagged and sleeping inside).
Taking up from the earlier poppy discussion, Spice and More told us about how she was once stopped at Singapore airport when she was taking khous khous in for cooking. Now who would explain the magic of Lebanese cooking to the sniffer dogs and their vigilant masters?
I used to count days for my trips back home when I moved into Mumbai. My mom's alu posto would call out to me.
Survival warranted that I learn to make it myself. It is quite a simple recipe actually which I have learnt through trial and error. I have trained my cook, Banu, to make it. She made yesterday's version and I must proudly say that she did a very good job of it.
So here's how you can make a heady alu posto for four:
Ingredients:
- 2 dry red chillies
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 tea spoon: kalo jeera/ kalonji/ onion seeds/ nigella seeds (different names for the little, black seeds)
- 1/2 a red onion, shallot ... finely chopped
- 6 potatoes: cubed and parboiled. Parboiling ensures that you don't have to use too much oil
- 50 g Posto/ poppy seeds, khus khus in Hindi, Khous Khous in Lebanese: ground into a powder and then made into a thick paste by adding a bit of water
- Spices: 1 tea spoon each of turmeric and cumin powder. 1/2 tea spoon each of red chilly powder and sugar. 1 tea spoon, or more, of salt
- 3 green chillies spilt into half
- 1 table spoon cooking oil. While any oil will do, the traditional Bengali oil of choice is mustard oil. I can't stand it!
- Heat oil in a pan
- Add dry red chillies once the oil is hot
- Let it splutter, add bay leaves
- Let it crackle, add the black onion seeds
- Add onion and stir till they turn translucent
- Add potatoes (which should already be soft)
- Add poppy paste
- Add spices and a tea spoon of salt
- Throw in the green chillies
- Stir. Should be done in 5 minutes. Add a bit of water of the potatoes are hard
This is best enjoyed with steamed rice. You can also have them with rotis or plain parathas. There is nothing to stop you from having them with bread or by itself either.
It is addictive. You have been warned.
Comments
good one!
This is a great recipe and well researched and practised one. I apprciate the fusion you have brought in with onion and a strong spice cumin and bay leaf. I did not graduate beyond the old classical version of simple posto and green chili paste with a Nigela seasoning.
I must try this soon.
Have a good day
the version my mother made was also dry, not squishy, though she used either onion and ginger or nigella, depending on how purely vegetarian she wanted the dish to be.
now i'm all inspired to make some biulir dal and aloo posto myself. hope mine turns out looking as nice as yours does. thanks again :)
Shaswati as a Bangal who adds a bit of sugar in food I too agree that alu posto rice flowers with a bit of yellow daal. we have moong or mooshur though.
On a separate note, non Bongs might confuse Kolai with Kalyan :)
S, I am sure it will. This pic looks nice because I took it in the morning before I left for work. must also say that my maid made it and not me.
Amazing how food brings back memories. Hope you make it soon and relive a bit of Calcutta in Mumbai. What is posto bora? Just posto or anything inside it?
Dear Ushnish,
Thanks for writing in. I must confess, and have put a disclaimer, that most of the recipes here are not 'classical'. Most of my recipes are instinctive and would make the purist wince :) A bit like Sehwag huh?
Thats what I am appreciating, cook what we or others love to eat!!!
See my latest posting on who is a cook and what are we !! ( under cabbage , peas
Ullash ( cheers)
Interestingly she uses onion in her alu posto :)
Sharmila, vacation means no cooking?
Jessica we are fans of potatoes across the country. The joke is that potatoes aren't indigenous to India and were introduced a couple of centuries back
Dear Ushnish,
Cooking is fun when one enjoys it. I will definitely check out your post.
Cheers
Kalyan
But I usually make it niramish, no onion
BongMom
I have not had a very traditional Bong upbringing and didn't realise that onions were niramish till I read Chitrita Banerjee's book yesterday. Like the Jains I guess
Potatoes and onions are my favourite veggies
Merry Christmas and Happy holidays:)