Credit: Photo: Chris Simpson; Food Styling: Pearl Jones; Prop Styling: Paige Hicks
“Have you made Ashwin his potatoes?” This is the question every single relative asked me when I first met my husband’s family. By “Ashwin’s potatoes,” they meant batata bhaji, the Maharashtrian dish he ate nearly every day while growing up in Mumbai.
In fact, Ashwin grew up on a nearly all-starch diet composed of batata bhaji, dal, rice, and a flatbread called chapati. No meat, no green vegetables. When I ask why, he tells me it’s because he was a sickly child, prone to asthma. I wasn’t aware that an all-starch diet quells asthma, and I’ve yet to hear a convincing argument. I think his parents, who both worked six days a week and commuted on crowded trains for hours daily, were simply too exhausted to argue with their little picky eater.
Credit: Photo: Chris Simpson; Food Styling: Pearl Jones; Prop Styling: Paige Hicks
The truth is, for the longest time I was not making Ashwin his potatoes. This is because batata bhaji requires peeling potatoes, and for reasons every bit as irrational as Ashwin’s all-starch diet, I hate peeling potatoes.
But once I found a work-around in this recipe — more on that below — I found out why these potatoes are worth eating every single day. (Not that we do that!)
This dish is cubed potatoes cooked in mustard seeds, cumin seeds, turmeric, curry leaves, little green chilis, minced ginger and garlic, and onion. You toss it with fresh, chopped cilantro leaves before serving. It has all the carby softness of good comfort food, but it’s also fragrant, with layers of spice and flavor.
Could Ashwin learn how to cook these potatoes himself? Certainly. But that would miss the point of batata bhaji. These potatoes are little love notes — first from his parents, and, now that his parents have passed away, from me.
If You’re Going to Make Batata Bhaji, I Have Many Tips
- You don’t need a pressure cooker. This recipe calls for a pressure cooker, but you can boil your potatoes in a pot of water. I recommend about five to eight minutes, until a fork just pierces through.
- Use Yukon Gold potatoes, or another less-starchy spud. I think they hold together better through this two-step cooking process.
- Don’t peel the skin. If you, like me, hate peeling potatoes, you’ll appreciate this recipe. After the potatoes have cooled enough to handle, you can slip the peels off with your hands under running water in a matter of seconds.
- Cover your pan while warming the mustard seeds. They will start popping out of the pan, otherwise. This nonsense ends once you add the other ingredients. Just be careful to stay close, so you don’t end up burning the seeds.
- Toss with salt, sugar, and turmeric first, then cook. This is a trick I picked up from another recipe I found. I find it’s easier to evenly distribute the seasoning through the potatoes this way. The drawback is that you don’t get to bloom the turmeric before adding the potatoes, though.
- Get a golden-brown crisp. We like our potatoes on the crispy side. So I’ll use a nonstick pan and let the potatoes cook in a layer, undisturbed, until I get that golden-brown crust. Then I’ll stir and let the potatoes cook again for even more crust.