Potato in Groundnut & Onion Gravy (Urulai Thirattal)

February 2012, has a day extra- yup it's the leap year and today being February 29, I wish all the leapers a very hearty & happy birthday ! A funny thing happened this morning, I was telling my daughter about leap-year and how/why the day comes once in every four years. Listening intently, my angel added with a straight face that she would have loved to be born on Feb 29th so that she could have cut 4 birthday-cakes in one party.Laughing out loudly, I secretly adored the innocence childhood is all about- where does it vanish mysteriously as we grow ???


Coming to today's recipe, the search for a different & tasty side-dish led me to exploring Revathi's space, who is the Blogger of the Month - Feb and I was quite smitten by the Kaai Thirattal she had posted. I learnt, that the dish, a specialty of Tamilnadu literally means vegetables coming together with a few spices & nuts. "Kaai" means Vegetable" and " Thirattal" means " to gather".
This age old recipe was basically designed for the working class people to have all the possible nutrients in one dish yet be easy on the pocket.  
Ain't that cool ? And it tasted every bite wonderful ; nutty sesames,heat from peppercorns, power packed groundnuts and the sweetness of the  caramelized shallots & onions gave the gravy an exotic taste and a rich look !

You can use any vegetable for it like cauliflower,potato,carrot & peas or make it more glitzier with mushrooms or cottage cheese.

What's in it :- (Serves : 4 ; Prep time : 20 minutes,cooking time : 20 minutes)

• Potato - 500 grams
• Tomatoes  - 3 medium (pureed or chopped)
• Oil: 1 tbsp
• Salt : to taste
• Water - as required

For the Spicy Paste :-

• Oil - 1 tsp
• Groundnuts - a fistful
• White sesame seeds - 3 tbsp
• Pepper corns - 2 tsp.
• Cumin seeds -1 tsp.
• Red chillis - 1 to 2 - to taste 
• Shallots -  a fistful
• Onion - 1 -large (roughly chopped)
• Curry leaves: 1 sprig

Here's How :-

Boil the potatoes. Peel them & cut in to small chunks. In a wok, saute the ingredients given in blue (for the spicy paste) in oil and once they turn golden brown, take off flame. After it cools down, grind them in to a smooth paste with little water (if required).

In a wok or non stick kadai, add oil and as it warms up, saute the pureed or chopped tomatoes. When it is half cooked add the ground paste and cook on low flame. Add a cup of water if the mix becomes sticky. Let it cook till the oil separates. Add the cubed potatoes and mix well. Let it simmer for a while adding more water if required. Once the mix thickens to required consistency, garnish with coriander leaves and serve.

Enjoy !