The Tacky, Comforting Potato Dish Getting Us By January

I grew up in Pakistan, and a family-favorite dish was aloo kee bhujia, a dish of potatoes stir-fried with spices and tomatoes. My mother was at all times fast to show to this minimal-effort dish as a alternative for feeding our household of six, and we regularly loved it as a facet to hefty meat dishes like aloo gosht (a meat and potato curry) and daal gosht (lentils with goat). In India, aloo kee bhujia refers to a spiced combination of gram flour and boiled potatoes which can be riced and deep-fried till crisp. West of the border in Pakistan, nonetheless, aloo kee bhujia is a silky-smooth cooked potato dish that’s meant to be eaten as a meal or as an accompaniment to an even bigger unfold. At the moment, the dish—which has a jammy tomato gravy, loads of warmth from Kashmiri chile powder, and earthiness from cumin—stays a staple in my own residence.

Not too long ago, I used to be impressed to include a few of aloo kee bhujia’s flavors right into a gratin. Full of cheese, tomatoes, and seasoned with cumin, cayenne, turmeric, chile powder, and smoked paprika, this spiced potato gratin has all the normal elements of aloo kee bhujia however with the signature creaminess of gratin. I begin by sautéing onion and garlic with the spices, add the sliced potatoes and tomatoes, then let all of it simmer till the spuds are tender. Whereas that cooks, I put together the mornay cheese sauce that serves as the bottom of the gratin. Tossed with the potatoes and baked, the gratin is a tacky, comforting dish that’s homey sufficient for a weeknight meal however can be spectacular sufficient for a cocktail party. Right here’s tips on how to make it.

Methods to Make a Scrumptious Spiced Potato Gratin

Attain for good Gruyère. Like most gratins, the flavour of this dish will probably be decided by the standard of the dairy you utilize. I like to recommend utilizing high quality Gruyère, which has a pleasing nuttiness that goes nicely with the spices. It additionally melts simply, making it an important cheese to make use of in a gratin. 

Go arduous on the spices. For a dish that really evokes aloo kee bhujia, I exploit all the identical spices I’d use to arrange the normal Pakistani dish: cumin seeds, cayenne pepper, floor turmeric, Kashmiri chile powder, and smoked paprika. I add the spices as I sauté the onion and garlic, permitting the flavors to bloom and meld within the sizzling oil. As Severe Eats contributor Nik Sharma wrote in his recipe for tadka, warmth can “remodel a number of the taste molecules in spices into new, tastier ones,” leading to “an amplified sensorial expertise that may not in any other case be achieved within the absence of warmth.”

Be mild with the potatoes. Use a mild hand once you incorporate the potatoes and fold within the cheese sauce. Because the potatoes are partially cooked at this level, dealing with them too aggressively could lead to mashed potatoes—which, whereas scrumptious, isn’t gratin. 

Broil till crisp—however keep watch over the gratin. Top-of-the-line elements of a gratin is the crisp golden brown topping. A short stint beneath the broiler helps simply obtain this, but it surely’s important that you simply keep watch over the gratin, as broilers can differ in power and your gratin can rapidly go from splendidly brown to burned.

It’s not the aloo kee bhujia of my childhood, but it surely’s a enjoyable, scrumptious riff that jogs my memory of house and the meals I grew up on—even once I’m so far-off.

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