Potato Smiley – Guest post from Mullai

Snack mania continues and today we have Mullai from SpiceIndiaOnline. Mullai and I become friends recently but in a short span of time, we have become close to each other. Though I am a Amateur blogger when compared with her blogging experience, she never treats me so. She is friendly and kind, shares her blogging techniques and things which worked for her.  My India trip is fast approaching and time to prepare something for my hubby and freeze it when was thinking what to do, Mullai gave me a lot of interesting ideas. I have to check her blog for more recipes. During our calls one day I told about Guest post and she squeezed sometime between her busy schedule and gave this yummy snacks. Can someone say no to this beautiful crispy snacks??

Over to Mullai,

Writing a guest post is all new to me… one fine morning Vidya casually pinged to chat and from then on we became good friends. That  fun chat still continues with never ending conversations until duty calls. Vidya Srinivasan,  who i’ve  known for a few months now is a very dedicated food blogger..runs this beautiful, very impressive  blog called “traditionallymodernfood” with wonderful collection of both traditional & modern recipes.  She mostly shares  simple recipes with easy instructions and keeps it interesting & neat. She is one sweet person with humble attitude and when she asked me to write a guest post on toddler friendly food I couldn’t say no.

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While googling  for a good one, I ran into YummytummyArthi’s space which had this fun recipe called Potato smiley faces which caught my eyes, which made me feel like a kid in the candy store! Well this recipe is inspired from that with few alterations to suit my taste. Though not that healthy, it will for sure impress your kids and I can assure that it will definitely bring a smile on their face. Try it out!

Ingredients:

Medium size Potatoes    3

Corn flour    5- 6 tablespoons

Salt  3/4 teaspoon

Black pepper  1/2 teaspoon

Oil    2 cups (for deep frying)

Method:

• Boil potatoes and keep aside. Let them cool completely. Finely grate them or mash like how you would do for mashed potatoes
• This mixture will be very sticky, add salt, black pepper powder and just half of the corn flour and make a stiff dough. Add more corn flour until the dough looks firm.

• Cover and refrigerate for atleast an hour.  By now the potato dough would have turn stiff.Dust corn flour on a board and roll out the dough flat for about 1/4 inch thickness.

• Using a cookie cutter cut them out into small circular discs. Using big hole straw punch the discs as shown for the eyes. Then using a spoon press to shape the mouth.

• Heat oil and deep fry the smileys… they just dance around in the hot oil, bubbles of oil oozing out from their eyes and mouth will look as if they are talking to you. Once they turn golden brown on both sides, remove and drain excess oil by placing them on a paper towel. Serve hot with ketchup!

• This recipe will yield about 15 smileys, make them ahead of time, dust with corn flour and refrigerate. Make it in the morning and refrigerate and fry when the kids long for an evening snack. Oh…there’s already a naughty one licking up the ketchup!

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Aloo Palak

I love green gravies because of the vibrant color. Usually I prefer either finely chopped onions/ ground onion in my gravies, but for a change this time I thinely sliced onion and added little chat masala to the Aloo palak (Am I crazy????) But believe me the gravy was super duper hit in home. Jagadish  kept asking me what did I add extra this time.  When a little change can make hubby think its a happy smiley 🙂

Checkout my other recipes with Spinach and potato

Spinach Corn gravy

Keerai pappu

Oats Cracked Wheat Dhokla

Pesto

Potato Curry

Potato Tikka

Potato Fry

Potato Wedges

Microwave Potato Chips

Spinach Potato Gravy

Preparation Time : 5 min | Cooking Time : 25 mins | Serves : 3

Recipe Category: Side dish

Ingredients:

Spinach –  2 cups

Potato –  2, big

Onion – 1, thinely sliced

Green Chilli – 1 ( Adjust according to your spice level)

Ginger garlic paste – 1/2 tsp

Garam Masala powder – 1 tsp

Coriander powder – 1/2 tsp

Cumin powder – 1/4 tsp

Chat masala – 1/4 tsp

Sugar –  generous pinch

Turmeric powder – a pinch

Salt -as needed

Method:

• Pressure cook potatoes until tender (for about 2 whistles or microwave the potatoes for 10 minutes). Peel off the skin and cut into bite-sized pieces and keep aside
• Rinse the spinach well in water. Boil water with pinch of sugar and salt. Add the spinach to the boiling water. Cook and switch off the flame, after 3-5 mins drain and quickly pour cold water over the spinach. Transfer them into a blender and make fine paste, with green chilli

• Add oil to the pan, when oil becomes hot add cumin seeds and it splutters. Add onion and ginger garlic paste and saute till the onions are translucent

• Add the cooked  potatoes and saute for a minute. Add turmeric powder, garam masala,  chat masala, coriander powder, cumin powder and salt; gently mix everything cook till the potatoes are well coated with masala

•  Add spinach puree and cook for 3 – 4 minutes

• Serve hot with Naan/paratha/Vegetable rice

My Notes:

• Add water if you think the gravy is too thick
• Sugar helps to retain the green color in spinach
• To make rich Can add milk/fresh cream/coconut milk to the gravy
• Whole spices (bay leaf, cinnamon, cardamom etc) can be added
• Butter can be added for flavour
• Tomatoes can be added while cooking onion
• As chat masala already contains salt adjust the salt accordingly

Potato Wedges

Once in a week, some form of potato recipe will be made in our home. And with a crispy outer layer and tender inner layer, potato wedges is such a comfort tea time snack. You can either deep fry them or bake it in oven. I prefer baking as it requires less oil and doesn’t require me to stay in kitchen for a long time:)

Potato Wedges

Ingredients:

Potatoes – 4

Olive Oil –  4 tsp

Salt – as neded

Dry Basil – 1/4 tsp (optional)

Italian Seasoning/pepper powder – 1/4 tsp (I used Italian Seasoning)

Cooking spray/Oil – as required (I used cooking spray)

Method:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
• Wash & cut potatoes into wedges, by cutting lengthwise in half then slice each half into slices depending on the potato size
• Place potatoes in a bowl of cold water and rest for 10  – 15 mins. Pat dry them. In a mixing bowl add potatoes, olive oil, basil, salt and Italian seasoning, and combine well

 

• Place seasoned potatoes on the baking tray and bake for 15 – 20 min (or until the potatoes are cooked through). They should be brown and crispy on the outside and tender inside. Turn in between for even cooking. Serve with Ketchup/Ranch

 

My Notes:

• Instead of adding basil before baking, you can also add after baking
• Parsley can be used instead of basil
• The same recipe can be done with sweet potato as well

Potato Tikka

When we were in London, one of our friends invited us for lunch, and prepared potato tikka. Till then, when I have potato, I always prepared dry curry or put it in some gravy, but never tried potato tikka. Now I started preparing potato tikka regularly, sometimes as a starter and sometimes as a side dish.

 

Potato Tikka:

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Marination time : 2 hours | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 2

Recipe Category: Appetizer

Ingredients:

Potato – 1 cup + 1/2 cup (Baby potatoes preferable. As I didn’t have them handy, I used diced

potato)

Hung Curd/Sour Cream– 3 tbsp (I used Sour cream)

Pepper Powder/Chilli powder- 1/8 tsp (I used pepper powder)

Turmeric powder – a pinch

Garam Masala powder – 1/2 tsp

Tandoori Masala  – 1/2 tsp (optional)

Chat Masala – 1/2 tsp

Lemon juice / Amchur Powder – 1/4 tsp (I used Amchur Powder)

Ginger garlic paste – 1/4 tsp

Oil – 1 tsp

How to make hung curd:

Hang 1/4 cup curd in a muslin cloth or any thin cloth for an hour to make the required hung curd.

Method:

• Par boil potatoes (I microwaved potatoes for 5 mins) and mix the rest of ingredients and keep refrigerated for 2 hours (minimum an hour)

• Preheat the oven at 400 deg F and arrange the marinated potatoes in the baking tray and grill the potatoes for 15-18 mins, turning over the potatoes in between for even cooking

My Notes:

• If you are having as a starter, serve it with green chutney
• Instead of oven you can even cook it in a skillet
• If you are using wooden skewers, immerse them in cold water for 15 min to avoid browning

Checkout my other tikka recipe,

Tofu and Grape Tomato Tikka