This is a very unique recipe that I have put together through inspiration from my mothers cooking. Peanuts are known as either sing dana or mandvi in Gujarati and are often used in a variety of recipes. Peanuts are also known as juggu in Swahili and many East African Indians often use them in their dishes for fasting.
This particular recipe of potatoes comes with a twist by adding coarsely ground peanuts to the tomato mixture and allowing it to simmer and cook through slowly. The slow cooking allows for all the flavours of the spices and other ingredients to be soaked up by the potatoes. The peanuts add the crunch and dense earthly texture. The peanuts provide a very unique flavour that differs from the taste of potato peanut curry prepared for fasting. It has more spices and is prepared on a low heat. The potatoes themselves are different, miniture to begin with and with the skins left on which contributes to a more earthly taste and texture.
One of the reasons I really enjoy making this recipe is because of my memories of eating it as a child. My brother and I would eat together and try and count the number of ground peanut ‘balls’ we each had. It went down a treat for us as we were both big fans of potatoes and cleaned our plates without any complaints. We still enjoy this recipe as a family and have it as a treat every so often with naan or rotli’s and being vegan means it’s one which anyone can enjoy.
Let me know what you think. Enjoy!!
Gujarati Sing Dana Ne Bateta Nu Shak
Ingredients
500g organic new/miniture potatoes
150-200g Organic red or pink peanuts
250g Organic fresh / canned / bottled tomatoes
1 Tablespoon organic olive oil
3 Organic bay leaves
5 Organic neem leaves
2-3 Organic whole dry red chillies
1½ Teaspoon organic jeera seeds
½ Teaspoon organic asafoetida
1 Teaspoon organic red chilli powder
1½ Teaspoons organic turmeric powder
2 Teaspoons organic cumin & coriander powder
½ Teaspoon organic garam masala powder
25-50g organic jaggery or brown sugar
Salt to taste
Fresh organic coriander
Method
- Start by piercing each of the potatoes with a fork then wash, dry and set aside. The skin does not need to be removed.
- If using fresh tomatoes, finely chop them and set aside.
- Heat a large pan at medium, the add the oil alone with the jeera seeds, neem leaves, dry red chillies and bay leaves. Allow this to become aromatic but do not allow it to burn.
- Add the asafoetida and allow it to sizzle for a few seconds.
- Add the tomatoes to the pan alone with all the spices; chilli powder, turmeric, cumin & coriander powder, salt and jaggery. Gently mix this into the tomatoes and allow to simmer at a medium heat for 10 minutes.
- While the tomatoes simmer, coarsely grind the peanuts and chop the coriander and stir into the tomato mixture.
- Add the miniture potatoes to the tomate mixture and coat them with the mixture throughly.
- Add 250-300ml of water and simmer for 10 minutes at medium heat, stir and then turn the heat to low and cook until potatoes are soft.
- Once the potatoes are soft, turn off the heat. You can then either stir in the garam masala or sprinkle it on top with some chopped coriander.
- Serve with hot rotli’s, naan or paratha.
Best wishes,
Krishna
Cooking With Krish 