Aloo fulkopir Dalna or the Bengali Potato Cauliflower Curry is such a Sunday staple in Bengali Cuisine. Its spiced with great flavours and served with luchi or poori.
In aloo fulkopir dalna – potatoes and cauliflower florets are cooked to perfection in a tomato and spice-based gravy. Tangy tomatoes and aromatic spices make it a Sunday favourite.
In Bengal, ‘luchi’ is a Sunday staple for breakfast. Your breakfast over the weekend is incomplete without luchi or what you call ‘poori’. And the luchi is often accompanied by either alur dom, cholar dal or aloo fulkopir dalna. It is especially popular during the winters because that’s when you get the best phulkopi or cauliflower.
But don’t confuse it with alu gobi ki sabzi that is widely popular in North India. This is a fully vegetarian recipe and cooked without the use of onion or garlic.
What kind of vegetables can be added in Aloo fulkopir dalna?
This recipe mostly uses potatoes and cauliflowers. But depending on availability, you can add green peas, or even carrots to this recipe.
Why is the Bengali Potato and Cauliflower curry served with luchi?
Luchi has a different emotion in Bengali cuisine. The white fluffy luchi is perhaps, everyone’s favourite. We make it with maida instead of atta. It is not perhaps, the healthiest of choices, but is definitely tastier than the wholewheat poori version. My son absolutely love ‘luchi’.
Luchi is quite versatile that way and you can enjoy various preparations with it. Drier and thicker gravy or dalna goes best with luchi. Luchi goes well with anything with thicker gravy – even the Doi Potol.
This recipe can be made a little watery in case you want to serve it with rice. But while serving with luchi we prefer to have a drier version or what we call ‘makha makha’ consistency.
How to make Luchi?
Making luchi is very similar to making a poori. I had done a detailed post on Luchi here, you can refer to that.
How to make Alu Folkopir Dalna?
Ingredients
- cauliflower - 250 g, cut into florets
- potato - 250g, or 3 potatoes, chopped in cubes
- salt - to taste
- green chili - 2
- ginger - 2 inch
- mustard oil - 5 tbsp
- bayleaf / tej patta - 2
- nigella seeds / kalunji/ kalo jeera - ½ tsp
- tomato - 2 medium-sized, chopped finely
- turmeric powder - ¼ tsp
- Kashmiri red chili powder - ¼ tsp
- Cumin powder - ½ tsp
- sugar - ½ tsp
- water - ½ cups
- Bengali Garam Masala - ½ tsp
Instructions
- Marinate cauliflower florets with ½ tsp salt for 5 mins. Then Soak and rinse cauliflower florets in hot water to get rid of insects, worms if any. Cauliflower is notorious for having these creepy crawlies hidden!
- Keep the washed cauliflower aside for 3-4 mins to let them dry. If they are not dry oil will splutter and come on you.
- In a grinder make a paste of ginger and chili with 2 tsp water.
- On a low to medium flame heat 4 tablespoons mustard oil in a Kadai / pan. Let it come to its smoking point.
- Shallow fry the cauliflower florets and potatoes in the oil with ¼ tsp salt for 5 mins.
- When you see them turning little brown, remove from oil and keep them aside
- Add 1 tbsp oil to this pan and temper it with bay leaf and nigella seeds
- Add the ginger paste and saute well for 2 minutes
- Add chopped tomato, salt and saute well till its all mushy and oil starts separating from the sides. This will take 5-6 mins.
- Add the powdered spices - turmeric, chili, cumin powder. Fry well along with tomato.
- Once the tomato is cooked add sugar and cook for 2 mins.
- Add 1/2 cup of water and bring it to a boil
- Add the fried cauliflower and potato. cover and cook for 5 mins
- If gravy getting too dry splash some water 2-3 tablespoon
- Add garam masala, ghee before turning off the flame.
Notes
You can use any oil, we prefer mustard oil Luchi can be fried in sunflower oil/ rice bran oil/ olive oil/canola oil but not in mustard oil You can add green peas in this curry
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I am taking part in #AtoZChallenge & #BlogchatterAtoZ where I am sharing 26 Authentic Bengali Recipes from my Mom’s Kitchen throughout April. Follow me and enjoy the Bengali food Festival here.
Here’s what I am Posting this April for #AtoZChallenge
A – Aamer Chutney
B – Basanti Pulao
C- Chingri Malaikari
D – Dhokar Dalna
E – Echor Chingrir Dalna
