Hi, Ray here again.
I decided to be a bit healthy and make a vegetarian curry. I just love potatoes and so I went for the Gujarati Potato Curry recipe from the great range of recipes on the Curry Focus website.
This is the first recipe that I’ve made that has asafoetida as an ingredient. I dropped by my favorite Indian store and picked up a small container of the pungent powder. It has a really strong aroma. The container has a screw top that helps to keep the strong smell inside. Now that I’ve broken the seal and used the powder, I’ve stored the container inside an airtight jar just to make sure that the smell doesn’t leak out and contaminate my other spices.
The asafoetida is really pungent and gives a great taste to the curry.
I seem to remember that there is an Indian religious sect that isn’t allowed garlic or onions and they use asafoetida as a substitute.
I must say that this potato curry is really easy to make and it’s just a matter of following the recipe.
One thing that I thought was a bit odd, when I first looked at the recipe, is that it suggests that you serve it on rice. So you’re going to be eating a dry potato curry on rice. This looked like too much carbohydrate to me so I just made the potato curry by itself.
The curry was really dry, presumably because the potato soaks up all of the liquid.
I was dining alone tonight so simply served up a portion of the curry into a bowl with a a paratha that I heated up to go with it (even more carbohydrate).
The curry was adequate but was bland. There was a medium spice taste but no real “body”, or substance, to it. I couldn’t imagine eating rice with it – how bland would that be? Maybe the curry would have been better with some more vegetables in it – like the Spiced Potato and Cauliflower recipe.
I gave the curry a score of 6 out of 10 with a spice rating of medium. Overall, the potato curry was edible but a bit disappointing.