Aloo Bhaja
Aloo Bhaja is a classic Bengali side dish made with sliced potatoes fried until crisp. It uses very few spices and relies on simple ingredients for flavor. This recipe is quick to make and fits well into everyday meals. Aloo Bhaja is commonly served with dal rice or khichdi.
- Prep time
- 5 min
- Cook time
- 10 min
- Yield
- 3 servings
- Difficulty
- MEDIUM
Ingredients
- 315 g potatoes (or 1 extra large potato or 3 medium-sized potatoes)
- 1/2 tsp red chilli powder (or cayenne pepper)
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder ((ground turmeric))
- salt (as required)
- 2 to 3 tablespoons mustard oil
- 3 to 4 tablespoons Rice Flour (- optional)
Instructions
- 1
Rinse and then peel the potatoes. Cut in slices of 0.3 cm to 0.4 cm thickness. Also heat a tawa or frying pan with 1 to 2 tablespoon oil in it.
- 2
Take the potato slices in a mixing bowl. Add red chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt as required.
- 3
Mix very well.
- 4
Immediately place the potato slices in the hot oil. Fry on medium low to medium flame. Add less oil as potatoes absorb more oil.
- 5
When one side is lightly crisp, turn over and fry the second side.
- 6
Flip again and a couple of times and fry till the potato slices are crisp and golden. This way fry in batches and add more oil if required. Overall I used 2.5 tablespoons mustard oil for frying.
- 7
Remove each fried slice and place on kitchen paper towels for the extra oil to be absorbed.
- 8
Alternatively, you can also dredge the potato slices in some rice flour and then fry. This way the alu bhaja becomes more crisp and less oil is absorbed. Sometimes I follow this method also.
- 9
Serve aloo bhaja hot or warm as a side dish with khichdi, dal-rice, curd rice or rasam-rice.