Shreya 
Aloo posto (pronounced aa-loo post-o with a soft ‘t’) literally means potato poppy seeds. Aloo means potato while posto is poppy seeds in Bengali. This is a classic, simple, vegetarian dish hailing from the eastern state of India and also my home state, West Bengal. This dish which comes together really fast with only a few ingredients. Here is a step by step recipe to make aloo posto.
| Yield | 4 servings | |
| Prep time | 0 hrs | 10 mins |
| Cook time | 0 hrs | 30 mins |
| Total time | 0 hrs | 40 mins |
Which potatoes to use for the best aloo posto
Let me first start by talking about the star of the dish, potatoes!! Aren’t potatoes such a versatile vegetable. You can make countless dishes with them and it always tastes good. It’s by far my most favorite comfort food. As a result, I’m making potato dishes whenever I want some hearty soulful food at the end of a long day. Whether its some rustic mashed potatoes or fancy scalloped potatoes, whether its in a hearty chicken curry or in biryani (yes, Bengalis add potatoes in everything), they absorb the flavors of the spices in the dish so well. One of my personal favorites is fish curry potatoes, there’s nothing like it!
A local variety of potatoes called ‘Chandramukhi potatoes’ are typically used in most Bengali dishes including aloo posto but living thousands of miles away from home, I had to work with what I had available. My personal favorite are red potatoes because I feel they cook faster. For this recipe, I used white potatoes and they worked pretty well. Previously I’ve used other potatoes for this dish. For instance, russet and Yukon gold potatoes work pretty well too. Well, to be honest, there are no tricky parts in this recipe. You’ll see why as you read on.
The classic cut of potatoes in aloo posto is cubes as shown below. You want to try to cut them in identical cubes so they cook evenly at the same time.
Ingredients
3-4 medium sized potatoes diced in cubes
2-3 tbsp mustard oil
3 tbsp poppy seeds
2 tsp kalonji (Nigella seeds)
1 tsp turmeric
Salt to taste
5 green chilies (2-3 for the dish and 2 slit for garnishing)
Method
Heat the mustard oil in a pan. As much as any vegetable oil can work to fry the potatoes, mustard oils adds a characteristic flavor to the dish which cannot be replicated by other oils.
Add the nigella seeds when the oil is hot and wait for 2-3 minutes till the seeds splatter in the oil.
Throw in the potatoes and cook for 15 minutes, covered on a medium flame with occasional stirring. Add a splash of hot water to cook the potatoes faster in the steam that will be created.
Mix the turmeric with the potatoes and stir well so that the potatoes are well coated in it. The color will become yellowish.
To make the poppy seed paste :
Add the poppy seeds in a blender with 2-3 green chilies and a splash of water and make a paste.
At this point, one of my favorite things to do is save some of the paste, mix it with mustard oil, chopped green chilis and chopped onions and eat it with rice. Growing up, my mother and grandmother would always do this and I looked forward to it more than the aloo posto. This is called ‘kacha posto’ or raw poppy and it is eaten with rice as a side.
Add the rest of the paste to the potatoes and mix well. Cook covered for another 5 minutes. Then, add in 1/2 cup of water and cook for another 5-7 minutes until desired consistency is reached. Feel free to add salt according to taste.
Bonus tip
In this short paragraph, I want to share with you one bonus tip to cook potatoes ASAP I swear by. If you are in a hurry to cook and can’t wait to cook the potatoes this way, I’ve found it useful to microwave them for 4-5 minutes at highest power. Firstly, wash the potatoes well and then put them in the microwave oven. Remember to keep the peel on at this point. Depending on how much you want to cook them, adjust the time. To make aloo posto for instance, cook the potatoes in the microwave for 3 minutes so that the dish comes together even faster. Finally, The skin has to then be peeled and it easily comes off with a fork. I’ve used this trick uncountable times to save me some time!
How to serve aloo posto
Aloo posto is best served with steamed white rice and daal (lentil soup) on the side. Now that’s a classic soul- satisfying lunch. Not to forget a little bit of kacha posto too!
