I cooked this dish part of a multi dish evening with friends. If I’m honest it was meant to be a side dish but it actually ended up being the star of the show. Not only did it feed 4 adults it fed another friend who took some home the following day.

Ingredients- 4 tbsp of rapeseed oil, 1 tsp of cumin seeds, 1 onion finely chopped, 2 tbsp of garlic & ginger paste, 7 tbsp of tomato purée, 300ml of pre-made base sauce, 600g of precooked potatoes via a gentle par-boil, 100ml of the cooking liquid from the potatoes, 1 tbsp of homemade curry powder, 1 tsp of chilli powder, 2 tomatoes cut into quarters, good pinch of salt, 1 tsp of fenugreek leaves, 1/2 tsp of garam masala and a good handful of coriander finely chopped.

Method –

Peel your potatoes and par-boil them for a few minutes. Do not over cook them as they will break down and be all mushy, it’s important they keep their shape.

Heat the oil. Once the oil is hot add the cumin seeds to flavour the oil.

Once the kitchen smells nice and fragrant add your diced onions. Fry off your onions for 5 minutes until they are nice and translucent.

When you’re happy with the onions add in the garlic and ginger paste. Stir this around the pan for 30 seconds or so.

Add in the tomato purée, cooking stock from the potatoes and the base sauce bringing it all to a rolling simmer.

Add your ground spices and give this a good stir. Bring the dish back to a rolling simmer. Scrape any caramelised bits at the edge of the pan back into the dish.

Follow the ground spices with the precooked potatoes. Again bring the pan back to a simmer.

Gently stir the potatoes around the pan, be careful not to break them down if you’re too heavy handed. Add the tomatoes and cook for two minutes. Season with salt, pepper and the dried fenugreek.

The introduction of the potatoes and tomatoes will naturally thicken the sauce. To be honest at this point I turned off the heat and allowed the dish cook itself. I heated it back up just before service.

I served the Bombay aloo with a tandoori chicken bhuna, steamed rice, Indo-Chinese sweet and sour chicken, homemade popadoms and shop bought naan breads plus samosas made locally for me.

Thank you for reading my waffle if you have done so.

Recipe taken from Dan Toombs.