Potato Tomato Coconut Masala

Submitted by fluffernutter

"Our neighbors in England were vegetarians who were moving toward a vegan diet. Melissa was a great cook -- if you're vegan, you've gotta be a good cook -- and she adapted this recipe from Madhur Jaffrey's "World of the East Vegetarian Cooking.""

 

• Ready In: 1hr
• Ingredients: 12
• Serves: 4-6

ingredients

• 3 medium boiling potatoes
• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 whole dried hot red chili pepper
• 1 teaspoon cumin seed
• 1 1⁄2 cups freshly grated coconut
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 1⁄4 lbs tomatoes, peeled and diced (or a 16- to 20-ounce can tomatoes)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

directions

1. Peel and dice potatoes and put into a bowl of cold water. Sauté the garlic in oil for a few seconds, then add the pepper pod and cumin seeds and sizzle for 3 seconds. Lower the heat and add the coconut; cook, stirring, for 15 seconds.
2. Drain the potatoes and add to the skillet along with turmeric, ground cumin, tomatoes, salt and 1 1/2 cups water. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Add the sugar and vinegar. Cook, uncovered and stirring, for 1 minute.

Reviews

[magpie diner]

Wish I could do a 4 1/2 star....because it's so very near a 5. I am a big Madhur Jaffrey fan, and have the World of the East cookbook, it's fantastic. As far as I can tell this is exactly as written in the book. The flavours here are fantastic and it's very easy to prepare. I found adding the 1 1/2 cups of water made it a little too soupy for my liking, so next time I'd scale that back. I might also reduce the amount of sugar, maybe 1 tsp....and it really takes closer to 30 minutes to cook,not 45, so it's pretty quick....would work well for a weeknight meal. I didn't have fresh coconut available, used some dried ribbon grated and it worked really well. I think the bigger pieces of coconut might be nicer than the really fine sort you find in the grocery store. Thanks for sharing, this makes a lovely side dish!