Spicy baby potatoes(Tandoori alu)

I get this urge to buy baby potatoes every time I see them. This time when I went to Indian store, I saw very fresh looking baby potatoes which looked so beautiful that, I had to buy them. Soon after coming home, I went through my collection of potato recipes. There were so many good recipes and I was not sure what to pick up. Finally I zeroed on this Tandoori aloo.
The name comes from the special kind of oven, called Tandoor, used to bake these alus(potatoes). But these can be prepared in normal oven or on stove top. This is a super easy dish. I could not make a uniform coating on the potatoes because my blender/mixer does not allow me to grind anything without putting water. But since the potatoes were pricked and marinated well, they tasted absolutely awesome. You can also add a pinch of red color to make them look bright red, but I don’t like to add any artificial color in my food. So I thought of leaving it as it is.
This is my entry to Vaishali’s JFI potatoes.
Ingredients:
7-8 baby potatoes peeled
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 tea spn cumin powder
1/2 tea spn coriander powder
2 tbl spn thick curd/yogurt
1-2 tea spns chili powder
1 tea spn ginger-garlic paste
1 tbl spn lemon juice
Oil
Salt
Method:
Prick with a fork or put some deep slit marks with a knife on all the potatoes.
Grind onions(preferably without water) to a smooth paste. Add onion paste and all other ingredients, except oil to the potatoes and mix well so that the potatoes get a thick coating of potatoes all over. The yogurt should be very thick so that the mixture remains thick.
Leave the potatoes for around 1hr. Heat oil in a non stick pan and add the potatoes with the masala. Close the lid and let it cook on a low flame for around 15mins.
Preheat the oven at 350F for around 5mins. Take the potatoes in a greased bake ware and broil at 350F for around 10-15mins(till the coating has turned brownish).
Serve hot with lemon juice.
Serves : 2
Preparation time: 30mins

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They look so mouth watering…liked the idea of broiling them…A Great entry
March 1st, 2007 at 9:01 pmHi Shilpa,
March 1st, 2007 at 9:13 pmTantoori Aloo looks yummy!!!!Please send me some. Thanks for sharing.
Wow!!!wonderful entry for JFI…..Looks awesome..
March 2nd, 2007 at 7:23 amLooks great Shilpa. Somehow when we say Tandoori,we always think bright red dishes.This is a great change,recipe sounds wonderful.
March 2nd, 2007 at 8:05 amYummylicious Shilpa
These potatoes are so wonderful. Loved your presentation
March 2nd, 2007 at 8:30 amVery nice recipe Shilpa! Must try sometime soon…. can it be tried with normal potatoes cut into bite size pcs.?
March 2nd, 2007 at 10:20 amNice picture. Great recipe…..a perfect entry for Jihva.
March 2nd, 2007 at 1:45 pmLooks delicious Shilpa!
March 2nd, 2007 at 2:59 pmCheers
Latha
hi shilpa
March 2nd, 2007 at 3:54 pmlooks yummy!!!
yum yum… Thandoori Alu looks super delicious. Got to try it when i find some tiny baby potatoes
March 2nd, 2007 at 3:55 pmShilpa….Like your baked cauliflower this looks yummy. I will buy them on the weekend and try it. Thanks for posting.
March 2nd, 2007 at 5:42 pmSushma, I had read many recipes with broiling involved and also we have this option in oven. I never tried broiling, so I broiled this. They turned out very good.
MT, let me know where to send them
.
Thanks Usha. Tandoori dishes are my all time favorites, so I thought this would be suitable for JFI.
Asha, yes you are right. I used to try to make them red by adding more chili powder. But they used to turn out very hot. So this time I thought of leaving them without tweaking.
Thanks Sangeeta. I am glad you liked it.
Yes Manasi, you can cut the potatoes into big pieces and use instead of baby potatoes. Since I had baby potatoes at home, I used them. Don’t forget to prick the potatoes well.
Thanks Manjula. I spent a lot of time thinking what to send for JFI.
Thanks Latha. This tastes delicious too
.
Thanks Swapna, let me know if you try it.
Seema, let me know how they turned out.
Thanks Aruna, I am trying to use oven for baking some dishes other than cakes.
March 2nd, 2007 at 8:59 pmHi shilpa,
March 2nd, 2007 at 11:18 pmCame across this site recently. i must say i will now acess this site regularly and have also recommended it to all my friends. I went through a lot of ur recipes. Iam from karwar and quite a few of the traditional dishes tht u have posted are known to me. I will definitely try the tesri wada here sometime. thnx for tht.
And i also have an amzing recipe for Dum aloo. will post it soon if u want. But i dont have foto of tht.
Hi Shilpa, the tandoori alu looks so delicious… this is must-try for me. Thanks for sharing that lovely recipe!
March 2nd, 2007 at 11:59 pmThat’s a wonderful entry. Nice picture, Shilpa.
March 3rd, 2007 at 12:29 amI like Tandoori recipes. Tandoori alu sounds so tasty. You always come up with good ideas.
March 3rd, 2007 at 2:30 amThx for sharing.
Oh my god I am just going to crash down while reading and viewing Tandoori Alu, It’s Holi today and since morning I am eating just eating Puranpolis and Telpolies with milk and Tup , all sweet and sweet items.
March 3rd, 2007 at 11:44 amcan I have the recipe for mangalore charmure(Puffed rice) upkari? My friend wants it.
March 3rd, 2007 at 10:29 pmThanks a lot Madhura. I have a recipe of dum aloo on this site. But will surely love to have a look at your recipe. If you don’t mind, please send it to my mail id(which is mentioned at the top).
Thanks Linda. Let me know if you try this dish.
Thanks Sailu. I am taking inspiration from you to take good pictures
.
Bharghavi, thanks. I have a very good collection of Kannada magazines which has hundreds of good recipes. That is one of the resources of recipes for me.
Harekrishnaji, you are making my mouth water. Puranpoli, telpolies…slurp slurp. Wish I was in India for holi
.
Neelu, churmure upkari?? never heard of it. Though I knew few recipes which might be the one you are looking for. I will see if I can get some churmuri here soon.
March 3rd, 2007 at 11:25 pmshilpa,
March 4th, 2007 at 3:36 amchumure upkari is sold in karstreet Mangalore opposite venkatramana temple. it is made in konkani households. It tastes different from bhel and coconut oil is used.now many adpotions of the origional recipe are made with adition of tomato etc. but I want to know the origional recipe. I guess some konkani people frequenting your blog must be able to provide it.
I made this today for lunch as starter and it was fabulous. My guests enjoyed it very much and asked me to make more next when they come. Thanks again.
March 4th, 2007 at 8:01 pmNeelu, Aruna has this recipe and I will get it from her and post it soon.
Aruna, Thanks a lot for trying it out and letting me know.
March 4th, 2007 at 10:30 pmShilpa
March 5th, 2007 at 7:25 pmThe aloos look totally yummm, going to try real soon
Sandeepa, please let me know how you liked it.
March 5th, 2007 at 8:14 pmHi Shilpa,
March 9th, 2007 at 12:33 pmTried Tandoori Aloo yesterday.It was very good. My hubby loves potatoes ,but i didnt expect him to finish 7-8 potatoes at one go ! But I had to broil for longer time around half an hour (even then some potatoes(bigger ones) werent cooked well in the centre part).Next time i ll try cutting into cubes and preparing them.Wonderful site! Thanks for all the lovely recipes.
Hi Swarna, as I mentioned in chicken tikka recipe, fry the marinated aloos on stove top in a flat bottomed pan till they are 3/4th done. Then pop them in oven so that they will get cooked evenly. Also, don’t forget to prick them well before marinating.
March 9th, 2007 at 1:32 pmHi Shilpa,
I have been follwing your blogs for quite sometime and today I felt I should write to you. You have taken such a great effort to put these recipes out with wonderful pictures.
I am from Mangalore, but my hubby is from Honnavar. So I started cooking thier style too. Its nice to see many “mangloorache khan jevan”. I tried your tandorri Alu. It turne out good but I made small change. I boiled the potatoes and then marinated them and baked it to avaiod using oil.. Am trying to come up with good recipes with less or no oil
)
March 9th, 2007 at 7:39 pmHi Shilpa,
This website is so awesome… it helps people who work and have to go home and ‘think’ of dishes to make, i have started checking your link to see if i can get ideas to make for that night. Thanks again and keep up the good work!
March 16th, 2007 at 10:56 amswetha
Hi Shilpa,
Just now started learning cooking with the help of yr website. Started with starter Tandori Alu. It has not come out well and i cooked aloo for around 25-30 min (in stove). It was tasting kinda of bitter. No idea wat happened. Will you pls help me out in this.
Thanks in advance,
Shilpa: Sushma, did you change anything in the recipe? Did you see any green patches on the potatoes?
September 4th, 2007 at 12:50 amNope
. I haven’t changed anything and not found any green patches on it. Still i don’t no what happened. Let me try once again & let u know.
Shilpa: There is nothing in the recipe that would make it bitter. I am really surprised. Do not cook the masalas for a long time. If your potatoes are very big, cook them for sometime in water and then follow the recipe.
September 4th, 2007 at 11:29 pmhi shilpa,
April 5th, 2008 at 4:32 amcan the tandoori alu be made without the last step i-e without baking??is it not sufficient its cooked only on a non stick pan??
My Gos! what alovely blog…Congrates.I will halp in giving items for kids lunchbox.
April 5th, 2008 at 4:51 amand also I will put some from yr blog on my blog but in my language…Gujarati.
All best wishes
i would like to see some vrat recipes and specially without garlic,ginger and onion .
June 16th, 2008 at 2:07 amHi Shilpa,
i tried this recipe with big potatoes, cut them into big pieces.It tastes too try and seems like no flavour went into the potato.
Another time when i tried this recipe with a bit of mashed potatoes, it turned out better,though they were over done, so got mashed.
What must I improve in the recipe, it didnt turn as good as the comments here.
Shilpa: Prick the potatoes all over by a fork or knife.
August 4th, 2008 at 2:49 amHi Shilpa,
August 14th, 2008 at 9:47 pmI tried this today as there were hardly any veggies in ma fridge and i was not i either,n a great mood to cook either.I was searching for somethin easy,but yummy n i came across this one.Potatoes were there in plenty n it looked simple,so tried and must say its awesome:)Ma hubby just fell for it:)The aroma after baking is so stimulating,and i completely relished it from the making to the eating:)Thanks a lot for sharing this with us..I would also love to try the same masala with chicken too,pls let me know if u already have.This is the third dish i am making from your blog,the first being simple egg cake,methi dal n now this,fantastic shilpa;;keep up the good work:)
Looks like someone stole your photo
Refer http://www.indobase.com/recipes/details/tandoori-aloo.php
August 30th, 2008 at 1:21 pmthank you so much for posting the recipe on this site, i was looking for this very badly , i had a vague recipe of the baby aloos but was finding for a good one as i had got baby alooes some days back and was searching for recipe to prepare curry out of it.
thanks once again .hope u post more such different recipes as the ordinary ones you get it any where but such as baby aloos.
September 28th, 2008 at 4:23 pmHi Shilpa, your recipe looks absolutely delicious! I was just wondering if this dish is meant to be eaten with any form of flatbread (naan,chapati) or if it is meant to be eaten as more of a finger food? I am always looking for dishes that are delicious yet simple, as we are all busy trying to accomplish so much. If you would kindly respond when convenient. Thanks!
Shilpa: Lisa, this is served with chapathis/rotis.
October 12th, 2008 at 1:55 pmhi shilpa;
i want to know what is broiling?
Shilpa: Please refer this
December 30th, 2008 at 1:09 pm