Queens: A Culinary Passport

There was a discovery I made while roaming around Queens, coaxing recipes from ethnic restaurants for my latest book, Queens: A Culinary Passport, which is a mashup of a travel guide and cookbook. Sometimes, what restaurants deemed as ordinary side dishes for their cuisine (boring, even) were anything but. Such was the case with the recipe for Sho-Go Khatsa (Aloo Dum). When trying to get tips from Himalayan Yak manager Gyaltsen Gurung on this potato recipe, he kind of shrugged and said, “It’s just cooked potatoes.” But it’s so much more than that, having moved up my recipe queue to become a favorite side dish. So much flavor is pumped into this that serving it with a tamer, albeit more boring main dish like sautéed chicken breasts brings a bit of uniqueness to dinner. Gurung also introduced me to Panch Phoran, a spice blend of seeds like cumin, nigella, black mustard, and fennel. It’s now my number one potato seasoner.

Recipe adapted from Himalayan Yak Restaurant in Jackson Heights, New York.

2 pounds baby red potatoes

8 garlic cloves

8 to 10 dried chile de árbol peppers (or another type of spicy whole chile pepper)

1 tablespoon canola oil

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon Panch Puran (or 1 teaspoon cumin seeds or fennel seeds)

1 teaspoon black sesame seeds, for garnish

Add the potatoes to a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil over high heat and then add garlic cloves and chile peppers. Let cook until potatoes are just barely tender, when a knife poked into the potato is still just hitting resistance, around 12 to 15 minutes. At the 10-minute mark, use a slotted spoon to remove

garlic and chile peppers from the water, and place into a bowl. Transfer potatoes to a colander, saving about ¹/³ cup the potato water. Cool down the potatoes by running cold water over them for a few minutes.

While you’re letting the potatoes cool down so they can be handled, add the reserved chiles and garlic into the bowl of a food processor or blender. Purée until smooth, adding the reserved water down the feeder tube, just until chile sauce is a desired consistency.

When the potatoes have cooled, use your hands to remove the peels. Cut the potatoes into small pieces. In a large sauté pan or a wok, warm the oil over high heat. Carefully add the potatoes, and stir-fry until potatoes are soft, about 5 minutes. When the potatoes are fully tender, stir in the reserved chile sauce, salt, turmeric and Panch Puran. Let the sauce boil until it has reduced down to a sauce that coats the potatoes, just a few minutes. Garnish with sesame seeds and serve.