Alison's Lunch

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indian diced potatoes with greens

I’ve made and loved this recipe for years—it’s a variation on one in Madhur Jaffrey’s World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking. You can find both the mustard seeds and the garam masala at Summit Spice & Tea Co. (1120 E Huffman Rd #4, in Anchorage), or in the gourmet spice section at most grocery stores. I usually serve this with garlicky yogurt sauce (recipe follows)—it’s the perfect combination, and it’s really very easy. I don’t think you even need to serve rice alongside (because of the potatoes), but it’s good with brown basmati rice (recipe also follows) or pita bread.

2 pounds waxy potatoes (e.g., Yukon Gold)
sea salt and kosher salt
1 to 2 pounds collard greens or kale
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon whole black or brown mustard seeds
1 to 2 large onions, peeled and chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 teaspoon garam masala (Indian spice mixture)
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
garlicky yogurt sauce (optional; recipe below)

1. Bring 2 ½ quarts of water to a boil. Peel potatoes if you like (I don’t bother) and dice into ¾-inch cubes, then add to boiling water with 1 tablespoon salt. Bring to a boil again. Cover, turn heat to low and cook potatoes until they are tender—about 6 minutes. Do not overcook. Drain. Spread potatoes out and leave to cool.
2. Bring a large pot of water to boil, and salt it well.
3. Cut the long stems away from the collard or kale leaves. Stack the leaves on top of each other and slice the leaves into 1-inch wide ribbons.
4. Plunge the greens into the pot of boiling salted water, and cook until tender. This could take as long as 8 or 10 minutes, but could be much shorter. Start tasting after 5 minutes. Drain the greens and set aside.
5. Heat oil in a heavy, 12-inch, preferably nonstick skillet over a medium-high flame. When very hot, put in the mustard seeds. As soon as the seeds begin to pop (this just takes a few seconds), add the onion and 1 teaspoon of salt. Turn heat to medium and fry for 3 to 4 minutes. Onions should turn very lightly brown at the edges. Add the garlic and fry for another minute or two. Now put in the chopped greens and keep stirring and frying for another 10 minutes. If the greens aren’t meltingly tender, add a cup or so of water and let them simmer on low heat, covered, stirring occasionally.
6. Add the cooked potatoes, the garam masala, and the cayenne pepper. Stir and mix gently until potatoes are heated through. Taste for salt and add more as necessary. Serve with garlicky yogurt sauce, and rice if you like!

garlicky yogurt sauce (raita)

2 cups plain yogurt
½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil (optional)

Put the yogurt in a bowl. Whisk until smooth and creamy. Add the rest of the ingredients, mix well, taste for more salt, and chill until needed.

brown basmati rice
I learned this technique from Mollie Katzen’s Vegetable Heaven, a great cookbook with lots of healthy, simple vegetable recipes. The rice is cooked using lots of water, which I find works perfectly for brown basmati—it’s never gummy or undercooked this way.

1 1/2 cups uncooked brown basmati rice
2 teaspoons sea salt or kosher salt

1. Fill a medium-sized pot with 10 cups or so of water (it doesn’t need to be exact) and bring to a rolling boil. Add the rice to the water, turn down the heat, and simmer for 40 minutes, or until the rice is just tender.
2. Drain the rice in a strainer over the sink, and immediately dump rice back into the hot pot. Cover tightly with the lid and let steam OFF THE HEAT for 20 minutes. Fluff the rice.