Roasted Baby Potatoes

Happy Vinayaka Chathurthi to everyone...the recipe I am posting today is not ganesha's favorite (or is it? we don't know.) It is my son's favorite. My son A~ turns 4 this september and I will be posting his favorites the whole of this month.Is there anyone out there who does not like potatoes? No one can go wrong with a potato dish. It tastes just awesome whatever you do with it. Some love it in the form of mashed potatoes, some in the form of hashbrowns, but the form we love the most is the roasted baby potatoes. I do this dish in  couple of ways and today I am presenting to you one of the ways to do this dish. This can be had as a side for rasam, sambhar or even curd rice. I have still not started asking my son for choices while cooking...especially for vegetables. But if I do ask, his standard answer is potatoes.

Ingredients

Baby potatoes - 15

Fennel, roasted and powdered - 1 tsp

shallots - 10
garlic - 2 pods
salt - to taste
turmeric - 1 tsp
red chilli powder - 2 tsp
mustard seeds - 2 tsp
Oil - for frying

Method
* Boil potatoes and keep it aside. I pressure cooked the potatoes for 3 whistles.
* Grind the shallots, garlic into a paste.
* Make small slits with a knife or poke the potatoes with a fork.
* Add fennel powder, red chilli powder, turmeric and grind again.
* Add the paste to the boiled pottoes and mix well.
* Add salt and mix. Allow it to marinate for 15-20 minutes
* Heat oil in a pan, once hot add mustard seeds and allow to splutter
* Add the baby potatoes and roast until golden brown.

Notes
*Immerse the shallots in cold water for 10 -15 minutes and then peel them. Peeling them will be easier this way
*To peel the garlic pods easily, microwave the garlic pods for 10 secs or dry roast them and then peel
 them.
* Fennel has a strong flavor, do not add too much of it.
* You can do a taste check and adjust the seasoning while roasting the potatoes.
* Add  1/2 tsp garam masala to make it more flavorful.

We are a family of potato lovers. Potatoes will start to disappear as soon as it is boiled (yup, my husband can eat it just like that). Roasted potatoes will start to disappear even before we start eating the meal. It is so good, you can eat it just like that.