Baby Potatoes in Spinach Gravy

This recipe is a slight deviation from the traditional aloo palak so popular in North India.  Instead of using regular potatoes I have cooked whole baby potatoes in  a spinach gravy.  It makes it at once different and yet retains the charm of the original recipe.

Ingredients:

 1 cup Spinach puree
 10 -12 Baby Potatoes
 1 cup onion
1 cup tomato puree
1 inch ginger
4-5 cloves garlic
1 green chilly
1 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
Salt to taste
1 tsp all spice( garam masala) powder
Whole spices:  2 cloves, 1 black cardamom, 1/2 inch cinnamon, 1 bayleaf
2 tbsps cream or milk ( optional)
3-4 tbsps oil
Garnish: ginger juliennes

Method:   Pressure cook potatoes.  Don't overcook and make them mushy.  When boiled, peel skin and fry lightly in 2 tbsps of oil.  Keep aside. Blanch tomatoes and make puree.  Put the spinach in boiling water with a pinch of salt and pinch of sugar.  Remove just the leaves after a minute or so and puree with green chilly.  Keep the water in which spinach has been boiled for use later.  Now grind the onion, ginger and garlic to a fine paste.  Once we have these three pastes ready and the potatoes fried we come to the actual cooking.

Take a heavy bottom pan.  Add the oil and then put the whole spices - cloves, cardamom, cinnamon and bay leaf.  Now add the onion ginger garlic paste.  Fry till  all the water dries up and then add the dry spice powders like turmeric powder, red chilly powder and salt.  Immediately after that add the tomato puree and fry well till oil separates from the masala.If you like you can add the cream or milk at this stage and fry a few minutes further till it is incorporated into the masala.  Now add the spinach puree, the water in which spinach was boiled and the potatoes. Cover and let it  simmer on low heat for a few minutes.Sprinkle the garam masala powder.  Serve hot garnished with ginger juliennes.

Instead of cream or milk you can add a tbsp of gram flour( besan) or maize flour ( makki ka atta) dissolved in little water to balance the gravy and give it a tinge of sweetness.  But this you would have to add just after you add the spinach.