Potato Salna for Parotta

Parotta with Salna is a classic South Indian Street-food. Salna is a thick gravy / side served along with layered parottas. Salna is spicy, has awesome aroma from the fennel seeds and whole garam masala. Usually, the salna they serve at the roadside eateries is 'Chicken Salna'.

 

This recipe is for mildly spiced, potato kurma with less coconut. Use chicken instead of potatoes for the authentic chicken salna.

 

 

Thank you CurryTrail for a wonderful post on Food Photography adding frames and texts. It was very very useful. I have followed the tutorial to make a frame and add recipe text to this picture. 

 

Here is a link to the Food Photography post if anyone is interested in learning. 

Link : http://currytrail.in/2015/07/food-photography-how-to-fake-photoshop-to-add-designs-and-graphics-to-pictures/

Ingredients

• 1 Large boiled potato
• 2 Tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 Tablespoon ghee
• 2 Bayleaves
• 2 Cardamom
• 4 Cloves
• 1/2 inch cinnamon stick
• 1 Teaspoon fennel seeds
• 2 sprig of curry leaves
• 1 large red onion chopped finely
• 1 medium ripe tomato chopped finely
• 1 Tablespoon coriander powder
• 1 Teaspoon red chilli powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon turmeric powder
• 1 Tablespoon thick beaten curd/ plain natural yogurt
• Salt to taste
• chopped cilantro leaves for garnish
• Juice of half lemon to squeeze and few lemon wedges to serve ( oops I forgot the lemon wedge on the pic)

For Grinding

• 1/2 Teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1/2 Teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1 inch fresh ginger
• 5 Garlic cloves
• 1 Teaspoon poppy seeds/ khus khus
• 1/4 cup Tightly packed fresh grated coconut
• 20 fresh mint leaves
• 2 green chillies
• 3 Tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves
• 4 cashew nuts

Directions

1. Add all the ingredients listed under 'For Grinding' in a food processor and grind it to fine paste without adding water or adding 1 or 2 teaspoons of water
2. Pressure cook potato with a big pinch of salt and a pinch of turmeric powder for 4 whistles. Peel remove skin and roughly chop / mash potato into big chunks
3. In a wok / kadai, heat oil. When the oil is hot, add bay leaves, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon stick, fennel seeds and fry for 30 seconds
4. Then add curry leaves and fry until they are crispy
5. Add the ground green paste we prepared at step number one
6. Sprinkle salt and simmer. Cook the masala for 10 minutes , stirring intermittently and sprinkling water in between if it starts browning at the bottom. The goal is to cook the masala until you don't smell the raw smell of ginger and garlic
7. Add onions and fry until onions are soft
8. Then add tomatoes and gently mash the tomatoes with the back of the spoon/ ladle and cook the masala until tomatoes are mushy and soft
9. add coriander powder, chilli powder, turmeric powder and add 2 tablespoons of water and fry the masala for 2 more minutes. make sure to stir intermittently to avoid burning
10. Add curd and whisk it quickly
11. Add 1 and 1/2 cups of water. season with salt and let the gravy come to a gentle boil
12. Add the potato chunks to the gravy and cook the gravy until it thickens to the required consistency. Switch off the flame
13. Sprinkle lemon juice, cilantro leaves and serve hot with parotta