Aloo dum is a Dhakai breakfast staple, small potatoes cooked in a thick, spicy gravy and served with luchi (deep-fried puffed bread) or porota. The dish is part of the weekend breakfast tradition of Old Dhaka, where families gather for a leisurely morning meal of luchi, aloo dum, and a cup of cha. The potatoes are parboiled, peeled, and lightly fried, then simmered in a paste of onion, ginger, tomato, cumin, coriander, turmeric and red chili, the gravy cooked down until thick and clinging. Whole spices (cardamom, cinnamon, bay) perfume the dish. The Dhakai version is distinguished by its use of mustard oil and a heavier hand of spice than the Calcutta version.
Soft, creamy potato pieces in a thick, deeply spiced gravy, the potatoes having absorbed the flavours of the onion-tomato paste. Eaten with a puffed luchi, the bread torn and dipped into the spicy gravy, it is the taste of a Dhakai Sunday morning.
The technique is a thick, reduced gravy. Baby potatoes are parboiled, peeled and lightly fried in mustard oil. A paste of onion, ginger and garlic is fried until golden, then tomato, cumin, coriander, turmeric and chili are added and cooked until the oil separates. The fried potatoes are added with a little water and whole spices, and the dish is simmered covered for 15 minutes, then uncovered for 5 minutes to thicken the gravy. The gravy should be thick enough to coat the potatoes, not soupy.
Variations
Some add peas. A version with boiled eggs is richer.
On the Palate
Where Aloo Dum Dhakai sits in the Bangladeshi flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6How it's made
5 steps · 15 min
- 15 min
Parboil 500g baby potatoes; peel; lightly fry in 3 tbsp mustard oil; remove.
- 26 min
Fry 1 onion paste, ginger-garlic paste; add 2 chopped tomatoes, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp coriander, 1 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp chili.
Watch outCook the spice-tomato base until the oil separates and pools at the edges — that split is the sign the masala is properly fried; add the potatoes before it and the gravy tastes raw.
- 35 min
Cook until oil separates; add the potatoes, 1 cup water, cardamom, cinnamon, bay.
- 46 min
Simmer covered 15 minutes; uncover 5 minutes to thicken.
Watch outSimmer covered, then uncover the last five minutes to reduce — the gravy should end thick enough to coat the potatoes, not soupy.
- 54 min
Serve with luchi or porota.
