Sabita Radhakrishna and Mummy’s Potato & Dill Fry

This post is a tribute by Sabita Radhakrishna, the award-winning cookbook author. To know more about this dynamic lady’s achievements and repertoire, visit her website.

When we met  Sabita and her mother Smt. Leela Chander, we were completely bowled over by their warmth and hospitality. Their rapport and shared laughter was a pleasure to watch and we immediately wanted to capture it for posterity. A few telephone conversations later Sabita sent us this recipe, thus paying a tribute to her mother.

SabitaRadhakrishna on Mummy’s Potato & Dill Fry

I got married when I was only eighteen. I scarcely managed to imbibe the culinary arts nor  learn  kitchen secrets from my mother who was busy as a bee.

Though I was very interested in cooking, coming as I do from a family of foodies, I couldn’t even make a cup of tea when I got married, much to the consternation of my father who believed that “a woman who couldn’t cook to save her life” could not be a good housewife. He had different standards for his wife, fresh from college when she married him. My maternal grandfather gingerly told his future samandhis that his daughter could not cook ( as yet), and my father, so worried that this would go against her,  assured his father that he already had a cook and the bride would soon learn the ropes.

My repertoire of traditional recipes have been handed down from my mother, during those days when there was no email, no mobile phones, and  for that matter, no phone in our home in distant Bhopal. I struggled with the complicated recipes, determined to master them as I knew full well what the end products looked like.

[Mrs Leela Chander and little Sabita leaning on her - at a wedding]

This post is a tribute to my mother, Smt  Leela Chander, who has influenced my cooking with her penchant for perfection, at times driving us to despair for not being able to match her fastidiousness. The coconut or any other masala should be ground to a satin patina, the vegetables should be cut according to right specification, and oh the vadais  she makes have to be seen to be believed. Every vadai that is made by Mummy will be a perfect circle, and if they are ulundu vadais the hole in the centre would make cute little  concentric circle, and look like they have been taken out of a single mould, and no one would suspect that she rolled the batter into a perfect ball, patted it into shape into a vadai over a plantain leaf and slip it gently into the hot oil without compromising on shape.. Her curds are something to die for, though they are made from Aavin toned milk, with all the cream removed after the milk is boiled. Mummy’s curds make a good substitute for sour cream and sometimes even cream, and makes the best cream cheese. My little grandson who has been fed on Dubai’s  Labaan a delicious sinfully creamy yoghurt, remarks that there is no curd to beat his great grandmother’s. Would she consider selling them in Dubai, if he did the marketing? Out of the mouth of babes you can say, as he was only ten years old or younger when he said this.

Ah, and the recipe I have given below is loved by all of us, as we are a potato family! (And none of us are grossly fat despite that!) Dill or soyi keerai was available in plenty in Bangalore, and we used it liberally, though I despair at the lack of it in Chennai.

POTATO  AND DILL FRY

½ kg potatoes

¾ cup chopped dill (soyi keerai)

1 level tsp chilli-dhania powder (Chilli dhania powder is kept mixed in the ratio 2:3)

½ tsp turmeric powder

¾ tsp salt

oil for frying

½ tsp mustard seeds

½ tsp split urad dal

6 curry leaves

• Scrub potatoes, and cook in a pressure cooker
• Wash the dill thoroughly and chop fine
• Remove the peel from the potatoes and cut into even sized pieces
• Mix the spice powders and salt and smear the potatoes with them
• Heat the oil in a kadhai, and temper with mustard seeds and urad dal. Add the curry leaves.
• When they splutter add the chopped dil and sauté for a couple of minutes
• Add the potatoes and roast evenly on medium  heat till golden brown.

I remember what my mother always tells me. Let the water get into a rolling boil, before you place the potatoes in the water. The vitamins are sealed and this is the best way to cook potatoes. Happy Cooking,

Sabita