Indian Vegetable Sides: Spicy Roasted Potatoes

Every cuisine and culture has its version of crispy, roasted potatoes. Call it by whatever name, roasted potatoes exist everywhere on the planet! And it's amazing that every cuisine has its own little twist on how to roast and crisp potatoes.

Indian roasted potatoes have to be bundled in spices - it's a given! As it goes without saying, each family has its own unique twist on how to spice (and what spices to use) and roast potatoes. This is a version that I have settled on - it borrows my mom's version and combines a few lessons I have learned through my experiments over the years.

So, here's the simple method to spice and roast potatoes. Use the same procedure to roast any starchy vegetable!

Ingredients (serves 4-5):

1. 7 medium-sized potatoes
2. 2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons of oil
3. 1 tablespoon of rice flour (rice flour helps in crisping the potatoes)
4. 1 tablespoon sambar powder
5. 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
6. 1 teaspoon salt, or as needed
7. 1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
8. 1/2 teaspoon jeera powder / cumin powder
9. 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (it's a great browning agent that acts as a catalyst to cause a Malliard Reaction {if at all you are a fellow nerd};  the potatoes get a rich reddish brown hue and crisps up nicely)
10. 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
11. 1/4 teaspoon hing / asafoetida
12. 1 teaspoon split, skinned black gram / ulutham paruppu / urad dal

Preparation:

1. Roughly dice the potatoes and cook until tender. Drain the water and peel the potatoes. Dice them into smaller bite-sized pieces of your choice. 
2. In a bowl, toss together the spices - rice flour, 1/2 tablespoon sambar powder, turmeric powder, salt, coriander powder, jeera powder, and baking soda. Mix them evenly.
3. Toss the potatoes into the bowl of spices and mix them gently and evenly to coat all the spices. 
4. Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a wide skillet. When hot, splutter mustard seeds. Add hing and black gram and fry for a few seconds. Add the remaining 1/2 tablespoon of sambar powder and mix into the oil. 
5. Immediately, throw in the spice-coated potatoes and gently stir around in the oil, making sure the oil coats all the potatoes. Cook/fry them undisturbed by packing them down and letting the bottom sides of the potatoes crisp over medium-high heat (or medium heat depending on the stove and skillet being used). When the bottom crisps, gently move the potatoes so that all sides crisp  and fry. Drizzle in 2 more teaspoons of oil, as required to crisp the potatoes on all sides. Some prefer just one side of the potatoes to crisp, while the other sides remain soft. Just make sure not to keep tossing and turning the potatoes and you will end up with nicely crisped potatoes. 

Serve immediately with sambar rice or rasam rice for a wonderful meal. 

Variations: You can add some garlic powder and onion powder (and skip or tone down on the spices mentioned above) for a slightly different flavor combination.
You can also oven-roast the potatoes by transferring the potatoes to a cast-iron skillet and roasting at 375 F (or slightly higher) and periodically turning the potatoes to ensure even roasting on all sides.