Auriya is an interesting Jammu potato curry which, at it's most basic level, consists of fermented curd and potatoes. It's got a nice and tangy taste and interestingly, the "aur" in the name essentially means sour. It's a simple dish - contains no onions, garlic or ginger and that makes it a popular number for days like navratri or any hindu fasts. Lets get down to it.
Ingredients
I'll split the ingredients into two subsections - one for the potatoes and then for the curry base.
For the potatoes
3 boiled potatoes - cubed or diced
2 tbsp mustard oil - the original calls for mustard oil, but you can swap it out if you don't have it. You'll then have to introduce mustard seeds or something to compensate for the flavour profile change.
1 whole red chilli
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste
Red chilli powder - optional and to taste.
Methi/Fenugreek seeds - 1tsp
For the curry base
2 cup curd
1 tsp salt, but can adjust to taste
1.5 tsp rai (Black mustard seeds) - ground. If you don't have them pre-ground, it's fine. We'll blend them as you'll find out later.
The process
Let's start with the curry base first, because once it's done we can set it aside for a few hours to ferment.
If you don't have ground black mustard seeds, then take the seeds as is, add them to the curd and salt and blend.
Once everything has been blitzed together, leave it aside for a while until it reaches the level of tang you desire. Fermentation is fully dependant on the ambient temperature, so if you're in a cooler place, it'll take longer
Next up, mix the potatoes with salt, turmeric, red chilli powder. We'll fry them in the oil once it's ready.
Now, we heat up the mustard oil. If you've been following this blog for a while, you'll know the drill by now - we have to temper the pungency of the mustard oil, so we set it on high heat for a while until it reaches its' smoke point. Then we lower the heat to medium and bring it down to around 150 degrees celsius. This temperature allows to use aromatics nicely without burning them.
When we're at the right temperature, we introduce the fenugreek seeds and the whole red chillies into the oil and wait for it to release it's aroma.
Then the potatoes can be introduced and fried till they're nice and brown.
Once the potatoes are as brown and crispy as you like, take them out of the oil and turn off the heat. Pat the potatoes down with a paper towel to remove the excess oil.
The potatoes can now be added into the fermented curd and at that point, the dish is ready to be served.
Try it out, it's simpler than it seems and if you want to show off your cooking creativity, I encourage you to do so and share your experiments with us.
Ciao until the next one :)