Aloo Gobi (Potato and Cauliflower)

How many of you have watched the film ‘ Bend it Like Beckham’? If you haven’t, please watch ๐Ÿ™‚ It’s a fun film about a girl’s football club in England and an Indian girl trying to make football her career, facing some resistance along the way. It has some lovely music, some really funny lines and shines light on how girls in sport are not always looked upon favourably. Boo.

Anyway, enough about the film’s story. The reason I bring it up, is a line in the film. The Punjabi mother asks the girl whether or not she knows how to make aloo gobi. Aloo gobi is used as a symbol of basic, easy yet tasty home food that every girl must know, in order to be a good wife/mother/Indian girl etc etc. While that I don’t think is true (at all!), the way ‘aloo gobi’ was said in that line has stuck with me. It’s even cooler when the girl tells her friendย  ‘Anyone can cook aloo gobi, but who can bend a ball like Beckham?’ย  YEAHHHH! Way to go! This movie made aloo gobi iconic! Who’d have thunk it? ๐Ÿ˜€

Whenever I cook this dish, I hear this line in my head. Sometimes I say it out loud too. Even though I have zero football skills.

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Dahi Chicken (Chicken in a yoghurt gravy)

Till the time I was maybe 15, the only kind of chicken curry I’d had anywhere in India was the tomato-onion gravy, slightly spicy variety. These are delicious, without doubt. But sometime after that, I can’t exactly remember when, I had this other curry. No tomatoes. Not brown in colour. Not heavy on spices. Light, refreshing but still chicken curry. WHAAA!?!

Our help at home, who has been with us since I was born (so a LOOONG time) came up with this recipe. I think she learned it from somewhere and then added her own touch to it.ย  It is amaze. It has the sourness from the yoghurt, the tenderness of the chicken, the bite from the onion and the hint of aromatic spices. It’s a perfect dish when the summers are yuck and hot and you can’t bear the thought of a heavy/spicy curry but want chicken curry nonetheless.

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