Gujarati food is more commonly found in western India and is primarily vegetarian and a typical meal (thali) consists of a roti (flat bread), daal, rice and a sabzi but the taste and spiciness depends on the chef and probably the people s/he is feeding. One of the nicest things about Gujarati food is that it can be sweet, salty, spicy and hot all at the same time and one of the not so nice things is that it can be a little oily. Potatoes are perfect for this kind of cooking because it absorbs the flavours and the oils and the result is always exquisite. These potatoes aren’t really quick but they’re so different and so classy that we couldn’t leave

them out of the Executive Food slot – do try them and enjoy them as much as we did.

Ingredients

• 500 g potatoes, peeled and cut into chunky slices
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• ½ tsp hot ground chilli
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp ground cardamom seeds (the black seeds removed from the pods)
• 1 tsp mango powder
• 2 tbsp cashew nuts
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• 300ml vegetable oil, for deep frying, plus 1 tbsp, for frying
• Sea salt, to taste
• 1 tsp sugar

Method

• Heat the oil in a deep heavy-based frying pan to sizzling stage and then add the potatoes, frying them until they are just tender.
• Add the turmeric, the hot ground chilli, the salt, the sugar, the dried mango powder and the cumin to the pan.
• Turn up the heat and fry until the potatoes are crunchy and golden-brown at which point they must be removed and allowed to drain on some absorbent kitchen paper towels.
• In the meantime and in a separate pan, heat about a tbsp of oil over medium heat and fry the cashew nuts until they are also golden brown in colour.
• Now add the sesame seeds and fry them until they are also golden-brown.
• To serve, put the potatoes into a serving dish and pour over the fried nuts and seeds and stir everything well to coat the potatoes in the mixture.
• Serve hot.