Gunpowder potatoes are India’s spicy, wonderfully delicious answer to chili cheese fries or poutine. Aloo chaat. Potato flavour bombs.
Indian taste meets addictive North American junk food flavour. Grilled. With butter. And Indian spices. There is nothing not to love here.
Dishoom’s gunpowder potatoes are famous for a reason
Dishoom is a trendy Indian restaurant in London’s west end. Big lines. Big prices. Posh Indian. A big deal. But there’s no reason you can’t make them yourself.
This is my adaptation of their gunpowder potatoes. These are a bit more restrained and lighter on the whole spices but pretty similar in concept.
You can push them closer to the original by upping the chili and whole cumin seeds. But any way you try them, they are absolutely killer delicious.
Aloo chaat by any other name
This dish is a riff on Indian street food. Aloo chaat specifically. Potatoes with chaat spices. The key flavour comes from chaat masala. You have to buy chaat masala at an Indian grocery store.
Read the ingredients. Make sure the chaat masala mix you get has black salt. Or buy some separately. Black salt gives chaat masala its signature flavour. Until you taste it you will have no idea what I am talking about.
Or make it yourself. Nothing beats fresh ground spices made in your own kitchen. Try this version of chaat masala sometime.
Parboil first – high heat later
The key to getting these potatoes crusty on the outside but creamy on the inside is to boil them first. Then you toss them with a good amount of oil. This does something magic.
As you toss them they get a bit scuffed up. And that scruffed texture makes for little nooks and crannies.
Those nooks and crannies are gong to crisp up beautifully on the grill. They are going to catch final spice and butter mixture and hold it close. That’s what makes this version of aloo chaat so tasty.
This is a technique you can use when you roast potatoes as well. Works great. Maybe boil them a little less (more par-boil). Toss them until they start to scruff.
Add a good amount of olive oil. Salt liberally. Roast in the oven. Something to really jazz up your next Sunday dinner.
Gunpowder potatoes. Aloo chaat. Doesn’t matter what you call them. Delicious either way. As an appetizer. Or as the most outrageous side to tandoori chicken at your next backyard BBQ.
gunpowder potatoes
Ingredients
Potatoes
- 1 lb small new potatoes
- 3 Tbsp butter
- 1 Tbsp lime juice - about 1/2 of one lime
- 1 tsp kashmiri chili powder
- 1 tsp chaat masala
- 1/2 tsp kasoor methi - dried fenugreek
- 1/2 tsp salt
- pinch cumin seeds
- 1 green chili minced
- small handful of cilantro
- handful of diced green onions or chives
Mint raita
- 3 Tbsp greek yoghurt
- 1 green onion finely chopped. Can substitute 1 Tbsp minced chives
- 1 Tbsp cilantro finely chopped
- 1 tsp mint sauce
- 1 Tbsp milk (optional) to thin the yoghurt if needed
Instructions
Mint raita
- Combine all the ingredients except the milk. Add the milk a tiny bit at a time until you get to the texture of regular yoghurt.
Gunpowder potatoes
- Boil the whole new potatoes until tender - 15 - 20 minutes
- Let potatoes cool enough to handle.
- Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise and toss with vegetable oil.
- Skewer the potatoes (not essential but it makes grilling way easier) and grill, over medium direct heat until golden brown - around 8-10 minutes. They are already cooked so all you want to do is brown and crisp them.
- Crumble the kasoor methi between your fingers. Combine the chaat masala, kashmiri chili powder, salt and kasoor methi. Put them in a shaker if you have one. That's what they do in restaurants.
- Melt the butter.
- Toss the potatoes with the butter, lime juice, cilantro, green chili, cumin seed and green onions or chives.
- Sprinkle with the spice mix to taste and toss to combine. You won't need all of the spice mix. Add a bit less than half to start and then keep adding it until you get to where you want to be.
- Serve with more lime and the mint raita.
