Urulaikizhangu Podimas - Potato Lime Curry

URULAI KIZHANGU PODIMAS
Potato Lime Curry

One of the most common and all time favourite curry in South India, our blog would be incomplete without a post on the simple Urulaikizhangu Podimas. This post is also for my daughter’s friend who says that she lives in ‘white bread country’, and has no access to these dishes, unless she tries cooking herself!
The literal meaning of podimas is ‘mash’. Urulaikizhangu podimas is the name given to mashed potatoes. Indian kitchens are always equipped to convert any bland dish into a very tasty delicacy with just a dash of the right spices, and mashed potatoes are quickly transformed into this delicious and versatile curry.
My children loved to eat Urulaikizhangu podimas curry rolled in chapattis during their tea breaks at school. It also makes delicious filling for sandwich toasts. Combined with a scoop of sautéed onions it becomes an irresistible filling for the masala dosas. It goes very well as a side dish with poories, and although an unusual combination, it goes very well even with the hot spicy bisibele bath!
This very same curry goes into the making of the famous potato buns baked at all Iyengar bakeries as well. Whenever I visit my close friend she welcomes me with a plateful of potato buns which is her ever favourite dish. We chat and chat for very long hours while the quartered potato buns add spice to our conversation!



INGREDIENTS:
Potatoes – 6 medium size
Lime – 2
Salt – 2 level tsps
Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
Cooking oil – 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp
Black gram dal (Urad dal) – 1 tsp
Bengal gram dal (Channa Dal) – 1 tsp
Asafoetida – 1 pinch
Curry leaves – a few
Chopped Green chillies – 3
Coriander leaves – a little



METHOD:1. Wash and cook the potatoes in the pressure cooker. Or you can boil it until it is very soft so that it can be easily mashed.
2. Once the potatoes cool down, remove the peels.
3. Crumble the potatoes one by one by, by gently pressing it between the palm and the thumb.
4. Potatoes should not become mushy, and neither should there be very large lumps.
5. Extract the juice of the lime, and add salt and turmeric powder and keep it aside.
6. Heat oil in a pan and the mustard seeds.
7. When it splutters add the dals and fry till they are golden in colour.
8. Add asafoetida and the chopped green chillies.
9. Add curry leaves, followed by the lime juice, salt and turmeric mixture.
10. Stir once and switch off flame immediately. This is done to remove any raw smell from the turmeric. Be careful to switch off within a second, as prolonged heating will make the lime juice bitter!
11. Now add the crumbled potatoes and blend with all the seasoning.
12. Garnish with chopped fresh coriander leaves.
Enjoy the urulaikizhangu podimas curry in any of the combinations you like.

This post goes to FIC Yellow event at Tongue Ticklers.

Comments

oh it's my fav.. i also add some coconut in the end. tastes great :)
Divya Kudua said…
Hmm..podimas is looking lovely..I have so often heard about this dish but never knew what exactly went into it besides mashed potatoes..;-)..great entry!!
Lakshmi said…
Potato Palya looks good Dibs. We love to eat this with almost anythying from Chapathi to rice.
very tempting. amma prepared for blog. came out vey well. enjoyed eating with seepla brinjal mor kozambu. appa
sahiti said…
Curry looks tempting.One small doubt,heating lime juice doesn't make it turn bitter?
Jayashree said…
I love this simple dish too....so easy to make when there are unexpected guests!!!
Jayashree said…
I just typed a comment and it disappeared!!!
I love this simple curry 'coz it is so easy to make when there are unexpected guests.
Dibs said…
Thanks All!

Sahiti - Boiling lime juice will make it bitter of course! In this case we switch off the flame almost immediately. The idea is to literally "pour - stir once -then switch off the flame". We do this to remove any 'raw smell' of the turmeric if any!Thanks for the question - I will update the post with this explanation as well!
Dibs said…
Jayashree - both comments have appeared! Thanks :-))
Lakshmi said…
Thanks for linking my Masale Dose post Dibs.
Chitra said…
I luv podimas.My mom doesnt add lime juice.We call this as puttu.Will try next time by adding lime juice:)Yummy posting!!
Priya Suresh said…
Podimas one of my dad's fav..looks great dibs..
YOSEE said…
Yummy ! Everybody's alltime favourite. One of the few good things that came out of the British Raj kitchens. But trust the native bawarchis to turn the bland English " Mashed Potato " ( or Potato Mash) into a tongue tickling, mispronounced : Podi-Mas ! Perhaps, it was to reciprocate Milagu-thanni (rasam) becoming the "phoren" Mulligutawny Soup !
OMG lovely lovely and nice color.. its my favrt one....
Shreya said…
this definitely is a fav for all. I love the recipe:-)
Finla said…
Yummy yummy yumm. It looks so delicious. If i had a chapatieright now, i would just grab and et them with that delicious podimas.
Sunshinemom said…
Love potatoes any way and this is the best! I need coconut though:). Thanks you Dibs for the tasty potatoes. I saw your semiya idlis in Jayasree's blog - very creative dish!!
FH said…
I love to eat this with chapatis and coconut chutney or with plain yogurt rice. Looks perfect! :))
Trupti said…
one of my favorite ...loooks yummy
Usha said…
Looks fantastic, its my favorite curry to go with sambar :-)
Cham said…
Except lime i add little grated ginger, wouldn't be a great combo with some tangy gravy (like kara kuzhambu)! Good one!
Raks said…
This is how we too make! But yours colour is awesome and apt for the event too!
Anonymous said…
seppan kezhangu podimas, vazhakkai podimas also taste great with arachivitta sambar.

Sappattu Raman
Praveen said…
Thanks for posting this .

i tried it with the limited ingredients i had
( i didn't have curry leaves/asefoetida/bengal/black gram/coriander) . But still turned out good and i loved it.Next time i am thinking of trying it with all the ingredients.

I have been missing nice indian food since i came to U.S. Especially my mom's food and this recipe reminded me of her food.

Maybe next time i will surprise my girl friend with this. She is a Gujarati and i am tamil. But i hope that wont become a tradition after marriage. lol..


Praveen