Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Battata Harra (Hot Spicy Potatoes)

Ramadan has begun and I would like to try a simple dish that is commonly prepared in many kitchen at the Middle East to break our fast after sunset. We had some new potatoes harvested last week and it is perfect for Battata Harra (hot spicy potatoes) that I found in Ghillie Basan's The Middle Eastern Kitchen recipe book. A very quick and simple dish to prepare when you don't have much energy left in the late afternoon while getting used to fasting in this early month of Ramadan. We had to harvested some green tomatoes since we cleared the patch. Not much peas to harvest this week but snow peas are not too bad.
Battata Harra (Hot Spicy Potatoes)
Ingredients (serves 4):
4 Tablespoons olive oil
450g new potatoes, peeled and diced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2-3hot chillies, chopped ( this will be up to you how spicy you want this dish, for me that is not enough)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
salt
Juice of half lemon
A small bunch fresh coriander chopped

Heat the olive oil in a heavybased frying pan and add the potatoes.
Fry until browned and crispy, then stir in garlic, chillies and cumin seeds.
Fry for a minute or two longer, then season with salt, refresh with lemon juice, and sprinkle the coriander over the top. Enjoy.Selamat Berbuka Puasa.
 I think this will be much healthier than masak berlada (food fried coated with chilli paste) which is one of the favourite food in my family home. Hopefully my mama can persuade papa to try this dish. My papa enjoy hot and spicy food too much, at the point he can't live without it. He sulks each time when mama cook chicken with soy sauce which is not spicy for my boys...hehehe...
Surprisingly yellow cherry tomatoes, capsicum and chillies managed to keep on producing non-stop through winter this year, although we have already entered end winter. Some tatsoi were about to bolt, so I harvested them. We foresee that rainbow chards and purple giant mustards are regulars in our kitchen this month. Cut some sunflowers to cheer up the kitchen as well. Some beetroot were also harvested last week.
Our Italian sprouting broccoli plants are starting to produce many side shoots which I hope I can keep up harvesting them before it flowers this month. Occasionally lettuce are harvested for Ilhan sandwiches pack into his lunch box to kindergarten. We also have to keep on eye on the Pak Choi and harvest them before it flowers. We had fun pulling some parsnip tops and see how long it has grown last week.
We harvested most of our kailan (chinese broccoli) because it is producing flowers. Isn't it nice to harvest carrots that gives you many fingers which each one is much much much bigger than baby carrots. A bonus when one carrot plants give many fingers bigger the size of baby carrot. The feeling is like we harvested 7 different carrot plants when you are actually pulling out one plant. Afghanistan carrot is one of the best tasting carrot in soup/korma because it tasted so creamy (lemak) cook this way! The taste is so different than the normal orange carrot.Wish me luck with collecting Afghanistan carrot this year.

24 comments:

Cat-from-Sydney said...

MKG,
Wow! That looks so delicious. It's only 4pm and am already hungry here. Aaaahhh....3 1/2 more hours to go.

Oh, that's my Mama raving like a lunatic. The felines don't fast. purrr *giggles*

Kelli said...

your potato dish looks delicious. Great harvests too.

Sue Garrett said...

Potato recipe looks really good. I like spicy food but I have a fear of chillies since I suffered stinging hands for several days after preparing some. If it does that to hands whatever does it do to tummies!

cikmanggis said...

satu menu yang sihat.Insyallah Cm nak cuba jugak..eh comelnya karot tu..macam macam sais hehe,Selamat berbuka puasa buat Diana seisi rumah:)

shaz said...

Great harvest and I love the sound of that potato dish. Wishing you and your family a blessed ramadan.

Mr. H. said...

Your potato dish sounds really good and with some of our potatoes starting to produce I look forward to trying it. That Swiss Chard of yours looks wonderful.

Skeeter said...

Those spicy potatoes look wonderful. Yum...

Unknown said...

What a wonderful looking harvest! I love the sunflowers and the potato dish looks awesome! YUM!

Mark Willis said...

Ramadan must be even more of a self-sacrifice for you if you know that a dish like that is awaiting you after sundown!

Phoebe said...

OOHHH! DIANA! That looks so tasty!!! I will have to try it!
Look at all your harvests! You are amazing!
I posted about leeks today. I consider you as my special leek friend!
That sounds strange but I remember we both agreed how easy they were. The ideal multi purpose vegetable!

Unknown said...

nmpk sedap....boleh try this recipe nnt....i also try to reduce spicy food intake during ramadhan....perot takleh tahan...;)

p3chandan said...

Selamat berpuasa to you and family Diana! Your simple potato dish just nice for my quick cooking since Im babysitting for my grandson...Jeles tengok your bountiful harvest as always!

Daphne Gould said...

Those potatoes look so delicious. I need to make more potatoes this week. I dug some up last week but haven't finished them all yet.

Jennifer@threedogsinagarden said...

I have a whole new appreciation for your vegetable harvests after struggling to grow my own. Your potatoes look delicious!

kitchen flavours said...

Wonderful harvest as usual, Diana! Wish you lots of luck with the Afghanistan carrots! And that potato dish looks so good!
Selamat Bulan Ramadhan to you and your family!

Jody said...

What a great idea. We have so many new potatoes to use up. Your recipe will be perfect.

Anonymous said...

The potatoes look delicious! I am going to save this recipe.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful harvest and a beautiful sounding recipe too! I should add it to our menu plan for next week. :)

Sherry said...

Nice harvest, Diana! Everything looks so nice.

Our potato plants died early, so we didn't get much. We already ate all the potatoes, and they tasted great. You are making me want more!!

Stephanie said...

Your harvest looks really lovely! And another nice dish. Cummin seeds makes it interesting.... yum yum.

Liz - Suburban Tomato said...

Fabulous harvest - I have vegetable envy. I make a very similar potato dish, but with black mustard seeds and a sprinkling of garam masala which makes it more Indian than Middle Eastern I guess. I'm looking forward to trying this one. I think cumin and potatoes are just delicious together. Happy Ramadan.

lena said...

what a fruitful harvest you have there!i really enjoy looking and getting to know these veggies. Happy ramadan to you!

Rosie Gan said...

You're just incredible...knowing how to magically cook something so appetising from your own garden is a gift!Sedap sekali nampaknya....
Rosie

foodgardenkitchen said...

I wanted to let you know we made the potato dish for dinner tonight with some slight variations and it was GREAT! We served the potatoes with an eggplant prepared in a mediterrean style (the spicing was mediterranen but it was just lightly breaded and fried eggplant). We topped the eggplant with some of our homemade grown/made tomato sauce.

The main difference we did from your recipe is we made the "sauce" a couple of hours in advance (and used more cilantro) and let it sit to allow the flavor to meld.

Thanks for posting this recipe idea. It's a keeper for us.