Potato Masala

This potato masala is a very common side dish for masala dosas and also puris. I have tasted very many variations of this and most of them differ by only a couple of spices that are used yet taste different and great, but I like my Mom's slightly better than the rest :-).

Ingredients (3 - 4 servings):

Potatoes - 5 medium sized ones
Onions - 1 big cut into long thin slices Green chillies - 3 slit along the length (vary this to suit your taste) Dried red chillies - 2 broken into half
Cooking oil - 2 tablespoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1 teaspoon
Channa dhal - 1 teaspoon Asafoetida - a couple of pinches
Turmeric powder - a pinch or two
Curry leaves - a few
Salt to taste
Procedure:

1. Boil, peel, mash potatoes and set aside.
2. In a deep vessel, heat some cooking oil, pop mustard seeds, add the urad dhal, channa dhal, curry leaves, slit green chillies, dried red chillies, asafoetida and turmeric powder and fry until the dhals turn light golden brown in color.
3. Add the onions to step 2 and fry until they turn golden brown in color. 4. Add the mashed potatoes from step 1 to step 3, add some salt mix everything well along with about 1/2 cup of water, bring it to a boil and turn off the stove.

You can vary the consistency by adjusting the amount of water that you add to step 4. If you are making it for masala dosas, you can probably make it less watery (or not) and stuff them inside the dosa. It can be a little watery for puris though, but it is totally up to you. The goal here is to enjoy a delicious meal :-).