Panch Phoran Roasted Potatoes

I have to admit, before I went to India the only Indian food I was really familiar with was Punjabi, and some popular South Indian dishes. Visiting Agra, Jaipur, and even Dehli introduced me to lots of new flavour profiles and spices I don’t normally use in my kitchen. Since getting back, I’ve not only been playing with new spices I found, but also trying to use my existing spice collection {which is embarrassingly large for a sort-of novice cook} in interesting new ways.panch phoron roasted potatoes

Last week, with a little help from google and my out of control spice collection, I stumbled onto a five spice blend called panch phoran (or panch puran). It’s a combination of mustard seeds, cumin, nigella, fenugreek seeds, and fennel. This spice blend is quite popular in Bangladesh, Eastern India, and Nepal, and is almost always used whole. Since I had all the individual spices on hand I decided to mix up a portion of panch phoron for my kitchen experiments.panch phoron ingredientspanch phoron spice blend

To make your own panch phoron – simply mix together equal parts of all five spices and store in an airtight container. You can use the whole spice mix as a rub for meats, or add it to dal (lentils), or stir-fryed veggies. I’m thinking of trying it in my next achar experiment.

My first recipe experiment using the spice blend was panch phoran roasted potatoes. This is a super simple side dish that you can easy side dish that you can easily pair with a baked chicken dish, or even serve up with chai for afternoon nashta. 

Panch Phoran Roasted Potatoes

Ingredients:
2.5 tbs panch poran spice mix 
4 yellow or baking potatoes
olive oil for coating (3-4 tbs)
salt to taste

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Dry roast the panch poran spices in a fry pan on low heat for 3-4 minutes to release their flavours, and then grind with a spice blender or mortar & pestle. 

3. Wash and cube potatoes. (You can leave the skin on the potatoes if you like, I usually do)

4. Coat the potatoes with olive oil and then sprinkle with the ground panch phoron and salt to taste. 

5. Bake the potatoes in the pre-heated oven for 35-40 minutes until they are golden brown and crispy. Make sure you flip them half way through so they don’t burn.panch phoron roasted potatoes

I always find that roasted potatoes are best served warm, and these taste really yummy fresh out of the oven with a side of chutney!

 Images by: Aziz Dhamani

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4 Comments

  1. April 8, 2015 / 9:44 am

    The potatoes look great Raj! I actually have all 5 spices in kitchen cabinet and actually I can’t remember when I used Kalonji last time… so this would be great to try. Did you just use equal parts of all 5 ingredients?

  2. April 11, 2015 / 4:46 am

    This dish looks really amazing. I have to give it a try. Love how panch phoran can totally change the taste and essence of recipes. Being married to man from West Bengal area, I can totally relate to this dish.

  3. salmadinani
    April 12, 2015 / 10:47 pm

    I love potatoes, will have to try this recipe

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