Batate Saung (Spicy potato sabzi)

I think I am going to take back my words from the previous post where I said the blog was all about food and recipes and not about me. It is of course about me and mainly my experience with food and cooking. Just giving a heads up!
Here is my first recipe (rather my mom's recipe) , a very common konkani dish - batate saung. Saung in konkani, generally means a spicy, thick gravy and in this case it's a spicy potato gravy. 

Preparation Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 15-20 mins

Ingredients:
2 -3 medium sized potatoes - peeled and cut into small cubes
1 medium sized onion - half cut into cubes and the other half chopped
2 tsp oil
quarter tsp tamrind paste diluted in water or a small piece of tamrind that has been soaked in water
1 to 2 tsp chilli powder (as per spice level)
salt as per taste

Method:
First pressure cook the potatoes and the first half of onions together with just enough water for about 2 -3 whistles. Let them cool down. 

In a kadai, saute the chopped onions till they become soft. Add the chilli powder and saute for a few seconds. Now add the cooked potato-onion in the kadai and cook on a medium flame. Add the tamrind paste (or the squeezed tamrind juice), salt and mix it well into the sabzi. Cover and cook on a low flame for a few minutes until the gravy thickens a bit. Your batate saung is ready!

This sabzi is super easy and super quick to make. If you want to save time, you can just microwave the potatoes, mash it into medium sized lumps, chop all the onions together and follow the same procedure. The reason the onions are also cooked along with the potatoes are so they form a nice, thick gravy while cooking.

The sabzi goes well with rice, rotis or even as a side dish for idlis or dosas. Today I had it with pita bread but one of my favorite combinations is rice, simple dal with batate saung.