Aloor Bhorta | Bangladeshi Mashed Potatoes

Bhortas are the quintessential Bengali dish, served at lunch and dinner tables all over Bangladesh in it’s many forms.

Bhorta basically means mash, and can be made with a variety of vegetables, fruits, proteins, fish, nuts, and seeds.

One of my favorites is this potato and egg combo that my family ate all the time.

Easy to put together and packing a flavorful punch, it goes extremely well with some plain steamed white rice. Add some daal or your favorite yellow curries to amp things up, and you have yourself a top notch meal! Try it with my easy chicken curry, beef curry, or egg curry, or panfried eggplants.

Another way people love making this potato bhorta is with fresh green chilis and chopped cilantro!

You can use both red and green chilies or just one of them. Just make sure to slice the green chilies finely, and I also like to add cilantro when adding green chilies because they go perfectly together!

You can also fry your onions/green chilis in a bit of mustard/vegetable oil first if you’re not a fan of raw.

Watch the video below for the whole process:

INGREDIENTS

• 1 lb yukon gold potatoes (+1 tbsp salt for boiling)
• 3-6 dry red chilis (+mustard/veg oil for frying)
• 1/2 small red onion/shallots (about 1/4 cup)
• 1 tbsp mustard oil (or ghee if unavailable)
• 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)

INSTRUCTIONS 

First, boil your potatoes in heavily salted water for about 20 minutes. Check with a fork to see if it is tender

Peel off the skins while they’re still warm.

In a small pan, heat some oil on medium high. Add in your red chilis.

Fry for about a minute or two until they darken a bit. Set aside and let them cool until they get crispy.

Then once they are hard, mash the chilis into small pieces. Use gloves for this.

Add in your red onions, mustard oil, and salt, and mix everything together very well.

Then throw in your boiled potatoes and mash everything together.

Taste and adjust salt if needed. And that’s it. Enjoy!