Alugadda Vepudu (Spicy Potato Fry)

I wanted to keep the theme for this month's Cooking from Cookbook Challenge same as the theme for the on-going month long marathon, which means I will be posting some Indian dishes from cookbooks every weekend. For the first week, I'm cooking from 'The India Cookbook' by Pushpesh Pant. This is a HUGE book with around 1000 recipes from all over India. I remember borrowing this book from the library couple of years back, but returned it without cooking anything from it because I was literally overwhelmed with the number of dishes in the book and couldn't decide what to make before I had to return the book. This time I borrowed it again, hoping that it would help for the A-Z Indian states marathon. I couldn't find many recipes from the states I was looking for, but ended up bookmarking other dishes that I wanted to make for CCChallenge. Unfortunately I sat on the book for too long not doing anything with it that I had to return it to the library yesterday. I was able to make only 1 dish from it. I went ahead and requested it again, so at least I can make the dishes that I bookmarked.
I was inspired to make a thali after looking at the amazing thalis on Rajani's and Manjula's blogs. I have a very very simple Andhra thali and is nowhere close to comparison to either of their thalis. Here's what I made for the thali:

• Paalakura Pappu -- Spinach dal
• Vankaya Ulli kaaram -- Eggplant in Onion gravy
• Alugadda Vepudu -- Spicy Potato fry
• Pappu Chaaru 
• Avakaya
• Perugu -- Yogurt
• Pista burfi & murukkus -- storebought

Author says the origin of today's curry is Andhra/ Hyderabad. This is a simple potato fry with spices and the addition of these spices really makes this dish extra special. My potato-loving husband absolutely loved this dish. Original recipe used whole spices that are ground to a powder, but I just used the already ground spices that I had in the pantry to save time. Ingredients: Potatoes - 3 medium, boiled, peeled and chopped  Mustard seeds - 1tsp Cumin seeds - 1tsp Salt - to taste
For the Spice Powder:* Coriander seeds - 1tbsp  Cumin seeds - 1tsp Cinnamon - 1" piece Cloves - 4 Dry red chili - 4, broken Turmeric - ½tsp
Salt - to taste
For the Tempering:
Onion - 1 medium, thinly sliced
Curry leaves - 10~12
Method:

• Grind all the ingredients under Spice Powder into a powder. Set aside until ready to use.*
• Heat 1tbsp oil in a nonstick pan, add the mustard and cumin seeds. Once the seeds start to splutter, add the boiled and chopped potatoes and fry on medium flame until golden, about 5~6 minutes. Add spice powder. Cook for 1~2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from flame and set aside.
• In another pan, heat 2tsp oil. Add curry leaves and sliced onions. Cook on medium flame until onions are golden, about 5~6 minutes.
• Top the potatoes with the onions and serve with white rice.

* Spice Powder from Ground Spices: Simply mix all the ground spices in a small bowl and add to the curry in the 2nd step. Ground Coriander - 1tbsp  Ground Cumin - 1tsp Ground Cinnamon - ½tsp Cloves - ¼tsp Red chili powder - 1~2tsp (adjust as per taste) Turmeric - ½tsp
Salt - to taste

Linking this curry to Valli's Cooking from Cookbook Challenge: April -- Week 1.