Dum aloo

Ingredients:
5-6 medium potatoes or 12-15 baby potatoes
3 to 4 tbsp mustard oil
1 bay leaf
½ tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder
½ tsp coriander powder
½ tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 cup water
½ tsp sugar or as required
Salt as required
Grind the following to a semi fine paste --
2 medium onions
½ inch ginger
2-3 garlic cloves
Make a semi coarse puree of --
1 large tomato - approx 1 cup tomato puree
Powder or grind –
1½ to 2 inch cinnamon
3-4 cloves
Topping:
1 tsp ghee (optional)
Method:
Rinse the potatoes very well. If using baby potatoes, then remove the mud lodged in the peels with a soft brush. Parboil the potatoes in a steamer or pressure cooker.
When the potatoes are cooking, you do the following --
grind the onion, ginger and garlic in a grinder or blender. There is no need to add any water. Make a semi fine paste and not a smooth one. Chop tomatoes and pulse them in a blender till you get a puree which is not smooth but semi coarse. You can also finely chop the tomatoes. Grind clove and cinnamon in a dry grinder or coffee grinder to a fine powder.
Once the potatoes are parboiled/half cooked, let them cool, then remove the peels and dice them. For baby potatoes you can keep the peels and prick the potatoes with a fork, an optional step.
Sprinkle ¼ tsp turmeric powder on the potatoes and mix well. Heat the mustard oil in a pan. Fry the potatoes till light golden, drain and keep aside.
In the same oil, fry the bay leaf till fragrant for a few seconds. Add the onion-ginger-garlic paste. Saute  till oil starts to leave the mixture and till the paste becomes light brown. Add the tomato puree, the remaining ¼ tsp turmeric powder, red chilli powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, salt and sugar. Saute till oil begins to leave the onion-tomato masala paste. Then add the potatoes and stir till the masala coats the potatoes well.
Add 1 cup water along with the ground cinnamon and cloves powder. You can also add about ¼ tsp of garam masala powder instead of the cinnamon and cloves powder. If adding garam masala, then add it towards the end once the dish is cooked.
Simmer the dum aloo on a low flame till the water almost dries up and the gravy has coated the potatoes well. When serving add a teaspoon of ghee on the dum aloo. Serve Bengali dum aloo hot with luchis or pooris.