Pink fir potatoes recipe: Opheem's pickle-spiced starter

Pink fir apple potatoes, waxy and nutty, carry achaari pickling spice and a tamarind glaze in this starter inspired by Opheem, Aktar Islam's two-Michelin-starred Indian restaurant in Birmingham.

Achaari means "in the style of a pickle": mustard seed, fennel, nigella and fenugreek are toasted whole and bloomed in oil the way they would be for an Indian pickle, then used to coat the potatoes rather than preserve them. Pink fir apples hold their shape and a faint nuttiness through a double cook that most round potatoes turn to mush under.

Opheem's kitchen uses spicing like this as one entry point into the Ni'matnama, a 15th-century manuscript of the Sultan of Mandu's recipes that shapes much of the menu. This version, developed in the Amuse kitchen, keeps the pickle-spice logic but simplifies the plating for a home stove.

A pickle shop's spice box, cooked into a bowl of potatoes.

Ingredients

• 600 g pink fir apple potatoes, skin on
• 3 tbsp mustard oil (or a neutral oil)
• 1 tsp black mustard seeds
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 1/2 tsp nigella seeds
• 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 2 dried red chillies, torn
• 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 2 tbsp tamarind paste
• 1 tbsp jaggery or soft brown sugar
• Sea salt, to taste
• Small bunch coriander, chopped, to finish

Method

1. Boil the potatoes whole in heavily salted water for 15-18 minutes, until a knife meets slight resistance at the centre; pink fir apples hold together best when slightly undercooked at this stage, since they finish cooking in the pan. Drain, steam-dry for five minutes, then halve lengthways.
2. Heat the mustard oil in a wide pan until it shimmers and loses its raw sharpness, about 2 minutes. This matters more than any other step, since underheated mustard oil tastes acrid rather than nutty.
3. Add the mustard, fennel, nigella and fenugreek seeds and the dried chillies, and let them crackle for 30 seconds. Whole spices need direct contact with hot oil to release their oil-soluble aromatics, which is why they go in before anything else.
4. Add the garlic and turmeric and cook for one minute, until the garlic colours at the edges but does not burn, then add the potatoes cut-side down, pressing them gently into the spiced oil so the cut faces pick up colour and a crust.
5. Cook undisturbed for 4-5 minutes, until the cut sides are deeply golden, then stir in the tamarind paste and jaggery with a splash of water, tossing until the potatoes are glazed and the liquid has reduced to a sticky coating, about 2 minutes. Season with salt, scatter with coriander, and serve warm.

Serve it as Opheem would, or adapt it

Can pink fir apples be swapped for another potato? New potatoes work if pink fir apples are out of season, though they turn creamier rather than nutty once glazed, and a composed yoghurt side at Opheem becomes, at home, simply a bowl of thick natural yoghurt alongside to cut the spice.

It pairs naturally with the kitchen Stuart Deeley has just joined, and with any meal that wants a pink fir potatoes course with enough spice to stand on its own, not just to sit beside a curry.