In France, plonk date on potato dish from India (8)
I believe the answer is:
vindaloo
'dish from india' is the definition.
'vindaloo' can be an answer for 'dish' (I have seen 'Hot dish' mean 'vindaloo' so perhaps 'dish' could also mean 'vindaloo'). I am not certain of the 'from india' bit.
'in france plonk date on potato' is the wordplay.
'in france plonk' becomes 'vin' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'date' becomes 'd' (common abbreviation eg in DOB, date of birth).
'on' says to put letters next to each other.
'potato' becomes 'aloo' (term for potato in Indian cuisine).
'vin'+'d'+'aloo'='VINDALOO'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for vindaloo that I've seen before include "As hot food" , "Highly-spiced Indian curry" , "Indian food" , "Given hot meal" , "Type of hot curry" .)