Batata Vada / Vada Pav

Batata vada is a potato based fritter and is a popular Indian Vegetarian Street food that originated in Maharashtra. If you are looking for an excellent tea time snack or as an appetiser for guests at your place or as a snacks for kids, then this one is for you. In this recipe, the balls of mashed potatoes with spices and various ingredients are dipped in a batter of gram flour and then deep fried.

It can be accompanied by a hot mint chutney and sweet-sour tamarind chutney. As I prepared this one for my kid, I served it with tomato ketchup. I will show batata vadas with different chutneys in my next post sometimes. In this post, have a virtual treat of batata vadas with tomato ketchup.

INGREDIENTS :

For Besan batter

(1) 250 gms of Gram flour / Besan

(2) 3/4 teaspoon of Red Chilli powder

(3) 1/4 teaspoon of Turmeric powder

(4) 2 pinch of Asafoetida

(5) Salt as per taste required

(6) Water

For spiced Potato stuffing

(1) 3 medium sized potatoes

(2) 4 buds of garlic (I took 4 as they were large in size, can take 6-8 if small buds), minced

(3) 1 inch sized ginger, minced

(4) 2 whole green chillies, finely chopped

(5) Handful of finely chopped Coriander leaves

(6) Salt as required

For tempering the Potato stuffing

(1) 3/4 teaspoon of Cumin seeds / Jeera

(2) 3/4 teaspoon of Mustard seeds / Rai

(3) 10-12 Curry leaves / kadi patta

(4) 2 pinch of Hing / Asafoetida

(5) 3 tablespoon of cooking oil

Other ingredients :

(1) Cooking Oil for deep frying

(2) Coriander Mint Chutney

(3) Dates Tamarind Chutney

(4) Tomato Ketchup

(5) Pav

METHOD :

(1) Take gram flour, Turmeric powder, Red Chilli powder, Asafoetida and Salt in a bowl. You may add a pinch of baking soda (Optional).

(2) Add Water (approx. 1/3 cup) little by little and stir continuously and make a lump free smooth batter. The batter should not be too thick or too thin. If the batter is thick, then add 1 or 2 tablespoon of water. If the batter is too thin, then add 1-2 teaspoon of gram flour.

(3) I did not add baking soda and instead kept the batter aside to set for 2 hours. If baking soda is added, then no need to keep the batter aside for 2 hours.

After 2 hours…..

(4) Peel boiled Potatoes and mash them with backside of a large spoon.

(5) Heat 3 teaspoon of cooking oil in a tempering ladle over a medium flame. Add Mustard seeds. When they start to crackle, add Cumin seeds. When the Cumin seeds change colour, add 10 – 12 chopped Curry leaves, 2 pinch of Asafoetida. Then immediately add 2 pinch of Turmeric powder and mix well. Saute for 5 seconds and turn off the gas flame.

(6) Pour this tempering over the mashed potatoes. Add garlic, ginger, green chillies, coriander leaves (All four finely chopped). Add Salt to taste.

(7) Mix everything well.

Make small to medium sized balls of the mashed potato mixture. Keep aside for a while till we heat the cooking oil in a wok.

(8) The batter and potato balls are now ready to be deep fried.

Now, take cooking oil in a deep frying pan / wok and heat it till the oil is medium hot.

(9) Dip each potato ball in the besan batter and coat it with batter evenly with a spoon or with hand. Then take them and gently drop them in the hot oil. Do it in batches. Drop 4-5 balls in a single batch and deep fry them until golden brown.

(10) Using a perforated spoon, take out the vadas from the pan, draining excess oil and transfer the vadas over a paper napkin on a plate. Deep fry all the potato balls.

Batata Vadas transferred on a paper napkin kept on a plate

(11) Batata Vada is now ready to be served. Serve them with Pav as shown along with Coriander Mint Chutney and Dates Tamarind Chutney / Tomato ketchup. It’s delicious to eat them with a cup of tea.