Potato Vadas or batatawada is my favoritest food ever and I have fond memories of my mum/ Aai making these for me as a child.

Its one of the most popular street food in our state Maharashtra and there are several origin stories, which is too much history when you are hungry. Its a great affordable carb laden food which serves as meal for hungry workers and people of all kinds  with deep or shallow pockets .

Its a deep fried potato patty spiced with chilli , curry leaves and coated with a chick pea flour batter  .

You need to cook potatoes , peel and crush them. Then make a spicy batter and fry them . Sandwich it in a bun and it becomes wada or vada and pav/which is a bun of sorts with a Portuguese influence. So the potato came from south America and the bread from portugal and apparently the idea came to a streey vendor in Bombay/now Mumbai who wanted to feed the masses with an affordable carb rich meal which is grab and go. Since the patty is in a bun doesn’t make your hands greasy and one hand stays free .

The ingredients.

Potato 1kg Boil or pressure cook with skin on . When cooked peel and crush.

Oil-2T/35ml  .

Black mustard seeds -1/2t about 2g

Cumin-1/2tabout 2g

Onion peeled and chopped -1/100g

Curry leaves-2sprigs better if you shred them fresh is best otherwise dried .

Ginger peeled and chopped-1small piece /10g

Garlic peeled and chopped -15g

Turmeric 1t /about 5g  these are not exact measurements mind you.

Asafoetida –very tiny pinch

Green chilli 3-4 about 10g

Lemon -1lemon or lime

Sugar1/2t

Green coriander -1sprig

Batter

Chickpeas flour /Besan-250g

Rice flour-30g

Ajwain-1/2t

Water to form batter approximately 150g

Oil to fry and clog those arteries

Salt to taste for potato and batter both.

• Heat oil and crackle mustard seeds till they pop add onion curry leaves cumin and saute lightly. Add turmeric ginger garlic and chopped chilli . Turn off heat
• Add crushed potatoes and salt, sugar, lemon ,and chopped coriander.
• Cool down and shape into patties or round balls..your choice as long as the mix is tasty.
• Make batter with besan , rice flour water. Lightly crush ajwain before adding it .if its too thick will not be very nice but stodgy, too thin and wont coat well. Practice makes perfect.
• Heat oil and dip patties in batter and then fry till golden and crisp.
• You can then pair this with a small bread bun and green chutney both recipes are on here. Or just gulp down as they are. Wait to cool down or your mouth is going to be burnt .
• Everyone has their favorite street food vendor who sells this . Mine is in my home town of Pune just ahead of Aurangabad silk mills on Lakshmi road . Ive been going to the same spot since 1988. Prices have gone up X 10 times since but still tastes amazing.
• Some folk also add a garlic chilli coconut chutney on the bun. I should at some stage write down how to make that too. Dont buy it folks it will usually be rancid.