This is a popular street food from India but can be as refined or as rustic you want it to be. Typically paired with a chick peas curry or even a white lentil / peas curry . Word of warning though if the chickpeas are not cooked enough they cause gas.

A lot of it. So thats one reason to pressure cook the chickpeas and use spices like ajwain/carom ajowan.

Anyway moving on to the potato cakes which are the star of the show today.

• Potatoes 1kg..cook whole with skin on the day before.
• Turmeric 2g/.5t
• Chilli powder 5g /1t
• Cardamom powder-pinch
• Nutmeg powder-pinch
• Salt-15-20g
• Ginger and garlic paste
• Breadcrumbs -25g
• Chickpeas flour-roasted in the microwave with clarified butter/ghee -50g equal qty of both 25+25.
• Rice flour to coat so they dont break
• Oil
• Ghee to cook
• Filling -i used chopped almonds and peeled and chopped broccoli stems. -1stem peeled and chopped with chopped almond and flavoured with some dry mint

1. Cook the potatoes a day before and keep in the fridge. They are healthier that way. Peel and grate or mash . Add all other ingredients and form a mix.shape into approximately 10balls. Make a hole in the middle and fill .coat with rice flour and then shallow fry on a a heavy based griddle with a mix of oil and ghee( clarified butter).♣

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.

I got this recipe from my father , who said that Mani-ba, my grandma , his mum used to make it this way. so the proportions might not be exact but the process is correct and all food is made by tweaking it to your taste.

• Green mangoes , washed and cut into cubes-1kg ( yes its long drawn out process).
• Salt- 25 g
• Turmeric- 5 g/ 1 t

combine all the above and keep outside in the hot sun .( with some sort of a cover so the neighbours cat doesnt come in to do a wee wee on it)

• Red chilli powder- 10g
• Methi/ Fenugreek seeds- 1tsp/ 5 g
• mustard seeds yellow- 2 T/10 g
• Vinegar- 25 ml
• Cumin powder- 5 g
• Jaggery / soft brown sugar – if you cant get jaggery-
• Mustard oil- 20 ml
• Asafoetida- pinch

Grind or crush the fenugreek seeds. Heat the oil and crackle/ pop the mustard seeds . Add the remaining ingredients and combine with the mango.

Pack this in glass jar with a tight lid and leave it to mature for a weeks .

Resist temptation to put your grubby hands inside and taste it. Use a fork. When its ready to eat the mango is  soft but not mushy and the spice are mellowed down quite a bit.

Serve with some rice or dal . Ive even once chopped it up and added it to a prawn curry. Abs flavor bomb it was .