Party Pavs

Dear Foodies,

Its been a year since our last party and unlike then, I scrambled to get my party menu this time. But I could not afford to miss this one, how could you, when the task Anita set for us was to indulge in batata vada's and I din't want to be a spoil sport either:( I had the original Mumbai vada pav just once on a trip to Bombay, in Hyderabad the aloo bonda was the norm. Only while making these batata's did I realize how simple they are to make, just our plain potato curry, batter fried and yet I've never made it until now! So if you haven't already had a lot of these yummy mouthfuls over the last month, here is one more from me :)

Ingredients: for 8 key lime sized batata's

Potato filling:

• 4 nos - Potatoes, medium sized
• 1/4 cup - chopped Onions
• 2 nos - Green chillies (the Indian kind/ thai bird chillies)
  
• 1 nos - huge Garlic clove
• 1 tsp - finely chopped Ginger
• 1/2 tsp - Turmeric
• 1 Tbsp - Oil
• pinch of hing and curry leaf powder
  
• salt to taste
  
• 1 tsp - lemon juice ( I used lemon pepper seasoning instead)
  

Batter:

• 1/4 cup - Besan/ gram flour
• 1 Tbsp - Rava/Semolina
• 1/4 tsp - Chilli powder
• Salt to taste
• pinch of crushed ajwain seeds
  
• ~ 1/4 cup water

• 1 Tbsp oil for frying 7 batata's
  

Method:

1. Scrub the potatoes under running water and halve them. Boil them in salted water until cooked completely. I used a pressure cooker to do the job, 2 whistles and they were cooked perfectly. Peel the skins when cool enough to handle and set aside.
2. Place the green chillies, garlic and ginger together in a heap on the cutting board and chop finely.
   
3. Heat 1 Tbsp of oil in a pan on medium heat and add the ginger-garlic-chillies, turmeric, hing and curry leaf powder. Saute for a minute and then add the onions and some salt (to soften the onions faster), ~2mins. I used lemon pepper seasoning instead of salt here. If adding salt, add a tsp of lemon juice towards the end of the dish.
   
4. Next add the potatoes, crumbling them with your fingers. Mix well and cook for 5 mins until the flavors are well blended and the potatoes resemble a mash.
5. For the batter, mix together all the ingredients listed and mix with water just enough to get a batter that coats the back of the spoon. A runny mix will not hold onto the potato filling. Tip: If using the regular deep frying method, add a few tsps of hot oil while mixing batter before using water. This will reduce the amount of oil absorbed while deep frying.
   

Now after Jai used the appam pan for frying these, can I even dare to go the regular way ? Ofcourse no! so heat up the appam pan, mine is a small non-stick one and I used 1 Tbsp of oil overall between the 7 holes. Make small round balls of the potato filling, drop them into the batter, coat them well on all sides and spoon them into the appam pan.

Allow one side to cook for about 2 mins, flip it over using a spoon or chop stick and cook for another 1-2mins until golden brown on all sides.

Serve it sandwiched between a pav with some garlic chutney to make a yummylicious Vada Pav! ( I used a quartered kaiser roll for the 'pav')

A very Happy Blog Birthday to you Anita, and a huge Thank you for taking care of my Sunday brunch :) Looking forward to many many more parties from you. And thanks to Jai for a guilt free way of frying them up and to Ashwini for the wonderful lasun chutney recipe.