Christmas and New Year is the time for making cakes..right? But it is also the time to socialize with friends & family. That gives you another reason to make dishes according to the weather. Here is one such dish which is perfect for this cold weather – Batata Vada.

Batata Vada/Aloo Vada is a popular street food from the state of Maharashtra. Crispy from outside and soft from inside, Batata Vada is truly a party pleaser. Whether you want to serve it as an appetizer or as a meal, these tasty dumplings are just the right choice for rainy season or cold weather. When combined with Pav (Bread), you get a new dish Vada-Pav. Simply wrapped up in a piece of newspaper and served with dry Garlic chutney (Lasanachi chutney), Batata Vada makes your train journey somewhat special. Very soon, I will post the recipe for Lasanachi chutney. It goes really well with Batata Vada.

I found an interesting fact on Wikipedia that the name ‘Batata’ means potato in Portuguese who introduced potatoes in India.

So, looking at the weather I decided to make this yummy snack.

 

For potato mixture:

Some people mix all the ingredients and roast it with little oil. Then make balls and dip in the besan batter and fry. Others simply mix the ingredients and then make the balls and fry. I follow the latter.

• 2-3 Potatoes – boiled and mashed

• 1 Onion – finely chopped

• Green chili-Garlic-Ginger – freshly crushed

• ¼ teaspoon – Turmeric powder

• Salt – to taste

• Fennel seeds (optional) – dry roasted and crushed

• Cilantro – finely chopped

 

For outer covering:

• 1 cup – Besan/Chickpea flour

• ¼ teaspoon – Ajwain (carom seeds) crush it between the two palms

• Salt – to taste

• Baking powder – 1 teaspoon or 2 teaspoons of Rice flour

• Water – as required

• Oil – for deep frying

 

Let’s start:

• Mix all the ingredients mentioned in the potato mixture. Adjust salt, spice level as per your taste. Make small balls out of this mixture. The ideal size for Batat Vada (if you want to serve it as an appetizer) is little bigger than a Golf ball. This size might look small to you initially but once they are coated with besan batter, you will get the good size. Or increase the size if you want.

• Mix the ingredients mentioned for outer covering. My mom always adds ajwain to the batter as besan sometimes is hard to digest. Also, it brings out some flavor. It’s up to you. Add water slowly. The batter should neither be watery nor too think. The consistency should be to coat the potato balls.

• Once you get the desired consistency of the batter, check the salt. Now, start deep frying the besan coated potato balls till golden brown. Take them out on a paper towel. Take care not to over fry on a high flame. All the deep frying should be done only at a medium flame.

• Serve them with Tamarind chutney, Green Chutney along with a cup of steaming hot tea.

 

Talking about rainy day and cold weather, you may also like to check out  Samosa recipe.

For two easy and yummy cake recipe check out – Egg less Orange cake and Nutella marble cake.