Batata Vada
Batata Vada is the most scrumptious street food of Mumbai. Golden and crisp from outside and absolutely flavorful from inside. Made with spicy potato balls covered in gram flour batter, this is an excellent dish to have on a rainy day.
Equipment
- Big bowl
- medium size bowl
- Saute pan / Frying pan
- Kadhai / Deep pan for frying
- Strainer / Zara
- Grinder / Mortar and pestle
- Measuring spoons
- measuring cups
Ingredients
For Vada Stuffing
- 5 Potatoes medium size
- 10-12 Garlic Cloves
- 1 inch Ginger
- 7-8 Green Chilis This is for medium spicy
- 20-25 Curry Leaves This gives the Vada a beautiful flavor
- 3 teaspoon Lemon Juice
- 1 teaspoon Mustard seeds
- ½ teaspoon Turmeric
- ¼ teaspoon Asafoetida / Hing
- ¼ cup Coriander Finely chopped
- Salt To taste
Batter for coating
- 1.5 cup Besan / Graham Flour
- 4 tablespoon Cooked Toor / Arhar Dal Cook it in pressure cooker like for regular dal. (for texture)
- ½ teaspoon Red Chili Powder
- ½ teaspoon Turmeric
- 2 tablespoon Hot oil For crisp texture
- Salt To taste
- ½ cup Water Approximately ½ cup. But adjust it as per requirement
Instructions
- Ingredients
- Grind the Green chilis, garlic and ginger into a coarse paste.
- Boil or steam potatoes until soft. Peel and mash them coarsely. (do not grate)
- For tempering take a pan, heat the oil and add mustard seeds. Once they crackle add curry leaves followed by Asafoetida and ginger garlic chili paste. Fry it till the raw smell goes away. Cook it on low flame so that it doesnt burn. Then add turmeric and salt.
- To this mix add the boiled mashed potatoes and mix them till well combined.
- Switch off the flame and add chopped coriander and lemon juice.
- Divide the potatoes mix into equal portions approximately the size of lemon and roll it into balls.
- In a deep pan / Kadhai heat oil for deep frying. (Ideal temperature for frying is 350 - 375 F / 176 - 190 C. Too low and you'll get greasy food, too high and it'll burn)
- In a medium size bowl make a thick batter with Besan / Chickpea / Graham flour, turmeric, chili powder, cooked dal and salt. Mix it well, break lumps if any. Add 2 tablespoon of hot oil to the batter from the kadhai and mix well. (Toor dal and hot oil gives the Vada a nice texture)
- When the oil is hot, dip the potato balls in the batter and fry them until golden brown in color on a medium high flame.
- Serve them hot with Dry garlic chutney.
Notes
- Fry them at even temperature on a medium high heat as this would make Vada's crisp and not oily.
- Do not grate the potatoes, always use a potato masher or use your hands.
- If you don't like to eat curry leaves you can take it out before making the balls.
- For extra spicy either add more chilis to the mixture or if you want spice to be optional, in the end after frying Vada's, Take few green chilis, cut them from center and fry them. Transfer them on to a paper towel and sprinkle some salt on it. You can serve this with Vada for extra spice.
- Adding mashed Toor dal works like magic. Makes the Vada light and crispy.
- Never add Baking soda as it fluffs up the outer coating. A batata Vada should have light / thin coating.
- Don't over crowd the frying pan with too many Vada's, as it will drop the cooking temperature and result in oily Vada's.
- Always drain the Vada's on paper towel when you get them out of oil. If you do not drain your fried foods on paper towels immediately the excess oils will not only cling to your food but will also be absorbed by the food.
- Adding lemon juice in the end enhances the flavors.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!