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Batata vada and Vada Pav/ Fried Besan Covered Mashed Potato Fritters Sandwiched Between Dinner Rolls

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If you been to Mumbai, the financial capital of India, then you would have encountered this delicious fast food. In Mumbai, like New York life is on fast track, everything is based on local trains and small stalls selling fast food. It is like the vein of the city. If the trains stopped then life would come to a standstill. My only connection with Mumbai is that it is my hubby’s home. My in-laws and sisters-in-law families stay there. Before marriage, I had visited Mumbai for the first time as my sister was working there. She took me to sightseeing especially to Juhu beach around 2 P.M in mid afternoon in the scorching sun. Only the guys who sell the tender coconut water were there at that time. As we have to finish everything in two days there was no other choice except to visit the beach around noon, as my sister was moving to Delhi for her new job. That time we also visited, Siddhi Vinayaka temple, Mahalakshmi temple and Mahim church.

After marriage, I thought I was going to see more of Mumbai, and then my hubby dear says that I am not trained to get into the crowded local trains. Due to my lack of training I can see only few places where local transport vehicle, the auto rickshaw can take us. He is right, in Mumbai, in order to travel you need local trains as these are the only thing that will get you to destination at somewhat fast space. 
However he introduced me to famous fast foods of Mumbai, vada pav, Batata vada, Pav Bhaji etc. You can see that at every corner of a major road is a food stall with people busily consuming hot Batata vada or vada pav while talking with each other or talking on a mobile phone. You don’t need to ask anybody where the best Batata vada is served, find it out yourself by the long queue of people, waiting for the food. For a person from southern part of India, Batata vada seems to be like Bonda which my mom used to make. First time I wondered why they are eating bonda sandwiched between pav/dinner rolls. Once I got hang of it I started loving them. 
Last week I wanted to make Parker house rolls, for that recipe I needed some mashed potato. Earlier in the week hubby dear asked me can you make some Batata vada for me. He told me that there is song on Batata vada in a Hindi movie. While looking at the song clip on You Tube I found out that for the delicious dish, the song was picturised in the most boring way.

Anyway I decide to make this dish as I had delicious parker house rolls in my hand. I asked my mother-in-law for the recipe during our weekend phone conversation. She gave me an idea, and also from reading various recipes I got my final recipes. Some of the recipes are adding onions along with mashed potato, but in Mumbai what I tasted did not contain any onions. I followed that. I made a filling with mashed potato, ginger garlic green chili paste, salt, turmeric, curry leaves, asafetodia, cumin seeds, mustard seeds and coriander leaves. Covering was made with chickpea flour/besan, chili powder, asafetodia, salt and turmeric. The fried goodies are served warm with green chutney and tomato ketchup sandwiched in a pillowy Parker house rolls. My hubby gave me thumbs up and told me that it was similar to what he used to have. He was happy to consume it as his evening snack as well as breakfast. If a Mumbaikar (that is what they call a person from Mumbai) can say this tastes great, then why wait, give it a try soon. Here goes the recipe.

One year  ago: Malai Kofta with Paneer

Print recipe from here

What you need

For filling

Mashed boiled potato: 3 cups
Cumin seeds: ½ teaspoon
Mustard seeds: ½ teaspoon
Lemon juice: 1 teaspoon (Increase if you need more tanginess)
Ginger: 1 inch piece
Garlic: 2 cloves
Green chili: 1 no
Curry leaves: 1 sprig
Turmeric: ¼ teaspoon
Salt: 11/4 teaspoon or to taste
Olive oil: 1 tablespoon
Coriander leaves: 2 tablespoon( chopped finely)
Water: 4 cups

For covering

Besan/ chick pea flour: ½ cup
Water: ½ cup
Chili powder: ½ teaspoon
Turmeric: ¼ teaspoon
Baking soda: ⅛ teaspoon
Salt: ½ teaspoon or to taste
Oil: 4 cups for frying

How I made

Pressure cook the potato with 4 cups of water for 5 whistles and peel the skin and mash and set aside. 
Grind green chili, ginger and garlic into fine paste and set aside.
Heat a small pan with a tablespoon of oil and add cumin seeds, mustard seeds, curry leaves, asafetodia and turmeric powder. Once mustard seeds start spluttering remove from the fire and set aside.
In a medium bowl add mashed potato, salt, green chili-ginger-garlic paste and cumin-mustard-curry leaves-asafetodia-turmeric mixture, lemon juice and chopped coriander leaves and mix everything. 
Knead well to form potato mixture dough and make small lemon sized balls from the potato dough and set aside. 
In another pan add besan, chili powder, turmeric, asafetodia, baking soda and water to form a slightly thick batter (If you dip a spoon, back side of the spoon should coat with batter. If batter is thin, potato balls don’t get uniform covering and burn easily. If batter is thick, inside won’t fry properly) and set aside.
Heat oil in a thick bottomed pan and when it reaches to 360 F dip potato balls in the besan batter and slowly add to hot oil. Try to add oil with spoon over the potato balls until a net all over and gradually flip and cook both sides. It takes about 2 minutes per sides.

Remove them from oil with slotted spoon and drain the extra oil using a kitchen towel.

Enjoy with green chutney and ketchup or date and tamarind chutney.

For vada pav

What you need

Pav /dinner rolls: 12no ( I used home made Parker House Rolls)
Butter: 1 tablespoon
Green chutney: ½ cup (Recipe here)
Tomato ketchup: as much you wish

How I made

Take a single roll and break in the center lather with butter and slightly warm both side.

Brush the inside with green chutney first and then Ketchup and place a Batata vada in between and enjoy with warm tea or coffee.

Preparation time: 55 minutes
Yield: 12 no
Verdict: Yummy
Will you make it again; Yes I will

This  Batata vada is going to  Deep fried snacks event hosted by Radhika

1

More Snacks.

Reader Interactions

Comments

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  1. Apani Rasoi says

    Very nice and detailed recipe steps.

    Thanks,
    Apani Rasoi
    http://apanirasoi.in

    Reply

  2. Meena says

    hahaha i m a mumbaikar and why wont i know this vada pav. staple food of every mumbaikars and the smell which comes while mixing masalas is yummy..
    and near my place is vada pav vendor and i see how he mixes it

    urs look perfect and ya even though this post is more than a yr old so just been checking out ur posts

    Reply

  3. Manasi says

    OMG! Vada Paav is my FAV!!! I spent 2 yresrs of my MMS eating vada-paav and cutting chai....

    Reply

  4. Usha says

    The vada pav looks just perfect and oh so tempting !

    Reply

  5. RAKS KITCHEN says

    The last pic is a teaser,tempting me a lot! Nice post,loved it!

    Reply

  6. Jay says

    very innovative n tasty recipe...love your special touch..
    Tasty appetite

    Reply

  7. ManPreet Kaur says

    ymmmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy nice dish dear

    Keep Visiting Dear Friends....Thanx
    Lyrics Mantra
    Music Bol

    Reply

  8. Nancy and Vijay says

    Yummm....

    Reply

  9. Ellie (Almost Bourdain) says

    Delicious looking fritters!! Best sandwich filling 🙂

    Reply

  10. girlichef says

    Make me up a sandwich...these sound beautiful! I love the sound of the rolls and the awesome potato filling. YUM!

    Reply

  11. michelangelo in the kitchen says

    The batata vada and dinner rolls just look so delicious. This is makes a complete meal for me, and some tamarind chutney of course! Thanks Swathi for this delightful recipe!

    Reply

  14. Ananda Rajashekar says

    This is just so good, and great for this climate LOve!

    Reply

  15. Kairali sisters says

    Ohhh i love this ..Looks great tto...

    Reply

  16. Sarah Naveen says

    temptation in a big platter...pass me that...yummyyyy!!!

    Reply

  17. Priya Sreeram says

    the batata vadas looks totally wow and lovely explanation ! btw i really had a blast laughing watching the you tube clip--- was a thorough mood lifter !

    Reply

  18. Krithi's Kitchen says

    Wonderful step by step clicks!

    Reply

  19. ManPreet Kaur says

    hey like your dish dear... 2 yammyy

    Keep Visiting My Blog Thanx...
    Lyrics Mantra
    Music Bol

    Reply

  20. Rekha shoban says

    perfect vada pav...looks inviting and yummy!

    Reply

  21. Renata says

    These looks amazing! I'm learning so much from your posts. Here in Korea, there is a foreigner market that sells lots of Indian ingredients. I'm getting more and more encouraged to start trying my hand at Indian cuisine.

    Reply

  23. aipi says

    Yumm, makes me hungry..

    US Masala

    Reply

  25. notyet100 says

    i am hungry,...;-)

    Reply

  26. Chow and Chatter says

    very cool and hope you get to see more of mumbai in future

    Reply

  27. Claudia says

    Are the fritters also made sometimes in an unniappan pan? I got an aebleskiver pan which is similar and made some fritters with besan in that. Your recipe sounds much better than the one I used.

    Reply

  28. Peggy says

    This sounds like such a tasty dish!

    Reply

  29. ? says

    Wish we could have some immediately! All those street froods would've been perfect for this weather!

    Reply

  30. garlutti says

    I love this recipe, very good step by step explanations. Looks delicious.

    Cheers!
    Marimi

    Reply

  31. vineetha says

    Feel like having it now...kothipikalle..

    Reply

  32. Faith says

    The fritters look wonderful...and I love how you served them sandwiched in dinner rolls...delicious!

    Reply

  33. G.Pavani says

    yummy n delicious vada with potatos

    Reply

  34. savitha ramesh says

    lovely combo.....we call it as aloo bonda....urs is also cute swathi....

    Reply

  35. Priya says

    Omg, mouthwatering dishes, feel like grabbing some batata vadas,am hungry now..

    Reply

  36. Pushpa says

    Vada pav looks delicious Swathi.You almost took me to Mumbai with the write up.

    Reply

  37. kitchen queen says

    O M G My mouth is watering like anything I am coming over now please leave some vada pav for me as it is my hot favourite.In Mumbai just near our house there is a hawker who makes fresh vada pav and sells.almost every alternate day we just dash in and enjoy the vada pavs very freshly made and very very tasty too.

    Reply

  38. divya says

    wow...looks awesome and delicious...

    Reply

  39. kaarasaaram.com says

    lovely looking snacks...love the way u have presented...making me hungry
    Reva

    Reply

  40. Mona says

    Delectable indeed! Your post made me very hungry.

    http://zaiqa.net

    Reply

  41. sinfullyspicy says

    I have lived in Pune for a long time and we used to go to mumbai very often..Vada pav is like chaat in delhi..u have done it perfectly.looks yum!

    Reply

  42. Malar Gandhi says

    Oh man, that is extremely amazing...love this snack so much:)

    Reply

  43. Yummy Team says

    Never tasted batata vada before..Looks absolutely tasty..Batata vada songum kollam ketto 🙂 Eni ethonnu taste cheyyanam!!

    Reply

  44. Hamaree Rasoi says

    Perfect is the right word for it. Vada pavs look wonderful.

    Deepa
    Hamaree Rasoi

    Reply

  45. Nithya says

    I recently tasted vada pav for the first time and liked it too. So this post will help me a lot to try it at home 🙂 thanks for sharing 🙂

    Reply

  46. Roshan says

    very yumilicious....

    Reply

  47. Sayantani says

    yummy is the word for this platter. tempting and my mouth is watering.

    Reply

  48. Sharmilee! :) says

    I luv vada pav, recently I tried it at home and was happy with the results, urs look perfect

    Reply

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