By now,my love for street food is very obvious to all the visitors of my blog,and i can still go on with many more recipes glorifying the variety, taste,aroma,easy accessibility and budget friendly costs of street food( hygiene concerns and stomach upsets could be overlooked) I can rave on and on about the variations available for each snack ,moving from one vendor to another.

Patate wada,or aloo tikki or Batata wada to others…is one such snack that enjoy a very prestigious position amongst all the street food sold here in Mumbai.The most staple food to many ,this Wada makes a heady combination of boiled and spiced up potatoes,coated with chickpea batter and deep fried ,lying snugly between a Pav(soft bun), and coated with dry chilly chutney and tangy tamarind chutney.A bite of this concoction,and you know what heaven means (to a foodie ofcourse)!

I have ate and tried numerous variations of this tikki.Some recipes call for gingergarlic base ,some asks for mustard currypata,and some recipes involve use of just dry masalas to boiled and mashed potato.But my personal favorite  is one that is made by Shankar Nasta house,a very popular place to have your weekend breakfast.Be it crispy pakwan to be enjoyed with fabulous and perfectly spiced up Dalmoong,or Daltoast.Samosas ot bater papdi,and of course patate ji tikki.

I am not aware of his recipe to make this wonderful tikkis,but my experience of making wonders and blunders in kitchen prompted me to try to recreate it in my Rasoi.I wont say i succeeded completely,but yes it was a good attempt to begin with

The tikkis of shankar nashta house has an unique flavor that is imparted by Mint leaves….yes you heard it right…mint leaves.That brings out a Hatke (different) taste of this Tikki.

One more thing that i would like to bring to notice of readers of this recipe is ..use of baking powder instead of Soda bi carb I am not sure whether this is universal practice or just pertaining to my family ,friends and relatives…..I have seen everyone using soda bi carb or Mithi soda,in batter for making pakoras .I agree that it gives a nice crispiness to the layer after frying but many times it gives a bit bitter taste,atleast with me this was a regular problem.I always cursed my grocery man for passing on stale or outdated Soda ,untill i came across Jaibee’s version (Jai’s version to be precise)to make the batter using baking powder.He was kind enough to explain this,

you can use baking powder which releases the gas only when the dough reaches high temp.baking soda has to be used immediately – else will fall flat. baking soda could also leave the taste bitter unless countered with other things. (while)baking powder has both acid and base so is neutral to taste

Thanks jai for this tip and many more.Jai  FRIED wadas in appam pan using 3.5 tspn of oil,and most of it was left behind after frying wadas….sounds like gimmick…nopes..thats a fact and you can trust these guys for making and sharing healthy recipes with most amazing ,droolworthy pics of their Kitchen creations

Now back to my version of making Oh so flavorful batata wada !

Ingredients:

For potato balls:

• Potatoes 2 medium sized(will make about 5-6 wadas)
• Salt
• Mint leaves 5-10 leaves,depending upon the flavor preferred
• Green chillies 2 or more
• Garam masala powder 1/4 tsp
• Whole coriander seeds few
• Cummin seeds 1/4 tsp
• Amchoor powder(few pinches) or lemon juice(1 tsp) whatever available
• Coriander leaves to garnish

For Batter:

• Chickpea flour or besan 1cup
• salt
• Red chilly powder 1/4 tspn
• Ajwain seeds 1/4 tspn
• Baking powder a pinch
• Water to make the batter few spoons

Oil for frying

Method:

• Boil,peel amd mash potatoes
• Now add all ingredients listed under For potato Balls
• Mix properly and make ping ball sized wadas from them Keep aside ,and head over to make batter to coat these
• For batter,mix besan,salt,chilly powder,ajwain,and baking powder and mix well
• Then keep on adding water spoon by spoon and mixing batter properly so that no lumps are formed
• Add water till batter achieves a thick consistency
• Meanwhile heat the oil in frying pan or kadai
• Now carefully dip each potato ball in besan batter,and coat it fully with batter,with the help of a spoon Gently pick up this coated wada,with the spoon and slide it in frying pan
• Fry it on high flame for 2-3 seconds and then on low flame for few more seconds ,tossing it regularly so as to fry these wadas uniformly
• You can fry it for once or if u care a damn about calories,half fry it first,then take out of kadai,let them cool a bit for a minute ,gently press a bit,and then deep fry again ,to attain that crisp layer of besan
• Serve hot with pav,bread,or roti or Just with chutney or ketchup