Bateta Vada Party!

It was during my non-blogging days that Anita of A Mad Tea Party had organized the puri-bhaji party. Though I did not send in my entry, I did end up cooking it at home after seeing so many different varieties pop up all over the blogging world. So when she announced yet another party..a Batata Vada party, I just couldn’t resist participating.

I won’t lie and say I hate deep fried food…unless of course it is literally swimming in oil, then I do! Both J and I love anything that is deep fried. But we make a conscious effort not to eat deep fried foods. We rarely deep fry anything at home. Main reasons being: 1. unhealthy 2. what a wastage of oil! I just don’t know what to do with the used oil and I hate to throw it in garbage. I remember my mom using that oil to cook various vegetables and dals over the next few days. However, we do not cook dishes that require oil that often. I would love to hear what you guys do at home with the remaining used oil.

In my entire life I had only made bateta vada once. They tasted really good, but I never made them again because of the above reasons. However, I loved (still love) eating them every time mom made them. Just thinking about them would make my mouth water. When I explained to J about what we would be having for dinner, he was little bit skeptical…mainly because he did not know/understand what I was talking about. So I used the terms “deep fried potato sandwich”..which made him smile ear to ear! I made vada pav, which is easy once you have the vada all done. When we sat down for dinner, I could barely stop my self from chowing down the vada pav in one bite. J, who had it for the first time ever, loved it as well.  I hope y’all enjoy the gujju version of bateta vada! Happy Party’ing! 😀

Ta

Recipe: Bateta Vada (Vada Pav)
(Makes 8 bateta vada)

Ingredients

3 medium sized potatoes (boiled)
2 green chillis
1 inch piece of ginger
3 tsp lime juice
1 tsp sugar
salt per taste
1/2 cup besan (gram flour)
1/4 cup water (may vary per personal choice)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
8 burger buns
Oil for deep frying

Lasan (Garlic) Chutney

5 cloves of garlic
1/2 Tbsp red chilli powder (+ or – according to your taste)
salt per taste

Tamarind Chutney

1/2 Tbsp tamarind paste
1/2 tsp jaggery
1/4 tsp ground cumin
salt per taste

Method

For lasan chutney, grind garlic and salt together till you obtain a smooth mixture. Now add red chilli powder and grind till you get a thick, smooth mix.

For tamarind chutney, in a microwave safe bowl, add tamarind paste and jaggery and 1 tsp of water. Heat in the microwave for 40 sec. Stir the mix while melting the jaggery. Add salt and cumin to the tamarind-jaggery mix per. Add water as necessary for desired thickness of the chutney.

Grind ginger and green chilli together. In a bowl, mash the boiled potatoes. Add the ginger-green chilli paste, salt, lime juice, sugar to the mashed potatoes. Adjust the amounts of salt, sugar, lime juice according to your taste. Make golf sized balls of the mashed potatoes mixture.

In a separate bowl, mix besan, salt, red chilli powder, baking powder together. Add water while continuously mixing (to avoid any lumps) to get a thick batter.

Heat oil in a pan till it is piping hot. Take the potato ball and dip in the batter so that it is covered with batter evenly on all sides. Gently drop the battered potato ball in the hot oil and let it fry till light brown. Scoop it out of the hot oil and lay it on a plate covered with paper towel. Repeat the process till all the potato vadas are fried.

For vada pav, apply garlic and tamarind chutney on the inner side of a burger bun. Sandwich the vada between the bun and enjoy the sweet, spicy, fried goodness!