Vada Pav
A spiced potato ball in a gram-flour jacket, jammed into a soft roll with dry garlic chutney. Eat it standing up.
- Prep
- 25m
- Cook
- 25m
- Total
- 50m
- Serves
- 6
- Effort
- Involved
Method
Tap a step number to mark it done. Tap an ingredient once for got it, twice for need it.
| 1 cup | Whisk to a thick, clinging batter 3m It should coat a spoon opaquely. Thin batter slides off the ball in the oil. | Fry at 180°C until the coating is set and pale gold 10m Pale gold, not brown. Everything inside is already cooked; you are only setting the batter. | Split the pav, smear both faces with chutney, press the vada in and squash the roll shut 3m Squash it properly. A vada pav that holds its shape has not been assembled correctly. | ||
| 1 tbsp | |||||
| 1/4 tsp | |||||
| 1/2 tsp | |||||
| 1/2 tsp | |||||
| a pinch | |||||
| about 1/2 cup | |||||
| 2 tbsp | Crackle the mustard seeds, then stir in the paste and curry leaves 3m | Mash the hot potato into the tempering and roll into 6 balls 8m Mash while hot. Cold potato goes gluey when you work it. | |||
| 1 tsp | |||||
| 1/4 tsp | |||||
| 1/2 tsp | |||||
| 10 | |||||
| 2 tbsp | |||||
| 600 g | |||||
| a handful | |||||
| 1 tbsp | |||||
| 1 tsp | |||||
| for deep frying | |||||
| 10 cloves | Blitz the dry garlic chutney coarse 4m Coarse, so it stays gritty against the soft bread. | ||||
| 1/3 cup | |||||
| 2 tbsp | |||||
| 2 tbsp | |||||
| 1/2 tsp | |||||
| 6 | |||||
| 6 tsp | |||||
| 6 | |||||
-
Whisk to a thick, clinging batter
3m- gram flour 1 cup
- rice flour 1 tbsp
- ground turmeric 1/4 tsp
- red chilli powder 1/2 tsp
- salt 1/2 tsp
- bicarbonate of soda a pinch
- water about 1/2 cup
It should coat a spoon opaquely. Thin batter slides off the ball in the oil.
-
Crackle the mustard seeds, then stir in the paste and curry leaves
3m- neutral oil 2 tbsp
- mustard seeds 1 tsp
- asafoetida 1/4 tsp
- ground turmeric 1/2 tsp
- curry leaves 10
- ginger, garlic and green chilli paste 2 tbsp
-
Mash the hot potato into the tempering and roll into 6 balls
8m- from 2 Crackle the mustard seeds, then stir in the paste and curry leaves
- floury potatoes 600 g
- coriander leaves a handful
- lemon juice 1 tbsp
- salt 1 tsp
Mash while hot. Cold potato goes gluey when you work it.
-
Fry at 180°C until the coating is set and pale gold
10m- from 1 Whisk to a thick, clinging batter
- from 3 Mash the hot potato into the tempering and roll into 6 balls
- neutral oil for deep frying
Pale gold, not brown. Everything inside is already cooked; you are only setting the batter.
-
Blitz the dry garlic chutney coarse
4m- garlic 10 cloves
- dried coconut 1/3 cup
- Kashmiri chilli powder 2 tbsp
- roasted peanuts (optional) 2 tbsp
- salt 1/2 tsp
Coarse, so it stays gritty against the soft bread.
-
Split the pav, smear both faces with chutney, press the vada in and squash the roll shut
3m- from 4 Fry at 180°C until the coating is set and pale gold
- from 5 Blitz the dry garlic chutney coarse
- pav 6
- green chutney 6 tsp
- green chillies (optional) 6
Squash it properly. A vada pav that holds its shape has not been assembled correctly.
Why the batter has rice flour in it
Gram flour on its own fries to a dense, slightly soft shell because it is high in protein and absorbs oil readily. A spoonful of rice flour brings in pure starch, which gelatinises and then dries in the hot oil into a thin, brittle crust. The pinch of soda helps too, releasing gas that opens the coating so steam can escape instead of softening it from within. Keep the oil at 180°C — lower and the batter drinks oil before it sets.
Notes
- Pound the ginger, garlic and chilli in a mortar rather than blending. You want threads of garlic, not a wet purée.
- The dry chutney is not a garnish. Without it the sandwich tastes of fried potato and nothing else.
- Fry in batches of three. Crowding drops the oil temperature and the vadas come out greasy.