Vada Pav

OK, so I took a big leap in cooking: I made Vada pav today!!! Vada Pav is to Mumbai, what Pizza is to Italy. Naturally, the Pav is not available here, so I got the makeshift Hamburger buns instead. Here are how the vada's turned out ...

It turned out really well, and undoubtedly it has been my best effort yet - first time right :)


Spicy:

Ingredients:

• 2 boiled potatoes
• 1/4 cup Gram flour (besan)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder (haldi)
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic paste
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger paste
• 2 green chillies
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 4 - 5 curry leaves
• Frying oil
• Pinch of baking soda
• Hamburger buns (Pav substitute)

Take gram flour in a bowl and add some water to it. Start with 1/2 cup of water and stir. Add water in small measures, and continue to stir, until the batter is just right. It should not be towards the dripping side, neither should it resemble a paste. Remember: this shall serve as the frying batter. Add two pinches of salt, and a pinch of baking soda to the batter. Keep the batter aside.

Mash the potatoes.

Grind the green chillies to a paste, and mix it with the garlic and ginger paste. (I already had green chilli paste, so I just mixed all the three pastes in a spoon) Add this paste and 1 teaspoon salt to the potatoes, and mix these ingredients. This step needs to be thorough, because you run a chance of having parts with too much garlic or ginger.

Now, in an open flat pan, heat 2 table spoons of oil on medium flame. I use corn oil for frying, and all cooking purposes, I think it tastes better than vegetable / canola oil. Add mustard seeds and curry leaves in the pan. When the mustard leaves begin to splutter, add the turmeric powder, and mix well. Wait half a minute, and take the pan off the heat. Add the mashed potatoes to the pan, and mix everything well. Put the mixture in a bowl, and mix it again using your hands.

If you ever attended a true Bombay school, you should smell the vadas already!

Heat some oil in a deep bottom pan. Ensure you have enough oil for deep frying. Heat the Oil on medium-high.

Make small balls from this potato mixture, dip them in the gram flour batter and add them to the oil, after ensuring that the oil is hot enough. To ensure that the oil is hot enough, add a drop or two of the batter to the oil. It should immediately rise up, frying.

Keep turning the vada around at regular intervals, making sure all sides are being fried.

Fry until the vada becomes golden brown. Take the vada out, and lay them on a newspaper or paper napkins to absorb the oil. That's it, your vadas are ready!!!!

If you do not access to pav, use hamburger buns.