Vada Pav

Vada Pav (Chickpea battered potato fritters sandwiched between different chutneys all inside a bun) is another great Indian street food. Since I've never tried it myself in India and I was yearning for that Indian experience, I tried making it myself at home. Boy, am I glad I did because who knew it would be so easy?! I actually entertained with this meal as a light lunch, and everyone enjoyed it. Here is the recipe ...

"the Vada":
5 potatoes, boiled and peeled
1 cup frozen peas
roasted cashews, handful
1 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp green chili paste
1 tsp red chili powder
1 tbsp coriander powder
Pinch of asafoetida powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
Salt to taste

For the batter: (what to do with leftover batter, click here)
1 cup chickpea/besan flour
1 cup water
1 tsp red chili powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp coriander powder
Pinch of asafoetida powder
Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying
"the Pav" (or Sandwich Buns)
Butter to spread on pav
Green Chutney
Red Chutney (aka ketchup) .. in India, they spread tamarind chutney, but I didn't have the tamarind paste to make it.

1. Peel the potatoes. Keep to side.
2. In a microwave-safe bowl, soak the peas with twice the amount of water to boil them in the microwave for about 1 minute.
3. Mash the potato-pea mixture. Add all of the spices and mix together. Form big golf ball sized balls with the mixture and keep to side.
4. Make the batter to coat the fritters by mixing the chickpea flour with water, enough to have a thin consistency.
5. Right when you are about to serve, fry the fritters like so: Dunk the potato balls in the batter and deep fry until golden brown. Drain off the excess oil onto paper towels.
6. Spread the butter on the pav and toast on the skillet.
7. Place the toasted pav, fried vadas and chutneys on the center of table and let everyone assemble their own sandwiches.

On a side note, in the list of ingredients, it may look to you like there is too much spice action going on. You actually will need to add the spices in the potato mixture as well as in the batter. The potatoes will suck up most of the spiciness when you deep fry. This recipe made 12 vada pavs, 2 for every 6 people. It tasted delicious, and the best part was that there was hardly that much effort involved. I will definitely be making this again .. and again ... and again!