Batata vada!!

Sorry peeps! 5 months have gone by without a word from me. Finally got my craft stuff and been crafting ever since..This is where you'll find me most of the time - Tejal Creates.

Anyhow, with the rains here, DH has been pestering me for something fried. And you might not belive me, but I have never made any fried food..I do eat it outside, but making it at home!! I generally gag at the thought of so much oil..And then I happened upon Dhivya's recipe (I hope I got your name right, never seen a mention of it, only DK) and therefore was totally inspired to cook hubby some fattening food with less oil..nothing better than batata vada for the true blood mumbaikar!!

I took the process but made it with the stuffing of a batata vada, with loads of garlic and chillies. And please forgive the photos, these are all I could take with DH standing behind me sneaking one vada at a time..so half of them are gone before I could photograph them..

List of ingredients ( made 10 vadas )

• 4 med size potatoes -boiled
• 4 large cloves of garlic (you can add more or less)
• 2 green chillies
• salt to taste

For tempering

• 1 tsp oil
• 1 tsp urad dal (split black lentils)
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 5-6 curry leaves
• pinch of asafoetida

For the batter :

• about 2 tbsp channa flour (Besan)
• 1  tbsp rice flour
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder, or as per taste
• little salt to taste)

Method :

• Mash the potatoes well.
• Mash the garlic and green chillies to a fine paste, add it to the potatoes.
• Add salt to taste.
• For the tempering, heat the oil, add the urad dal, as soon as it turns pink add the mustard seeds.
• Let them crackle, then add curry leaves, and asafoetida. add turmeric in the end and take of the flame immediately, lest it burn. Adding the turmeric  in the tempering reduces the raw taste of turmeric which I generally don't like.
• Add it to the potatoes and mix well. 
• Shape into small balls, that should fit into the wells of the appe pan.

• Mix the ingredients of the batter and make a thick batter so that it can coat the vada's well. Add less salt in the batter, since the vada's already have salt 

Add 1 tsp oil into each well of the appe pan, let it heat up. Dip  the vadas into the batter and then drop it into the well of the pan. Let it brown on the underside before you turn it. It should take about 5-6 min for the vada to be done perfectly. Keep turning, so that it cooks well on all sides. And when frying for the next batch, put some more oil in the appe moulds, let it heat up and then add the rest of the vadas to cook.

Sadly this is the only photo I managed of the vadas. The rest were gone!! Enjoy on a cold rainy evening!