Monday, January 23, 2012

Vada Pav


I LOVE Bombay street food...I miss Bombay street food...woh Jai ka Sandwich, woh Anna ka Dosa, woh Mithibai ka Vada Pav, woh Juhu ka Pav Bhaji ...hmmmm.... 

And hence nostalgia is a form of self torture ;-) ;-)

Batter for the Vada's outer crust:
Mix Besan (gram flour), salt, chilli powder, a pinch of cooking soda and water to form a rather thick batter (slightly thicker in consistency than what you make for pakodas)

For the Vada:
1. Boil and mash some potatoes. Keep it aside.
2. Heat oil in a small pan. When oil becomes hot add some mustard seeds. After the mustard seeds crackle, add a pinch of hing (asafoetida), chopped curry leaves & coarsely chopped ginger-garlic-green chillies. Saute this for about a minute and then add this mixture to the mashed potatoes.
3. Additionally add salt & haldi (turmeric powder) to the mashed potatoes.
4. Mix all of the above ingredients well together and then make small round balls for frying.

Assembling the Vada Pav:
1. Heat some oil in a kadhai for deep frying.  
2. Dip the round potato balls into the thick batter and roll till they are coated with besan. Now fry the Vadas till the batter cooks into a crisp crust.
3. Cut some Pav (bread) into two halves. Apply coriander chutney and tamarind chutney on both sides. Put the fried Vada in between the slices and serve. 


Note:
1. For the bread you can use mini burger buns, dinner rolls, hot dog buns, slice of bread cut into 2 halves....anything goes :-)
2. Be generous with the chutneys or else the Vada Pav will taste very dry.
3. Do not add more soda or the batter will drink too much oil. 

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