Aloo Bonda/Vada and Mirchi Vada

Whoa....finally I'm posting my all time favorite recipe copied from my mom's cooking pot...Ah, I just love the way she makes it and no one can ever beat those Aloo Bondas/Vadas. Though I've taken this recipe from my mom and have tried to do full justice to it, but I don't know how far have I gone. My mom loves Mirchi Vadas and hence I'm sharing the two recipes together. This post is specially for you, Mumma....miss you and love you! :)

ALOO BONDA/VADA

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Serves: 6

Health Meter:

I always give nutrition facts about the ingredients I push in, but this time the key ingredient is 'Mommy Love', so I could not write anything which could match its value. I should have posted this a week back on Mother's Day and I know I'm a little late, but each day is Mother's Day, so here it goes for all you moms and moms-to-be. :)

All You Need: 

For the Filling:

1. Potatoes (medium sized) - 6 (boiled and peeled)

2. Onion (medium sized) - 1(finely chopped)

3. Green Chilli: 1(finely chopped)

4. Fresh Coriander Leaves: 1/2 cup (finely chopped)

5. Cumin seeds (jeera): 1/2 tsp

6. Mustard seeds (rai): 1/2 tsp

7. Aniseeds (saunf): 1/2 tsp

8. Turmeric Powder: 1 tsp

9. Red Chilli Powder: 2 tsp (this could vary based on how spicy you want)

10. Coriander Powder: 3 tsp

11. Cumin Powder: 1 tsp

12. Salt: 3 tsp or as per taste

13. Nimbu Ka Sat (Citric acid Crystals) - 1/2 tsp (powdered) or 1 tbs Amchoor (Dry Mango Powder)

14. Oil

For the Batter:

1. Besan (Gram Flour) - 1 cup

2. Water: 1 cup

3. Hot oil: 1 tbs

4. Salt: 1 tsp

5. A dash of baking soda

Method:

1. First, we'll prepare the filling. Take potatoes and boil them in a pressure cooker. Once boiled, take them out on a plate and let them cool for 5 minutes. Peel off the skin and mash them (leave them slightly coarse), but be careful not to leave any water in them, else the consistency will get altered.
2. Take 3 tbs oil in a pan and heat it. Add cumin seeds, mustard seeds and aniseed to it. Let them splutter. 
3. Now add the chopped onion, and fry till golden brown. Add the green chilli.
4. Next, add the mashed potato followed by the spices and salt. Cook for 5 minutes. 
5. At last add the nimbu ka sat/ dry mango powder and chopped coriander leaves and mix well. Keep this filling aside.
6. Now prepare the batter. Take the gram flour/besan and add salt, hot oil and baking soda to it. Mix well. Slowly add water with continuous stirring to avoid formation of lumps.
7. Heat oil in a a kadai/pan on high flame. Check if the oil is optimally hot by dropping a small portion of the batter and see it rises up on the surface and doesn't stick to the bottom.
8. Now make 12 small balls of the aloo filling and dip them in the batter (one by one). Immediately transfer them in the hot oil, slowly, one after the other. Keep the flame on medium. Don't overcrowd; put 3-4 balls at a time.
9. Now keep rolling them to make sure they don't stick to the bottom or get hyper-pigmented on just one side. If they start getting black/dark brown immediately on dropping, reduce the flame.
10. Once they turn golden brown, take them out with a ladle and let the excess oil be soaked by a tissue paper/kitchen tissue. 
11. Serve hot with coriander mint chutney or tamarind chutney. 

MIRCH VADA/BHAJJI:

Ingredients: 

1. Thick Green/ Yellow Chillies (Mirch): 12

For the Filling: 

- Same as for aloo bonda/vada

For the Batter:

- Same as for aloo bonda/vada

Method:

1. Prepare the filling and the batter in a similar fashion as we did for Aloo Bondas/Vadas. Or, you could make 6 aloo bondas and 6 mirchi vadas with the above prepared filling (I always prefer such short-cuts and combos).
2. Take the chillies/michi and wash them well. Dry them and make a vertical insertion in each in a way that the chilli is not cut into two pieces (like how we cut veggies for making stuffed/bharwaan preparations).
3. Now remove the seeds from each chilli and fill them with the aloo mixture. Keep them properly stuffed and close the slits by pressing hard on the sides.
4. Now dip them in the batter one by one and deep fry in a similar manner as we did for aloo bondas/vadas.
5. Serve immediately but be careful of not burning your tongue with the sizzling hot chillies/bhajji. ;)

Common Tips:

1. Always be careful while peeling off the potato skin. First, don't burn yourself, and secondly, don't let any water get into the peeled/mashed mixture. If you want, you can put cold water on the boiled potatoes and then peel them off, but always dry the outer surface of the potatoes before peeling.
2. Do not use excess oil for cooking the aloo mixture else it will be difficult for you to prepare round balls; they'd actually flatten up.
3. Don't overheat the oil for frying (which is indicated by fumes coming out of the oil) else the vadas will burn. Just keep the temperature right by adjusting as per need.
4. If you have bread at home and need one more variety to add on to the menu, just make bread pakodas with the same aloo mixture and gram flour batter/besan ghol.

I'm linking this recipe to:

"Every Tuesday " event started  by Priya and Aipi.