Vada Pav

Hello boys and girls!

Welcome to cooking with Varun! You know how people claim to have one true love? Well, unsurprisingly, my one true love is a food item. A snack really. A snack native to the part of India I come from. A snack that makes me look forward to trips back home almost as much as I look forward to seeing my folks. Vada pav. Spicy, garlicky potatoes, dipped into a batter of gram flour and fried until golden and crisp. Wrapped up in a soft pav. Accompanied by a garlic or groundnut chutney and fried salted green chillies.. xfgfsgdfsgdvc gsgyfrtsa (excuse the gibberish.. that was caused by an involuntary shudder of longing!)

From eating them in a park with my friends with a can of Limca after a scouts meeting to sticking my hands out through the window bars of the Poona - Bombay train at Karjat station to buying some from the dingiest, most dodgy looking thelas or even lining up outside the canteen at school, my stories of vada pav love are infinite. Not a week goes by without me thinking, 'I'm hungry.. If only I could get a vada pav or 6!'. But alas, the UK does not have vada pav.. so I just do the next best thing.. Make it myself.

The unfortunate bit is, the last time I made them, I made the mistake of tossing a whole chilli into the frying oil without slitting it. The result: exploding chilli. The outcome: frying ban imposed by my landlady! But after months of not so patient waiting, she's going away on vacation for a couple of weeks so unless she reads this while she's on vacation and calls to admonish me, it's vada pav time baby!

On to the recipe now!

For my Vada Pav, you will need the following:

Potatoes	3-4 medium to large
Garlic	3-4 cloves
Green chillies	several
Mustard seeds	3 tsp
Haldi (turmeric) powder	2 tsp
Red chilli powder	1 tsp
Ajwain (carom seeds)	pinch
Besan (gram flour)	1 cup
Salt	to taste
Oil
Pav (small soft white rolls)
Garlic/groundnut chutney

Prep: 

Potatoes:

1. Boil the potatoes. (2-3 whistles in the pressure cooker should do it.)
2. Let the potatoes cool.
3. Peel and roughly mash them.
4. Chop 3 chillies.
5. Peel and chop the garlic cloves.
6. Slit the remaining chillies (to serve).

Batter:

1. Slowly add water to the gram flour and mix until you have a nice batter. (Try and work out the lumps as best you can.)
2. Sprinkle in some salt.
3. Toss in the ajwain.
4. Mix.

Method:

Potatoes:

1. Turn on the gas.
2. Bung a pan on.
3. Splash in some oil.
4. Count to 20.
5. Bounce in the mustard seeds.
6. Slide in the chopped chillies.
7. Add in the garlic.
8. Cook for a minute.
9. Add in the haldi and the red chilli powder.
10. Wait a couple of minutes until the masalas are cooked.
11. Add in the (almost) mashed potatoes.
12. Mix well until the potatoes are a uniform sunset yellow.
13. Salt to taste.
14. Cook for a couple of minutes.
15. Turn the gas off.
16. Wait 5 minutes until the potatoes cool a little.
17. Roll the potato mix into equal sized balls.
18. Slightly flatten them by pressing on them. 

Vadas:

1. Turn on the gas.
2. Bung a pan/kadhai on.
3. Splash in the oil. (Enough to deep fry or almost deep fry.)
4. Wait a couple of minutes until the oil is hot. (You can check by dripping in some of the batter to see how quickly it fries.)
5. Dunk a potato ball into the batter to coat it.
6. Slide it into the hot oil.
7. Sidestep the splashes.
8. Fry until dark golden.
9. Fish out the vada.
10. Shake off the excess oil into the pan.
11. Place on a tissue covered plate to absorb the remaining excess oil.
12. Repeat until all the vadas are ready.
13. Slide in the slit full chillies for about 30-45 seconds.
14. Fish them out onto a plate.
15. Sprinkle some salt on them.

To serve:

1. Cut open a pav.
2. Sprinkle in some garlic or groundnut chutney. (Store-bought is fine.)
3. Place the vada inside.
4. Serve with the fried salted chillies.
5. Stuff face.
6. Bask in the glory of your successfully executed dish.

Tip: Dunk sliced onions into the leftover batter and fry to make some wicked onion pakoras!

And remember, overeating is a myth. A full tummy is a happy tummy!