Pan-Fried Aloo Vada For Vada Pav (Indian Pan Fried Potato Patties)

Pan-Fried Aloo-Vada with Chutney

Vada-Pav is the fast food of Maharashtra. Piping hot Aloo-vada, soft pav with hot spicy chutney and finely cut onion, cilantro brings water to every body’s mouth. Being fried it is nightmare for weight watchers. Difficult choice has to be made indulge or control. My daughter in-law overcame this problem by making pan-fried vada with hardly any oil in them. God bless her for this. Delicious least oily these vadas can be had with pav/bread for breakfast/brunch or with chutney/sauce for snack.

Preparation Time: 30-40-min.

Cooking Time: 10 minutes/Vada

Servings: 12 Vadas of Medium Size

Ingredients Required For making Pan-Fried Vada For Vada-Pav:

For Filling:

• 750 gm. Potatoes 
• 1 Inch piece Ginger
• 10-12 Cloves of Garlic
• 5-6 Green Chilies
• 5-6 Sprigs of Cilantro
• 1Teaspoon Olive oil/any cooking oil
• 1 Teaspoon Cumin Seeds
• 1 Teaspoon Mustard Seeds
• 1 Teaspoon Amchur Powder
• 8-10 curry leafs (Kadi patta)
• Salt to taste

For Batter:

• 250 gm. Besan
• 1/2Teaspoon Turmeric Powder
• 1 Teaspoon Red Chili Powder
• 1 Teaspoon Garam Masala
• 1 Pinch of eating Soda
• Salt to taste

Ingredients For Batter

• Water

• 2 ml. oil for cooking the vadas

Directions For Making Pan-Fried Aloo Vada For Vada-Pav:

• Boil the potatoes.
• Peel and mash the boiled potatoes.

Boiled and Mashed Potatoes

• Cut garlic, green chilies, and cilantro fine.
• Grate ginger.
• In a wok heat 1 ml oil.
• When the oil is smoking hot add
• Mustard seeds
• Cumin seeds
• When the seeds have crackled and spluttered then add
• Kadi patta
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Green chilies
• Cook for 2-3 minutes.

Seasoning Ready For Potatoes

• Add
• Mashed potatoes

Mashed Potatoes in Seasoning

• Turmeric
• Salt and mix nicely.
• Cook for 4-5 min. with continuous stirring.
• Filling (Masala) of Aloo-vada is ready.

Filling For Vada

• Take the filling in a bowl and allow it to cool without covering the bowl.

For Batter:

• In a bowl take
• Besan
• Salt
• Turmeric
• Garam masala
• Red chili powder
• Salt and pinch of eating soda
• Mix all ingredients nicely and start adding water slowly with continuous beating.
• Add water till thick but pourable batter is formed.

Batter of Besan and Spices

For Pan Fried Vada:

• Heat a thick pan with edges.
• When the pan is hot sprinkle 4-5 drops of oil on it and spread the oil with spatula.
• Reduce the flame.
• Divide the filling masala to 12 parts.
• Make round balls and then flatten them by gently pressing then between your palms.

Flattened Filling Ball

• Dip one flattened ball of filling at one time to the batter and coat it nicely with batter.
• Gently place it on the hot oiled pan.

Filling Coated with Batter and Placed on Hot Oiled Pan

• Repeat and place them at 2-3 cm. distances from each other for easy handling while turning over.
• Let the vada cook for 3-4 min. on low flame.
• The lower surface will become golden brown and the upper surface will change the color to darker yellow.

Different Stages of Vadas

• Turn over the Vada and allow it to cook on low flame till the color of the flipped side also becomes golden brown.
• Keep shifting the vadas so that they touch the edge of pan. This will make sure the vada is cooked from all sides
• Vadas are ready.

Pan-Fried Vada with Chutney

• Repeat till all are cooked.
• Cut the Pav (Unleavened bread) / Burger bun to half.
• Apply coriander-mint chutney on one side and place hot Vada on it.
• Sprinkle some finely cut onions, cilantro and place the other half on it.
• Healthy Vada –pav is ready.Or simply sandwich it between two slices of bread lined with sauce/chutney and enjoy with tea/coffee.

Tips:

• Pan with edges is must to make sure batter from the edges of vada is cooked.
• Do not overcook the potatoes while boiling otherwise the filling will not be firm and vadas will not come out nice.
• Mash the potatoes nicely but do not make paste of them.
• While making batter add water in little proportions to avoid the batter from becoming thin.
• Beating of batter should be done continuous to avoid lump formation.
• Do not leave the filling flattened balls in the batter, just dip and then cover rest of the surface with batter using spoon.
• Do not cook the vadas on high flame otherwise the batter will remain uncooked from inside and brittle and hard from outside.

Alternate Suggestions:

• Finely cut onions can be added to the spluttered seeds and cooked till transparent before adding garlic etc.
• One teaspoon oil can be added to besan mixture before adding water.
• If you wish 2-3 drops of oil can be sprinkled over the vadas while they are being cooked.