Bataka Vadaબટાકા વડા
Spiced potato balls dipped in gram flour batter and fried. Eat them with chutney as they are, or tuck one into a pav and you have vada pav.
Ingredients
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- 4 boiled potatoes, mashed
- 1 tsp ginger-garlic-chilli paste
- Mustard seeds, asafoetida, turmeric, curry leaves
- Coriander, lemon juice, salt
- Batter: 1 cup gram flour, a pinch of soda, turmeric, salt
- Oil for deep frying
Method
- Temper mustard seeds, asafoetida and curry leaves in oil and fry the ginger-garlic-chilli paste.
- Add the mashed potato, turmeric, salt, lemon and coriander, cook 3 minutes, cool and shape into balls.
- Whisk a thick, smooth gram flour batter.
- Dip the balls and fry in hot oil until golden.
- Serve hot with green chutney and fried chillies.
Tips
- A thick batter is what makes the coating stick.
- Keep the oil medium-hot; cooler oil makes the coating slide off.
Storing and reheating
Vada are at their best within ten minutes of coming out of the oil. Left uncovered, the gram flour shell absorbs steam and goes limp. They keep two days in an airtight box in the fridge. To crisp them again, shallow fry on a tawa or air fry for five minutes; a microwave turns the coating soft and rubbery. The filling can be made a day ahead.
What you can swap
- Two tablespoons of rice flour in the batter gives a crisper shell that holds up a little longer once cool. Do not add more than that or the coating turns hard instead of crisp.
- If you avoid garlic, use ginger-chilli paste with a pinch of asafoetida. The flavour is different but the filling does not taste flat, because the asafoetida fills some of that gap.
- The soda in the batter is optional. Without it the shell is denser and less puffed. Whisk in a teaspoon of hot oil instead to keep it from being heavy.
- No lemon? Use a pinch of amchur or half a teaspoon of tamarind pulp. If you use tamarind, add it while the filling cooks rather than at the end.
What to serve with it
With evening chai, green chutney and fried chillies is how this is eaten at home. Split a pav, smear dry garlic chutney inside, press a vada in and you have vada pav. It is also the classic thing to fry on a wet afternoon.
Mistakes to avoid
- Shape the balls only once the filling is completely cold. Warm filling sticks to your palms, the ball stays loose and it splits the moment it hits the oil.
- Roll each ball between your palms and look for cracks, then press them closed. Even a hairline crack lets oil in and the vada ends up greasy.
- Do not crowd the kadhai. The oil temperature drops, the coating starts sliding off and the vada soak up oil. Four or five at a time is plenty.
- Never blitz hot boiled potatoes in a mixer. Mash by hand or with a masher. A mixer develops the starch into a gluey paste and the filling will not hold a shape.
Questions people ask
My vada break open in the oil. What am I doing wrong?
Check three things: whether the filling was cold, whether the ball had a crack in it, and whether the batter coated the whole surface. After dipping, hold the ball for two seconds to let excess batter drip off, then slide it in down the side of the kadhai rather than dropping it.
Can vada be made in advance?
You can shape the filling into balls and keep them in the fridge for a day, or in the freezer for a month. Bring them to room temperature for half an hour before dipping. Always whisk the batter fresh, though. Batter that has sat for hours loses its body and slides off the ball.
Can I make these with less oil?
An air fryer or an appam pan will work, but it is not really a vada. The gram flour coating only puffs in deep oil; in an air fryer it stays dry and hard. If you want a low-oil version, skip the batter altogether, pat the potato filling into tikki and shallow fry them on a tawa.
