Vada Pav, Pakoras with bread, is a popular street food item in Mumbai, India, and which I strongly believe that you will find very few people in Mumbai, who would have not tasted Vada Pav. The ones who would not have tasted it even once, would be probably be the traditional Jains who would not consume root vegetables. A bee line queue exists at extremely famous places, such as, at my alma mater NMIMS College in Vile Parle, Kirti College Vada Pav stall, Sion Vada Pav, or H R College Vada pav place. at Churchgate. Every college going kid would find Vada Pav a quick meal to grab in between lectures, and often these street stalls would be a quick meeting points for the young in love, ,a place to hang out with a special someone and be treated to vada pav and chai. This is something that is easily afforded by a college going kid! Before the Baristas came into the scene, these were the local street baristas for the youngs ones to hang out!
Besides the colleges, one often finds this street food on railway stations in Maharashtra, and some railway stations such as Karjat near Lonavala are famous for their Vada Pavs too! A meal that is quick to eat, tastes yummy and for a native of Mumbai, it is simply irresistible. It is the vegetarian version of McDonalds Burgers, accompanied with tamarind, green and garlic chutneys.
According to an article in The Hindu, credit for creating this Mumbai Vada Pav Potato Fritters with Bread staple is given to Ashok Vaidya, a snack vendor who set up his stall just outside Dadar station, a major commuter hub in the metropolis. Vaidya reportedly came up with this recipe in 1971 to appease the hunger of the rush of commuters who wanted a snack they could carry and munch on without needing implements or cleansing wipes. He served it up with a fiery red chutney that could include coconut, peanuts, chillies, garlic and tamarind pulp. And it flew off his stall and straight into the eager mouths of the always-rushed daily commuter. More interesting details of the Vada Pav can be read at http://www.thehindu.com/features/magazine/article3657300.ece
On a frigid sub zero fahrenheit temperature day, Vada Pav Potato Fritters with Bread will definitely give you warmth, sparkle and comfy feeling, as often one tends to eat fried stuff, to beat the cold, My only regret is that one does not get raw green bananas that are easily available in India, and are the easiest substitute for a Jain family not wishing to consume potatoes. Since I am presenting the original version, I have enlisted all that is needed per the original version.
Recipe makes 9 Vada pavs
Ingredients[shopeat_button]
- 5 potatoes cut in half or 4 cups boiled and mashed potatoes. ( you can also use raw bananas , boiled and mashed)
- 4-5 garlic pods
- 2-3 tbsp of minced green chilies (5-6) and ginger ( 11/2 inch)
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- asafoetida
- 4 tbsp coriander leaves chopped
- 5-6 curry leaves
- 3 tbsp oil
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp red chilli powder
- oil for deep frying
- Greeen, Tamarind and Dry Garlic Cbutney ( refer recipe at http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/oct/03/vada-pav-sandwich-recipe-potato-chutney)
- 9 ladipav, or dinner rolls
For the covering
- 1 1/2 cup of besan gram flour
- 3/4 cups water
- salt to taste
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tbsp hot oil
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp red chilli powder
- pinch of asafoetida
- 1 tsp lemon juice
Method
For the Filling
- Cut the potatoes/raw green bananas in half, and boil in a pressure cooker with 3 cups of water to 6-7 whistles. A Jain householder would never boil anything as a whole, as if a vegetable has any worms or insects, it may get get burnt out.
- On cooling mash the potatoes/banana.
- Put 3 tbsp oil to heat.
- Add mustard seeds when the oil is warm and let it crackle.
- Add a pinch of asafoetida, curry leaves, coriander leaves minced green chillies, garlic and ginger to the oil.
- Remove from heat it after a minute.
- Add the oil flavoring to the mashed potatoes.
- Add, salt, turmeric and red chili powder, lemon juice and coriander to the potato/raw banana mix.
- Let it cool and make 9 balls
For the covering
- Mix all the ingredients and make a thick batter.
- Rest the batter for 1520 minutes, till all lumps are dissolved and the batter is smooth.
Frying the potato/banana fritters
- Put the oil to heat for frying.
- Coat the potato/green banana balls with the gram flour batter.
- Deep fry the potato/banana balls to golden color and drain the excess oil.
- The side droppings of the gram flour batter that is found in the fryer are also fried and used as an insert into vada pav
Preparing the Vada Pav
- Slice the pav/dinner rolls
- Put some green chutney and top it with tamarind chutney on both the sides of pav/dinner rolls.
- On the lower base of the pav/dinner roll, you can put the excess gram flour droppings that are fried.
- Put a fried potato/banana vada ball on that.
- Top this with dry garlic chutney.
- Close it with the other layer of the dinner roll/pav with the chutney and serve
TIps
The gram flour batter needs to be thick so as to have a nice coating. Deep fry on a medium-high flame.
The date tamarind chutney gives a sweet flavour so ensure that you have a tamarind with dates flavour in it.
Jain version of this recipe will be made with raw green banana and will omit potatoes, ginger and garlic from the recipe.
Instinct Factor
Batter needs to be thick enough to have a well covered potato fritters
Feel Factor
Vada Pav Potato Fritters with Bread is a taste of home, the original Aamchi Mumbai ( my home Mumbai) Vada Pav , a comfort giving street food, that is spicy, filling, inexpensive, colorful and freshly assembled. The crunch of the potato fritter inside a soft dinner roll with the tanginess of the chutney is simply irresistible and such is the demand for the vada pav in Mumbai, that a recent new article says that this inexpensive street food vendors should be open all night long, to feed one and all.
