RAGADA PATTIES

This famous street food tickles your taste buds with its spicy tanginess – yumm ….

I have vivid memories of Mumbai’s (nee Bombay) Juhu – Chowpati lined up with these stalls (I haven’t been there in recent times, though!) …

This is a special snack – and an elaborate one at that - if you prepare it at home. It can be simplified if you plan it in advance. What I mean is if you are making chana masala (chole) – that too with dry white peas instead of chick peas, you can make some extra quantity to be used for ‘ragada patties’. If you have sweet-sour chutney and green chutney handy, then this becomes all the more easy! For the recipe for the chutneys, refer to my blog post on 'pani puri'. The link is provided below. 
Good luck!

Green chutney 

Sweet-sourchutney

Dry peas (white matar) masala - use 250 gms of dry peas.

Makes 6-7 patties

Ingredients

For patties –

1. Potato – 250 gms
2. Shelled green peas (optional) – 1-2 tbsp (boiled)
3. Ginger – ½” piece – chopped fine
4. Green chilli – 2 (chopped fine)
5. Asafetida – a pinch
6. Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
7. Red chilli powder – 1 tsp
8. Coriander powder – 1 ½  tsp
9. Garam masala powder – ½ tsp
10. Salt to taste
11. Oil – 1-2 tsp
12. Cumin seeds – ½ tsp
13. Coriander leaves (finely chopped) – 1tbsp
14. Bread crumb powder – ½ - ¾ cup
15. Oil for shallow frying

Method

1. Wash, halve and boil the potatoes in water with salt and turmeric powder.
2. Drain off the water, prick holes in the potatoes, cool, peel and mash them.
3. Heat a tsp of oil in a pan, add cumin seeds, asafetida, coriander powder, garam masala, red chilli powder, chopped green chilli and stir for a minute.
4. Add mashed potato and boiled peas and mix well.
5. Make heart-shaped patties.
6. Roll each one in bread crumbs so that it is coated all over. 
7. Repeat with all the patties.
8. Use a non-stick pan to shallow-fry the patties, adding oil on both sides and flipping till they are brownish and crisp.
9. Place two patties in a bowl, add 3 - 4 tbsps of ‘matar masala’, 2 tsp each of green chutney, sweet-sour chutney and finely chopped onions and serve hot.

Tips

1. Prick the potatoes after cooking to release air. Then cool and peel and mash - they won’t turn sticky / pasty.
2. You can garnish with a tsp of sev if you feel like.

© Copyright 2011. Brinda Balasubramonian.