Aloo Chap

No peas in it, a batter round the outside, and puffed rice alongside.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 700 g potatoes, boiled and mashed
• 2 green chillies, finely chopped
• a 3 cm piece of ginger, grated
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon panch phoron
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 150 g gram flour, for the batter
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric, for the batter
• 150 ml water, for the batter
• oil for deep frying
• puffed rice and green chillies, to serve

Method

1. NO PEAS IN IT, A BATTER ROUND THE OUTSIDE, AND PUFFED RICE ALONGSIDE. Its article is short and every clause counts. It is made of BOILED POTATOES AND VARIOUS SPICES -- no second vegetable at all. Chap means a small cutlet, FRITTER or croquette, and a fritter is battered. And it is served with MURI, puffed rice, green chillies and sometimes sauce and salad. Its article then says the thing that makes this page worth writing carefully: it is "a vegetarian alternative, and an equivalent of aloo tikki". Equivalent, not identical. Aloo Tikki, as on its own page, has peas through it and meets a film of fat; this has none and goes into deep fat inside a gram-flour coat.
2. THE BATTER IS THE DIFFERENCE AND IT WANTS TO BE THICK. Gram flour and water beaten to the consistency of double cream, with the turmeric. Thin batter slides off and the potato meets the oil bare.
3. THE POTATO MIXTURE IS FIRM AND DRY BEFORE IT IS DIPPED. Boiled, cooled and mashed dry, as for Aloo Tikki, as on its own page. A wet centre steams inside the batter and bursts it.
4. PANCH PHORON IS THE SEASONING AND IT IS GROUND HERE. The five-spice mix of this part of the country. Whole it would be gritty in a mash; ground it carries the fenugreek and nigella that make it taste of itself.
5. THEY ARE SHAPED INTO THICK OVALS, NOT FLAT DISCS. Two centimetres. A thick shape keeps the inside soft while the batter crisps, which is the whole texture of it.
6. THE OIL IS HOT, WHICH IS THE OPPOSITE OF THE OTHER CUTLET. A hundred and eighty degrees. The batter needs to set on contact; in moderate oil it soaks and goes heavy.
7. THEY ARE LOWERED IN ONE AT A TIME AND NOT CROWDED. Three or four per batch. Crowding drops the temperature, which is the one thing a battered fritter cannot survive.
8. THEY ARE DRAINED STANDING UP, NOT LAID FLAT. On a rack, on their edges. Flat on paper, the underside softens.
9. THEY ARE EATEN HOT AND WARM BOTH, WITH THE MURI. Its article says hot and warm, which is a distinction worth keeping: hot the batter cracks, warm it has gone slightly chewy and the two are both good.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes