The Perfect 'Batata Vada' Recipe.
(also known as 'Aloo Bonda' and sold as 'Vada Pav')

This is the way Maharashtrains make Vadas at home!!
These are simple, healthy and yummm..

Time to prepare 40 mins
Ingerdients:
The stuffing
Potatoes: 1kg
Green Chillies: 5-6
Garlic: 4-5 petals
Ginger: around 3/4th of the quantity of the garlic.
Mustard seeds: 1 teaspoon
Turmeric: 1 teaspoon
Oil: 2 teaspoons
Salt to taste
Coriander to garnish

Covering:
Besan (Gram flour)
Salt, red chilli powder, Water
Oil to fry

The recipe
1. Boil the potatoes in water.
2. Mash the potatoes in a container.
3. Make a paste of green chillies, ginger and garlic.
4. Heat the oil in a kadhai. Use very little of oil, we do not want the stuffing to be as oily as the covering.
5. Once the oil is heated, throw in the mustard seeds. They should pop and change their color to white.
6. See to it that the cooking is done on a low flame.
7. Now throw in the paste we had just prepared. Sautee it for sometime till the color begins to change.
8. Add turmeric to it and sautee it for some more time.
9. Add the mashed potatoes to this paste and cook for some more time.
10. Potaotes can be finely mashed or you may leave some lumps as preferred.
11. Keep mixing the ingredients as they cook. Add salt to taste and mix for atleast five minutes.
12. Taste the mixture and adjust the taste by adjusting the quantity of the chilly paste. I recommend, while preparing keep some paste and mashed potatoes aside so that they can be added to adjust the taste at this stage.
13. Add some chopped coriander and mix well again. The cooked stuffing should look light yellow in color, so keep the quantity of turmeric powder in control.

Covering:
1. When potatoes are getting boiled, mix besan and water.
2. Add red chilly powder, salt to taste. Mix well.
3. The consistency should be like whipped yogurt.

Final Step:
Make small balls out of the potato mixture we prepared above.
Dip them in the besan mix
Deep fry till golden brown.
Serve with pav, chutney or just salted fried green chillies.

Metrics:
1. Home made vadas are golden brown and not yellow as in the shops.
2. They do not taste like the ones in the shops. If rightly made they taste just divine.
3. While frying they do not suck in a lot of oil.

And finally they should look like the ones in the picture above.