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Tag: indian street food
Aalu ki tikiya(potato patties stuffed with spicy peas)
Winter season brings a lot more memories from my parent’s house related to food. We are 4 siblings and we all were great foodies. Dinner used to be the main meal of the day because whole family used to be together at the end of the day and we used to have it in the kitchen itself because kitchen had wonderful aroma of hot food preparation and all the warmth of cooking.
Other than regular food, menu for winter dinner used to be hot dosa, different varieties of cheela, stuffed parathas or plain parathas and aaloo ki tikiya.
Aaloo ki tikiya is a type of patty prepared with boiled potatoes and stuffed with spicy boiled peas. It is roasted on heavy tava brushed up with oil. Aalu ki tikiya is a very popular North Indian street snack during winter. It is served with sweet chutney and spicy coriander chutney. If you want to have it as a full meal, serve chole also along with chutney.
When we shifted to Bangalore around 15 years ago we were staying in a rented house. There I had prepared Aaloo ki tikiya for my daughter’s third birthday party. I guess it was a gathering of 15-16 people. Well, among them nine people were from our house owner’s family. They all were staying together as a joint family with two married sons, their kids and parents. Guests loved aaloo ki tikiya so much that for next birthday party there was a demand to prepare them again!!
Well, the reason I prepared aaloo ki tikiya this time was completely different. I wanted to use this tikiya as a filling for veg burger. So I prepared small and thinner tikiya. If you want to prepare them as only snack, prepare slightly bigger in size and don’t flatten them so much.
You must have seen how they are sold in food corners in the market. One big flat heavy bottomed tava completely covered with big sized tikiyas around it and the moment you order, street-food magician😊 will drag one from the edge of tawa and roast it in the middle of tawa till it gets beautiful brown crisp and you will be having a plate of hot crisp and soft tikiya with sweet and spicy chutney and chopped onions… Oh well…. I can visualize the scene!!!
Aren’t you tempted enough to give a try? I am sure you are!! Just have some patience while roasting them on tawa. It is done on sim heat. Some prefer to fry them because frying makes the work fast. But personally I never really like the taste of fried ones and I don’t want to consume so much of oil when there is a better option.
Choice is yours, whatever the way you want to go ahead with!!
In the list of ingredients I have not mentioned the quantity because you actually don’t need. Add all spices as per your taste buds. I prefer little bit spicy – your choice might be less or very mild …. so add all spices whichever the way you want!!
Ingredients :
Boiled potatoes
Boiled peas
Finely chopped green coriander leaves
Finely chopped green chillies
Finely chopped onions
Salt, dry mango powder(amchoor), dry chilli powder, garam masala, asafoetida (hing) and oil for brushing up.
Process :
Boil potatoes and keep them on a sieve so that excess water get drained out.
Now boil peas and after boiling keep them also in sieve so that excess water gets drained out. Watery peas and potatoes would create problem in preparing tikiya, so take care of this point.
Peel boiled potatoes and grate them in a vessel.
Yes, you heard it right! We don’t mash them because in mashed potatoes there are tiny little chunks of potatoes. We need fine thick paste kind of consistency, so we have to grate them.
Grease your palms and vessel with little bit of oil and slightly knead these grated potatoes and collect them in the shape of a dough.
In another vessel keep boiled peas along with all spices, chopped chillies and coriander leaves. Slightly mash peas with your fingers while mixing everything together. Filling is ready.
Grease your hands with oil and take a small portion of potato dough and give it a round shape like ball. Finish potato dough by preparing round shaped balls.
Now keep one potato ball in your palm, give a cup like shape to your palm and slowly by tapping from all the sides create some space for the filling.
Fill-in peas filling in there and slowly and carefully close it back and roll it again between your palms in ball shape. If potatoes are sticking, grease palms with oil. Fill – in all potato balls in the same way.
Heat heavy bottomed flat tava on medium heat and grease it with oil. Once tava is hot enough, keep all tikiya (peas filled potato balls) on it and reduce heat on sim.
Brush up the upper part of tikiya with oil and spread very little quantity of oil around all tikiya.
With the help of slight sharp edged flat spatula turn all tikiya upside down and once again brush up with oil. Now you can increase the heat on medium to sim.
Roast tikiya nicely from both the sides till they become nice brown and crisp. Serve with sweet chutney and spicy coriander chutney.
What do you think about this popular Indian snack? Have you ever tried it before this way or in a different way .. would love to hear from you all in the comments section 😊😊
Aaloo ki kachori
Aaloo ki kachori reminds me very delicious food platter used to be prepared by my mother. Whenever at my parent’s house my maternal uncles used to visit us, my mother used to prepare proper UP (Uttar Pradesh) style food. There will be poori, dry potatoes veggie (which used to look like pickle because of extra oil and extra spices) one curry, curd with sugar or boondi ka raita and Aaloo ki kachori….. and sweets- that my uncles always used to bring, so mother never bothered to prepare.
This whole food served in steel thali (big size plate with edges) used to look so delicious that I always used to think that uncle’s visit should be more often 😋.
Among this whole platter my favorite used to be ‘aaloo ki kachori’. I have never tasted such wonderful kachori in any restaurant till now.
Before marriage I had never attempted to prepare them independently. Actually I never dared to do, because I didn’t want to go through a disastrous attempt. But after marriage as we all do many experiments with food in kitchen, I too tried kachori. Taste was very good but a few of them tore and potato filling came out during frying.
Slowly over the years I continued making them and proudly can say that now I can fry every single kachori in perfect shape!!!!!!
Mother’s recipes and tips are always perfect despite the fact that they used to prepare everything with their guess work!!
For a few more snacks recipes you can check this link also… Snacks
Ingredients:
For preparing dough….
Wheat flour 2+1/2 cups
Salt 3/4 tsp
Carom seeds 1 tsp
Oil 2 +1/2 tbsp
Rava 1+1/2 tbsp (optional)
Water 1 cup +1/4 cup
Potato masala :
Boiled Potatoes
Dry mango powder, garam masala, salt, red chilli powder, asafoetida, chopped green chillies, finely chopped green coriander leaves(optional) and grated ginger(optional).
Oil, to fry
Tips :
- We have to knead slightly loose dough than our regular chapati dough. Loose dough will be easy to roll with stuffed potato mix.
- If you are feeling that the quantity of water is making dough very loose, then you can reduce some amount of water.
- Adding rava adds extra crunch to kachori but if you don’t have, comfortably leave it.
- Make sure that coriander leaves have no water in them, otherwise potato mix will be soggy and it will make rolling difficult. Also, mix will seep out while rolling and frying.
- After boiling, keep potatoes in a strainer for some time so that all water drains out. Soggy boiled potatoes are not good for filling.
- Do not prepare potato mixture 2-3 hours in advance. Salt in mixture will turn it soggy.
- If you are preparing kachori first time, fry one kachori at a time, gain confidence and slowly you can do 2-3 at a time.
Process:
Take wheat flour, salt, carom seeds, rava in a broad pan to prepare the dough. Add oil and mix everything together.
Now start adding water to knead and prepare slightly loose dough. Cover it with a damp cloth and keep it aside.
Peel and mash potatoes and add all spices as per your taste along with chopped green chillies, coriander leaves and grated ginger. Mix everything together and potato mix is ready.
Start heating oil in a deep pan. During the time oil is getting hot we can start the preparation of filling and rolling kachori.
Take some amount of dough and prepare it like a smooth ball between your palms and roll it little bit with the help of rolling pin . If dough is sticky, use oil to grease your palms and at rolling surface.
Now add small amount of potato mix on the slightly rolled dough.
From the edges start collecting the dough with your fingers, bring it at the center, close it and pat it down lightly.
If required, again grease rolling surfer with oil and very gently roll stuffed dough carefully and evenly from all sides. Evenly rolled kachori will puff up nicely. Be careful that potato mix should not come out while rolling.
By now oil is hot enough for frying. Make sure that oil is not very hot otherwise kachori will remain raw from inside. You can check the right temperature of oil by putting a tiny piece of dough in it. If it sinks in the bottom of the pan, oil is not hot enough to fry. If dough becomes brown immediately after adding into the oil , it’s too hot. With experience you will learn!!
Now gently slip kachori from the side of the pan and fry it by turning upside down gently a couple of times till it becomes brown and crisp.
Sometimes while frying kachori might open up and stuffing can seep out. It happens if you have rolled kachori very thin or it is overstuffed with potato mixture. Don’t panic, take out that damaged kachori and all that stuffing which is floating on oil with laddle and continue frying the rest of the kachoris.
Serve hot kachoris with your choice of chutney, sauce or dips!!
