north indian snack Archives

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 😊😊

I love Makar Sankranti festival the most! In Jaipur Makar Sankranti is celebrated in its full galore. Before a month itself you can feel the vibes of the festival in the air. Even a small street corner general store starts selling kites. Immediately after coming back from school, kids will be seen on terrace with their kites till their mother starts calling them to come down because it is going to be very cold – after all it’s peak of winter season. Mothers will be drying up sesame seeds in hot sun for preparing sweets as til ki papdi and til ke ladoo.

Kids keep their kites ready the previous night of Sankranti itself. Gaajar ka halwa is prepared and split green moong daal is soaked previous night of Sankranti. I remember at my parents’ house we used to take bath with cold fresh tap water early in the morning on the day of Sankranti (a religious custom). Mother used to be busy with her pooja preparations and we used to wait for Sun to come so that sky can be clear of fog. I remember, once my brother, Sunny, and I, tried to fly kite very early in the morning when it was still dark. We found some neighbours also along with their kites on their terrace. But unfortunately because of fog kites became wet and everyone returned disappointed.

Sankranti is the best day to be soaked up in the Sun. Whole day family members are on the terrace. If guests or neighbours visit you, they also join you on the terrace.

Streets are also full of kids – some will be there to fly kites and others to catch the kites. Have you ever caught a kite flying in from somewhere in the sky, and somehow you guessed that it’s going to cross through your territory…it creates such a wonderful scene!! Everyone on your terrace is on full alert, sometimes including your parents, not to leave no stone unturned to catch the incoming kite!!!! And the person who succeeds in catching that kite will have a wonderful sense of proud feeling!!

Whole day will be gone in watching and flying kites, making loud hullabaloo if you are successful in snapping others kite’s string, gossiping, and munching roasted groundnuts, gazak, revadi, til papdi and hot moong ki daal ke pakode /vade.

Oh, I miss so much Makar Sankranti celebration in Jaipur, 😢 I guess I can write a lot about this festival. It is that one festival which is celebrated from morning till night. After sunset also some people fly kites with lamp, even though it gets very cold.

After shifting to Bangalore I hardly saw kids flying kites. But a few days before Sankranti I read that at some place kite festival was being organized. And today when we went out to our nearby shopping complex in Banashankari 3rd stage, I was amazed to see kites being sold in shops. Just like rakhi now there were kites to attract kids with their favorite cartoon characters like Doremon, Dora, Barbies etc. Even our honourable Prime Minister Modi kite was there.

I really hope that in coming 3-4 four years we might see sky of Bangalore filled with colourful kites on Makar Sankranti.

The main attraction of food in the whole day of Makar Sankranti is ‘chilke vaali hari moong ki daal ke pakode‘. Daal is soaked the previous night, and in the morning it is ground, spices added and this batter is used the whole day for family members and guests to have hot pakode. These are very tasty and crispy and you can have them with your hot evening tea.

Ingredients :

Split green moong daal, green chillies, ginger, salt, red chilli powder, salt, asafoetida and water.

Process :

Wash nicely and soak daal overnight or just for 2 hours in the morning – it puffs up nicely.

Add salt, red chilli powder, green chillies, asafoetida and ginger. Without water grind it in a mixer. We need thick batter, so don’t add water while grinding.

Heat oil in a deep pan and with your finger tips take very small quantity of daal batter and drop it carefully in the hot oil. If this tiny pakoda/fritter floats in the oil, it signifies that oil is hot enough to fry. In the same way fry rest of the pakode. You can use spoon also to drop the batter in oil.