Aloo Bonda / Crispy Fried Potato Fritters

Snacks come in a variety of forms including packaged and processed foods and items made from fresh ingredients at home. Snacks are often classified as junk food, which is true with many snack with attractive taste and colour, but packed with a lot of unhealthy ingredients. Nowadays more healthy and low calorie snacks are available in the market and many of us are preferring those.

Homemade snacks are those which no one can resist. Today's post is about an evening snack which is rich in proteins and nutrients and also in calories.. :) This was made for my daughter. As soon as she gets up from her afternoon nap she wants something to eat and I made this one day and she liked this a lot. This is so simple and easy to make. This bonda is fried and crisp outside and soft inside. This is very famous in Indian cuisine. In North this is called as batata vada.

In this recipe, the potatoes are boiled, mashed and cooked with onions and spices, coated with a batter made with besan / gram flour and deep fried. We can make this in kuzhi paniyaram / unniappam pan then the shape will be perfectly round and also it require less oil, but I didn't have that pan so I just deep fried it in oil. This can also be made with tapioca, minced meat and so on..

Ingredients:

1. Potatoes (boiled and mashed)- 2nos
2. Onions (chopped)- 1no
3. Green chillies (chopped)- 3nos
4. Ginger and garlic paste- 1tbsp
5. Turmeric powder- 1tsp
6. Garam masala powder- 1tsp
7. Cumin powder- 1 tsp
8. Lemon juice- 1tbsp
9. Salt- as per taste
10. Oil- 1tbsp

For the batter:

1. Oil- for deep frying
2. Besan / gram flour- 1cup
3. Baking powder- 1tsp
4. Rice flour- 1tbsp
5. Salt- as per taste

Method:

1. Heat oil in a pan. Add onions, green chillies when they turn golden brown add the ginger garlic paste and saute well.
2. Add turmeric powder, cumin powder garam masala powder and salt and mix well.
3. At this stage add the mashed potatoes and lemon juice and saute them well. Turn of the heat.
4. Allow them to cool and make small balls with hands.
5. Add all the ingredients for the batter in a bowl. Make thick batter by adding few tbsp of water. The batter should be not too thin and not too thick.
6. Heat oil in a kadai, dip the balls in the batter and deep fry them.
7. Serve hot with chutneys like green chutney, date and tamarind chutney or simply with tomato sauce.

The inside stuffing