Batata vada sambhar | Maharastra special Batata vada Sambar

Cooking Time: 1 Hour

Sambar Ingredients:

Item	Quantity
Pigeon pea or Toor daal	Half cup
Bottle gourd	Half cup
Tomato	2 In Quantity
Sambar Masala	1 Tablespoon
Drumstick (Optional)	1 In Quantity
Garlic cloves	4 in (medium size)
Ginger	1 CM
Onion	2 in Quantity
Mustard seeds	1/2 Tablespoon
Cumin Seeds	1/2 Tablespoon
Salt	As per test
Turmeric powder	1/2 Tablespoon
Sugar	1 Teaspoon
Curry leaves	5 to 6 Leaves
Red Chilly Powder	1 Teaspoon
Chopped Coriander	2 Tablespoons
Oil	4 Tablespoons

Vada Ingredients:

Item	Quantity
Potato	5 in Quantity (Medium size)
Gram flour or Besan	Half cups
Baking soda	Half pinch
Cornmeal or makai atta	3 Tablespoons
Green chilli	7 in Quantity
Garlic cloves	7 to 8 in (medium size)
Ginger	1 CM
Onion	2 in Quantity
Mustard seeds	1/2 Tablespoon
Cumin Seeds	1/2 Tablespoon
Cornmeal or semolina or rice flour	3 Tablespoons
Salt	As per test
Turmeric powder	1/2 Tablespoon
Ajwain or Carom seeds	1 Teaspoon
Sesame Seeds or til	1 Teaspoon
Red Chilly Powder	1 Teaspoon
Chopped Coriander	4 Tablespoons
Oil	To deep fry

Recipe: 

1. Let's make Sambar first, for that we need to chop the onion, tomato, garlic cloves, ginger, bottle gourd, drumstick. Soak the toor dal or pigeon pea in water. 
2. In a pan heat up the oil. After oil becomes hot enough, add mustard seeds, let them crackle. Add cumin seeds, bottle gourd and onion. Rost it till onion becomes pink.
3. Add tomato, turmeric powder, curry leaves, ginger and garlic. Stir it till tomato becomes soft. Add Sambar Masala, drumstick, red chilly powder, chopped coriander, salt as per test and a teaspoon of sugar.
4. Finally, add pigeon pea or Toor daal. If there is any difficulty to find sambar masala, let us know, we will share that recipe also.
5. Mix it well and add 3 cups of water in it, cook it till 3 to 4 vessels of the cooker. Hope we have 2 separate pots inside cooker so add Sambar in one pot. Add all potatoes with some water in other part and cook it totally, till 3 to 4 vessels of cooker.
6. Till that let's work with other preparations, take a grinding jar and add all garlic cloves, ginger and green chilli. Grind it well and keep it aside.
7. Let's make a batter of gram flour, we need to deep our vada or Tikki before we are going to drop it in oil. Take a mixing bowl and add gram flour, cornmeal or makai atta, salt, red chilli powder, 2 tablespoons of chopped coriander, baking soda, sesame or til, ajwain or carom seeds, a teaspoon of the turmeric powder and mix it well.
8. Now add the water in it bit by bit, otherwise, it will create lumps of gram flour. And we need the batter in flowing consistency like we showed in referral image. We prefer to test the mixture once cause it's going to generate a testy outer layer of vada.
9. Take a pan, heat it up and add 4 tablespoons of oil in it. After heating up the oil, add mustard seeds, crackle them, then add cumin seeds, onion and mix them well. Fry it till onion turns golden. Add some salt, 2 tablespoons of chopped coriander and the chilli paste (Which we grind earlier) and mix them well.
10. Now add peeled off potato's in it and smash them in the pan itself. We can turn off the flame and smash it well and mix the material as well.
11. Make the tikki's or vada from this potato mixture. It will look like a blow referral image.
12. Now the final step, we need to deep fry the vada. After heating up the oil, take one vada deep it in gram flour batter and drop it in hot oil. Deep fry it till becomes golden brown from both of sides.
13. We can drop 3 to 4 vada's at a time as per your pan shape.
14. Our Vada is ready to serve, add this Vada in between of pav and enjoy the heaven. Prefer to enjoy it hot.

Tips:

1) If you want your vada more crunchy, just add 2 tablespoons of Flattened rice (Poha). Wash it, remove excess water from it, smash it and add it in gram flour batter. And feel the crunch. 😬

2) If your potato mixture becomes so much soft and you can not hold it, to make it stiff, we can add some flattened rice or poha in it. Just wash it once, remove excess water from it, keep it aside for 5 min before adding it in the mixture.

The famous Maharashtrian vada sambhar contains around 350 calories in the single-serving plate. It's a very famous street food from Maharashtra. People used to have it as lunch or dinner also. 

For a change, it's preferred to cook by Maharashtrian ladies cause. In some region of Maharashtra, it's used to serve with pav or slice of bread. Batata means potato in Maharashtra.

Isn't that increasing your excitement of having it? 

We know it's not good enough for health, but we can have this delicious snack once in a while. The most important thing about it is, it's not much costly, so anyone can afford it.

In the urban area of Maharashtra, people used to serve it with green chutney, which we made earlier in idli chutney recipe. 

Having a Batata vada sambar is so much fun for kids also. So hope you are gonna try this exciting recipe at your home and enjoy it.

Reference images:

1) Gram flour batter consistency

2) Potato mixture after smashing it.

3) Making of vada's out of it.