This is a brilliant and quirky dish to have as a snack at drinks parties and get-togethers or to repeat a few times and sate the most hearty of hungers. A typical dish from the street food wallahs of Delhi, North India, I most recently bought (a couple!) whilst wandering around the Manek Chowk district one night in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, to the north west of India. It's a bowl of potato cakes, spicy gravy and crunchy bits. 'Aloo tikki' potato cakes in a spicy, tomatoey 'chole' chickpea gravy with a whole array of 'chaat' sprinkles to freshen, brighten and garnish the dish. It's just brilliant. So many people shy away from street food for fear of getting an upset tummy, but so long as the dish is served fresh and bubbling hot in front of you, you shouldn't have a problem. Here's my version. There looks to be a lot of ingredients, but like most street food dishes, it's all in the prep. Once you have everything to hand the rest is easy, enjoy!
Ingredients
Serves: 3-4
Chole chickpea gravy
- 1 tin chickpeas, drained
- 1 black tea bag
- Spices 1: 4 cloves, 1 quill cinnamon, 3 black cardamom pods, 1 Indian Bay leaf, 2 tbsp light olive oil
- Spices 2: 2 tsp cumin seeds, 1 tsp turmeric powder, 1 tsp Chaat masala, 1 tsp ginger powder, 1 tsp fennel seed, 1 tsp garam masala, 1tsp coriander powder, ½ tsp red chilli powder
- 1 medium sized onion, blitzed to a pulp
- 500g passata
- 1 tblsp tomato puree
- 1 tsp sea salt
Aloo tikki potato cakes
- 3 large potatoes, approx.
- 750g boiled, peeled and mashed
- Good handful fresh mint leaves, thinly sliced
- Good handful fresh coriander leaves, thinly sliced
- 15g fresh ginger finely grated
- 1 green chilli, chopped fine
- 1 level tbsp Chaat Masala blend
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp red chilli powder
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp light olive oil and more to fry the cakes in
- 1 to 2 tsp gram flour, though cornflour is fine
'Chaat' sprinkles
- 1 small red onion, diced
- 1 large tomato, cut into small dice
- 1 jar tamarind chutney, easily bought from your local Indian food store
- 1 jar green chilli chutney, again easily bought from your local Indian food store
- 3 or 4 more tsp Chaat masala spice blend
- Another good handful of fresh coriander, finely chopped, stalks and all
- Few tsp red chilli powder, to taste
- A good couple of handfuls of thin (or nylon) sev, easily bought from your local Indian food store but you could always smash-up a few plain nacho chips as an alternative
Method
1. Pour the drained can of chickpeas into a saucepan, cover with water, add the teabag, cloves, cinnamon quill, cardamom pods and bay leaf, bring to the boil then simmer gently for 15 minutes, before removing from the heat, draining and setting aside.
2. Add the light olive oil to a pan, when hot pop in the cumin seeds, let them splutter for a moment, then pour in the onion pulp and fry for about three or four mins until most of the onion liquor has gone. Then add the passata, the puree, sea salt and remaining spices from Spice 2.
3. Continue to cook gently for about 10 to 12 mins, you're looking for a single cream type consistency so add a little more water, if necessary, then pour in the cooked, drained chickpeas, set aside and keep warm.
4. Into a large mixing bowl, pop all the potato cake ingredients and mix well except the gram flour. Only add as much gram flour as is needed to produce a firm, but not stiff mixture.
5. Then oil or dampen your hands and form the mixture into slightly smaller than golf ball sized balls.
6. Heat some oil in fry pan, slightly flatten the potato balls to form patties and gently cook on both sides for three or four mins or until just nicely cooked through. Set aside and keep warm.
Assembly:
Take a small bowl, pop one or two of the warm potato cakes into it, pour over a generous ladle or two of the warm spicy chole gravy, then drizzle with the sauces, sprinkle over the red onion and tomato dice, the chilli powder and chaat masala blend, finally top with crunchy sev or smashed nacho chips and serve immediately. Yum!
