Thursday 17 October 2013

Potato Fritters with a dash of Pepper

Wikipedia says Fritter is a name applied to a wide variety of fried foods, usually consisting of a portion of batter or breading which has been filled with bits of meat, seafood, fruit, or other ingredients. The other ingredients include vegetables too which Wikipedia forgot to mention :) So what we make in India - Bhajji or Bhaiya as they are called, are also Fritters!

Well, i wanted to make an accompaniment as a dry potato sabzi to daal and rice that i had made for dinner ! And thought to make something different than the usual sabzi ( the puri-bhaji one that we make ). My mother used to cut thin slices of potatoes and fry them with jeera( cumin seeds ) and oil. In our language, we call it "Batatyachya Kaachrya". But i decided to add a twist to it!

I had rice powder with me. Rice powder/Rice flour packets are readily available in market these days, but its easy to make it at home too. So you can always make some and store in airtight container. You can even grind it in bulk in a mill and store. It really lasts long.
Wash the rice and soak it in water for as long as you can (2-3 hours, but minimum 1 hour).
Then drain the water completely and spread the rice on a towel for half n hour or till dry. Little moisture is okay. Grind the rice in parts in a mixer and sieve it.
Dry roast the sieved flour until you see steam coming out of the flour.
Let it cool completely and then store in an air tight container.

If you dont have rice flour or dont want to make one, you can use wheat flour too. You can even use maida or a mix of maida and wheat flour but it doesnt get crispier then. Add a tsp of rawa for crispiness.



Ingredients :

Potatoes - ( 2 large ). Peel or not to peel the cover is personal choice.
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 3/4 tsp
Lemon juice - 1/2 tsp ( optional )
A pinch of hing 
Rice flour - To coat.
Salt and pepper to taste
Oil to shallow fry.

Recipe :

Wash the potatoes and slice them into medium sized circles ( as you make for sandwiches ).Dont cut too thin and too small as they tend to become dark and hard while frying.
Now you can make this recipe in 2 ways:

A. Either mix the red chilli powder, turmeric powder, hing and salt with rice powder and dip the potato slices in it ( coat it well ) and shallow fry till potatoes are cooked.

OR

B. Put hing, turmeric powder and red chilli powder over potatoes. Mix well and keep aside for 10 minutes to marinate. The potatoes absorb all the flavours of the spices. You can add salt here but the surface of the potatoes get moist and the rice flour doesn't stick well later on. So better add salt just before coating in rice flour or mix salt in the flour. You can even add lemon juice for marination or on top after frying( gives a tangy taste to the potatoes ). 

After 10 mins( Don't leave for long to marinate as it tends to get watery and salt gets washed off), heat a pan with 2 tsp oil and dip each of the marinated potato slice in rice flour( take the flour in a plate ) and add to the pan. Make sure it's nicely coated with rice powder. Cook both sides on low flame for around 5 mins each.

And don't forget to sprinkle pepper powder on top ( Ahhh, my favourite pepper :)))

You can serve these as snacks or as a starter too!

Happy Cooking :)


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