Ragda Patties

I absolutely love street food and ragda patties is among my favourites. My Pacchi (aunt) makes mouth-watering chaat dishes and I love the masala puri she makes. I got the recipe of the "masala" of masala puri and used it as the "radga"of ragda patties. The experiment turned out great! This spicy-tangy-sweet sauce proved to be a terrific combination with the patties and I have made it several times since then.

Ragda
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup dried white peas (yellow vatana)
1 onion
1 1/2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp jeera powder
3/4 tsp chilli powder
2 roasted red chillies
1 green chilly
1 1/2 tbsp jaggery, chopped
1 gooseberry sized tamarind
1 tsp grated coconut (optional, I did not add.)

                   Dried White Peas

Method:
[Update - I made minor changes to the recipe the next time around and took some pictures of the process. Have updated accordingly].

Soak white peas overnight. Pressure cook with chopped onion till 90% cooked.
Grind red chillies, green chilly, jaggery, tamarind, grated coconut and all the powders with 1/4 cup water to form a smooth paste.

Add ground paste and salt to the cooked peas. Add one or two cups water if necessary and bring to a boil. The ragda should be of pouring consistency.

Patties
Ingredients:
8 medium potatoes
1/2 cup frozen green peas, thawed
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp chaat masala
Salt

1 bread slice (optional)
Bread crumbs / rava

Method
Pressure cook potatoes with peas. In a large bowl, mash the boiled potatoes and peas. Dip the bread slice in water, squeeze out all the water and mix with the mashed potaoes. [I refrigerated the mixture for an hour, for better binding]. Add chilli powder, chaat masala and salt and mix well. Shape into balls and flatten lightly with your fingers.
In a pan, heat oil / ghee. Dip either sides of the patties in bread crumbs or rava and shallow fry. [This recipe makes about 18 medium sized patties].

Serving suggestion :
Arrange ragda and patties separately. On the side, arrange date-tamarind chutney, chopped onions, coriander leaves and sev.

Just before serving, in a bowl, place two patties, pour hot ragda over them. Swirl about two spoons of date-tamarind chutney. Sprinkle about a spoon each of onions, coriander leaves and sev.

Happy eating!

Date - Tamarind Chutney

A generous swirl of date and tamarind chutney on my chaat, and I'm a happy camper. This sweet-tangy and slightly spicy chutney lends a great flavour and I cannot imagine chaat minus this.
Different restaurants have different tasting date-tamarind chutneys and street vendors seem to get it just perfect. This is my attempt at making this chutney -

Ingredients:
3/4 cup pitted dates
2 to 3 tbsp jaggery
2 tbsp tamarind
1/2 tsp chilli powder
3/4 tsp cumin (jeera) powder
Salt to taste

The measures are approximate. Jaggery usually comes in blocks and it's a pain to try and fit it into a tablespoon, so just eyeball it. I used a large piece of tamarind, again approximately 2 tbsp, but you can increase or decrease it depending on how tangy you like the chutney.

Method:
Bring about 1 1/2 cups of water to boil. Add dates, jaggery and tamarind. Boil for 10 to15 minutes, stirring a few times in between. Add chilli powder, cumin powder and salt. Allow to cool. Blend [You can add some water when blending if you want a runny chutney. I added about 1/2 cup water]. Strain if required.

Relish with samosas or pakodas, in combination with Mint Chutney.