Vada Pav

Quarter past eight outside Dadar station. The kadhai is a wide black disc of oil and eight pale yellow balls go in together, turning gold in about ninety seconds. The man splits a pav with his thumb, drags green chutney down one face, throws a heavy pinch of red garlic chutney on the other, drops the vada in, presses the whole thing flat and hands it over on a torn square of newspaper. First bite is crunch. Then soft hot potato with curry leaf in it. Then the garlic catches the back of your throat and you understand why the queue does not move.

The jacket is besan and it needs four or five real minutes in the oil, so the fat has to hold steady. Wooden cold pressed groundnut oil sits right for this. It takes 170 to 180C without complaint, it does not foam up the way some oils do when besan hits them, and it leaves a clean roasted-peanut note behind instead of a heavy film on the tongue. It is unrefined, so it will smoke earlier than refined oil. Keep the flame at medium, bring the oil up slowly, and it behaves.

One thing decides this vada, and it is the batter. Thick enough to hang on the potato ball in one even coat, loose enough to fall off the spoon in a slow ribbon. Too thin and it slides off in the oil and leaves bald patches. Too thick and you are eating a bready shell with a bit of potato somewhere inside. Whisk it hard for two full minutes so it is smooth and full of air, then let it sit ten minutes before you fry.

How to make it

1. Start with the dry chutney. In 1 tsp of the groundnut oil, roast the peanuts on low for 3 minutes until the skins crack, and set aside. In the same pan roast the garlic cloves 40 seconds until they smell sweet, then the grated copra for 2 minutes until pale gold, then the sesame for 20 seconds until it pops. Cool everything completely.
2. Grind the roasted lot with the chilli powder and salt in short 4-second pulses to a coarse, dusty red powder. Do not let the mixer run. Copra and peanut turn oily in seconds and you will end up with a paste instead of a chutney.
3. Crumble the potatoes by hand into rough pieces the size of a chana. Never mash them smooth. Heat 2 tbsp groundnut oil, crackle the mustard, cumin, hing and curry leaves for 20 seconds, add the ginger-garlic-chilli paste and fry 40 seconds until the raw garlic smell goes.
4. Add turmeric, then the potato, salt and sugar. Fold on low for 3 minutes, pressing gently so the masala coats everything. Off the heat, stir in lemon juice and coriander. Cool completely, then roll into 8 balls and flatten each slightly.
5. Whisk the besan, rice flour, turmeric, hing and salt with the water into a smooth batter. Lift the whisk: it should fall in a slow unbroken ribbon and coat the back of a spoon. Whisk hard for 2 minutes, stir in the soda, and rest 10 minutes.
6. Heat the frying oil on medium to about 175C. A drop of batter should sink halfway, rise in 3 to 4 seconds and bubble steadily without spitting. Keep the flame at medium throughout, this oil is unrefined and does not like being pushed hard.
7. Dip a potato ball, turn it right around in the batter, lift it and let the excess drip for 2 seconds, then slide it down the side of the kadhai. Do 4 at a time. Leave them alone for the first minute so the coat sets.
8. Fry 4 to 5 minutes, turning twice, until deep gold and hard when you tap one with the jhara. Lift onto a rack, never onto paper, or the base goes soft.
9. Between batches, drizzle a spoon of leftover batter into the hot oil in a thin stream, fry 30 seconds and lift out the crisp golden crumbs. That is the chura, and it goes inside the pav.
10. Fry the green chillies for 30 seconds until blistered, and roll them in salt while hot. Slit each pav almost to the base, spread green chutney on one face, a heavy pinch of dry garlic chutney on the other, drop in a hot vada, scatter chura and more garlic chutney, press shut and eat straight away with a fried chilli.

Tips

• Cool the potato masala completely. Warm masala steams inside the batter and the jacket splits open in the oil. Ten minutes in front of a fan is enough.
• If the coat slid off, the batter was thin. Whisk in a spoon of besan and test one vada before committing the batch. If the jacket came out thick and doughy, add a tablespoon of water instead.
• The chura is not optional. Those fried batter crumbs pressed into the pav are what make a stall vada pav taste different from a home one.
• Stone ground red chilli powder is ground slow, so it keeps its deep colour and its smell. Two tablespoons gives a proper Mumbai-red chutney with real heat. Start with one if you are cooking for children.
• Reheating: a leftover vada comes back well in a 180C oven for 6 minutes. It will not come back in a microwave, which turns the besan coat leathery.
• Strain and reuse the oil. Cool it, pass it through muslin into a clean jar, keep it away from light and use it for two more fries.