Diwali-- the festival of lights. Rama's return from the forest. This is perhaps one of the most climatic holidays of the Hindu calendar, and yet, I hardly ever remember when it falls. It is my mother who each year sends me a brief e-mail: "Today and tomorrow are Diwali. Try to eat vegetarian food. Clean the house. Lakshmi only visits clean houses, and if there is anyone who needs the goddess of wealth's assistance this year, it is you. If you have time, make some sweets and share them with your family and friends. Do not forget to light the lamp in the evening. And have a Happy Diwali!"
Of all the tasks my mother has set before me, the one I find the most challenging is cooking and eating vegetarian food for two days consecutively. It is not that I lack ideas for a vegetarian meal, or that I do not like eating vegetables, but that I am married to a man who rarely finds meals without meat fulfilling. So with less than a day's notice, I must come up with something tasty, filling, and a far cry from flesh.
My solution: the ragda patty. It is the quintessential Bombay street snack: crunchy, sweet and sour, in short, addictive. The base is a potato patty, doused in a white bean stew, topped with a date-and-tamrind chutney and a coriander-and-mint chutney, and garnished with finely chopped onions and fresh coriander. It looks like a carnival atop a plate, and as strange as the ingredients may seem, it is a sound combination, feeding the hurried Bombay crowds for decades.
Ingredients:
For the patties:
4-5 medium sized potatoes
1 bunch fresh coriander
2 tsp. ajwain (if unavailable, use oregano)
4 garlic cloves
1/3 inch piece of ginger
2 tsp. chili powder
1 cup semolina
salt to taste
oil for frying
For the red chutney:
1 ball of tamarind, about the size of a walnut
1 1/2 of pitted dates
1 or 2 red chillies with the seeds removed
salt to taste
2 1/2 cups of water
For the green chutney:
1 cup of coriander leaves
1/2 cup of mint leaves
1-2 fresh green chilies
2 tsp. breadcrumbs
1/4 cup cold water
2 tbs. lemon juice
salt to taste
For the bean stew:
1-2 cups chickpeas and or other beans, soaked in water over night
1/2 tbs. cumin
1 tsp. asofoetida powder
1 tsp. turmeric
1 yellow onion, chopped
3-6 cups of water
For the garnish:
1 cup of coriander leaves, finely chopped
2-3 plum tomatoes, finely chopped
1-2 small red onions, finely chopped
To make the bean stew:
I always start cooking the beans, since they need at least an hour to cook. This way, while they simmer away, I can prepare all of the other components.
1) In a stock pot, heat up a few tablespoons of oil. When the oil is hot, toss in the cumin, turmeric, and asofoetida. Once the cumin starts sizzling, add the chopped onions.
2) Cook the onions until wilted and slightly golden.
3) Then add the beans, salt and enough water to completely cover the beans.
4) Cook for about an hour, until the beans are tender and all the flavors have melded together.
To make the patties:
1) Bring a pot of salted water to a steady boil. Wash the potatoes, and add them to the boiling water. Partially cover the pot, and boil the potatoes until cooked thoroughly but not falling apart.
2) While the potatoes are boiling, chop the coriander finely, and prepare the ginger garlic paste. Remove the skin of the piece of ginger, and add it, along with the cloves of peeled garlic, to the mixer with a few tablespoons of water. What you will end up with is a smooth and moist paste of ginger and garlic.
2) Lift potatoes out of the water and let them cool. As soon as they are cool, peel them, and mash them by hand. You need not make them smooth, just so long as the pieces are small, and the potato sticks together.
3) Add the ginger and garlic paste, the chopped coriander, and all of the spices, and mix well. Shape the potato mash into little round patties about the size of your palm.
4) Heat a thin layer of oil in a flat-bottomed pan.
5) One by one, coat the potato patties in the semolina and add to the hot oil. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until golden and crisp. Flip the patties and cook on the other side. To keep fried foods hot and crispy after frying, you can transfer them to a baking dish and warm them in the oven set to a low temperature. This way, when you serve the dish, the patties will taste fresh, as though directly out of the frying pan.
To make the red chutney:
1) Heat one cup of water and add the tamarind. Allow the tamarind to soak for at least fifteen minutes, and then squeeze it throughly. All you should have left in your hand are the strings and tough shell of the tamarind.
2) Heat the other cup and a half of water and add the dates. Allow the dates to soak for 15 minutes.
3) In a blender, mix together the tamarind pulp, the soaked dates, and the red chili, until you get a smooth paste.
To make the green chutney:
1) In a blender, blend together all the ingredients. The chutney should be thick but fluid. If it is too watery, add in some more breadcrumbs to thicken it.
Assembling the patties:
1) Place 2-3 ragda patties on a plate, and pour over a ladle full of bean stew.
2) Add one teaspoon of red chutney, one of green chutney, or as per taste.
3) Garnish with some chopped tomatoes, onions, and cilantro. Usually, in Bombay, the street chat vendors also toss on some sev, small bits of deep fried crunchy dough. If sev is available, do add that on as the final touch.
