A bountiful of potatoes...

My husband loves potato bonda.

Crispy shells of fried gram flour with melt-in-the mouth potato filling, spiced up and served really hot on cold, gloomy days..marvellous! It came as no surprise then that he has been asking, begging me to make some for a long, long time. And not that I deliberately keep him waiting, but truth be told, I did not know any local Indian grocery store nearby that might sell Gram flour, the staple to make those crispy, spicy shells that he yearns for. Even some 24-hour stores which are totally drive-worthy for some late night adhoc shopping could not lure me into some nightly shopping after work, just for a bag of gram flour.





So days became weeks, and weeks became months. There were no sight of potato bonda in our home. Until one fine day, amongst a stack of dhals and other sundries, I spotted the yellow bag. Full of promises, and wishes coming true. I was well pleased to find bags of gram flour in our local wet market that we visit often for some fresh fruits, vegetables and poultry. I could see the broad smile on The Husband's face when I casually toss a bag into our shopping basket, and in my mind, I was hoping that I would have no emergency operation that might require me to go to work again, as how last few Saturdays have been. I just wanted to stay home, and enjoy my cooking. And hope against hope for some heavy rain that afternoon, that would have been perfect.

Anyway, the rain never came. But potato bondas were swiftly presented on our table with a fresh pot of tea. Times like this are what memories are made of. Couscous enjoying her first bites of potato fillings, whislt exclaiming in her baby language 'Hot! Hot!', and the whole plate was licked clean in no time by The Husband, leaving me a couple behind, just for courtesy sake.



I could tell that there would be more request coming my way for those delicious tea time snack to be made again. As I tend to be a wee bit more 'adventurous' when it comes to creating savoury dishes, I realised that I never had any proper measurements or even exact ingredients whenever I made Bonda in the past. The taste invariably is different all the time, albeit claimed to be delicious at all times ( or maybe he is just being polite!). This time, I thought I would jot all the ingredients down, and replicate the same recipe for next time.

There will definitely be a 'next time'.

Potato Bonda

4 large potatoes-boiled and mashed
2 cups gram flour
1 red onion-diced
1 tbsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper powder
1/2 tbsp cumin seeds
few sprigs curry leaves
water as needed
Vegetable or canola oil to fry

Method
1. In a large bowl, add the mashed, boiled potatoes together with salt, coriander powder, chilli and paprika, cumin power, turmeric, curry leaves and onion. Mix well.
2. Scoop a tablespoon of the mixture and form small balls using cleaned hands.
3. In a separate bowl, put the gram flour and add water as needed until thick batter is formed. Add a pinch of salt, black pepper powder and cumin seeds.
4. Heat the oil to deep fry. Dip each potato ball into the gram batter until it is well covered and gently immerse them into the oil. Fry all sides until golden brown.
5. Serve piping hot with a good cuppa of chai.