Recipe credit: Darshana Muzumdar
Serves 4 as part of a traditional Indian meal.
Ingredients
- 2-3 large potatoes
- A handful of rice flour
- ½ tsp chilli powder (use more if you prefer it really spicy)
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder
- ½ tsp sambhar powder
- Salt to taste
- Coconut or ground nut oil to shallow fry
Method
- Wash and peel the potatoes.
- Slice the potatoes into thick rounds of around ½ inch thickness. Sprinkle salt and rest them for around 15-20 minutes. They will release water that can be discarded.
- Mix the rice flour and all the other spices well.
- Heat a thick cast iron pan and spread a teaspoon of oil on the surface.
- Roll the slices in the flour mixture and lay them out quickly on the pan.
- Cover the pan till the lower side of the slices are golden brown. Turn them over and cook some more without covering the pan.
- Once they are cooked and golden brown on both sides take them off and serve hot.
- This dish can be eaten as a snack or can be served as an accompaniment with a meal.
Note: Some people prefer to add all the spices to the potato with the salt and allow it to rest. They also add some spice to the rice flour. You can also make this in semolina in which case it becomes really crisp.
For the whole food plant based (WFPB) version:
The only thing that you can help with this dish is to not peel the potatoes. It’s not possible to make the dish whole plant based otherwise as it is a fried dish. You could try to at least reduce the amount of oil used. Spread the pan with only a few drops of oil and keep a watch to see that the slices don’t burn. Keep the heat at as low a flame as possible. And keep adding warm water 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time to ensure cooking.
The following dishes can all be made as above.
Spicy Fried Brinjal/Egg Plant Slices
Spicy Fried Raw Banana Slices
Spicy Fried Red Pumpkin Slices
Spicy Fried Yam Slices (Rub your hands with oil before removing the hard cover of the yam. Do not make it wet till after it has been peeled as your hands will start itching if you do.)