Bondas

From Asian Vegetarian Recipes, Family Circle, Murdoch Books, 2000.

Nearly any recipe with potatoes as the main ingredient attracts me. For this one I needed 600g cooked potatoes in dice.

To begin I heated up a little oil in a saucepan and added about ½ teaspoon brown mustard seeds. When they began to pop I added ½ chopped onion, a little grated fresh ginger and 2 small green chillies chopped. These were cooked for a couple of minutes before the potatoes were added with a pinch of ground turmeric. About a tablespoon water was added and the mixture was stirred until it was dry. It was now taken off the heat and the juice of ½ lemon was added with a good handful of chopped coriander. It was now seasoned with salt and pepper and formed into 12 balls.

A batter was made by sifting together ½ cup chickpea flour, 15g self-raising flour, 25g rice flour, a pinch ground turmeric and ½ teaspoon ground chilli. Water was now stirred in until a smooth batter was made.

Oil was heated is a saucepan and the potato balls dipped in the batter were added to cook for a couple of minutes. They were drained on paper towels and were ready to eat.

Naturally, I enjoyed these spicy potato balls with their chickpea-flavoured coating. I think I could have made the batter with a little less water to make it hold to the potato better but, all in all, it was quite satisfactory.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔