Delicious Recipes 4m Pranati's Kitchen: Beetroot Alluchop/ aloo bonda

My post this time is Aloo chop, (allo bonda) are balls of mashed boiled potatoes cooked with onions, crushed ginger garlic, dipped in chickpea flour batter and deep fried till golden brown.

This is a very common snack specialty in Orissa. They are the most loved snacks in Orissa , sold in most of the ready made food stalls, and also as a street food by the gudia dokan in small carts by the road side. There are a variety of chops (I still don't know the reason behind calling them chops) vegetable chop, prawns chop, egg chop, fish chop though all these are fried with coated breadcrumbs and not besan.

Aloo chop in Eastern India and Vada Pav in west. The aloo chop is individual genius and the vada pav is brilliantly cohesive. The aloo chop is sit back and relax and the vada pav is get up and run. In fact, it’s something that has to be savoured, eaten at leisure, with friends, or sitting at home during chilly evenings. I learnt to make these after I left Orissa and after umpteen number of trials and errors I have found a taste very similar to what I get back home:)

So I made aloo chop in beetroot for the 1^st time & it came out well. So friends without much ado let’s start the recipe.

Ingredients:

For Masala :

Medium size Potatoes-5

1 small size beet root- chopped

1 large onion- chopped

Ginger garlic- crushed-1 tblsp

Green chilly- 1 chopped

Roasted peanuts- a handful

Green peas a handful (optional)

Turmeric powder- a pinch

Dried kasturi methi leaves- 1tsp

Garam masala powder- 1tsp

3-4 whole green cardamoms

Salt as per taste

Curry leaves afew (optional)

Chopped coriander leaves- 1tblsp

For batter

Besan / Gram flour- 2 cups

Rice flour- 2tblsp

baking soda- ¼ tsp

Cumin seeds- ¼ tsp (or u can add carom seeds /nigella seeds )

Salt as per taste

Water to make batter

Oil for deep frying

Method:

Boil the Potato and smash it.

Heat oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds, whole green cardamoms. Let them crackle. Then onion, curry leaves, green chillies. Sauté for 1 min. Then add the crushed ginger garlic paste. Add haldi & red chilli powder. Sauté for 1-2 min. Then add chopped beetroots & green peas. Mix well & cover the lead till the veggies are cooked. The add mashed potatoes, roasted peanuts, Dried kasturi methi leaves, garam masala powder and salt. Mix well. Cook for another 1 min. Add coriander leaves mix well again/ your masala is now ready. Let it cool.

For the batter, add gram flour, rice flr , baking soda , cumin seeds , a little salt and water. The batter should be of medium thickness consistency so that it can be coated over the potato dumplings.