Potato Bonda

One of the things I like best about spending time at my parents’ place is the little goodies I get from time to time. When I was a hosteller, Amma would keep all her special stuff for the weekends. And in all the years that I’ve been away, she has meticulously planned mealtimes for the time that I would visit. A couple of years ago, I told her to stop making so much food. I am a poor eater and so to manage Undyo for breakfast, Paruppu Urundai, Milagu Kuzhambu and Milagu Rasam for lunch and Pizza for dinner with some lemon cheese cake thrown in for dessert can get tough. I felt I couldn’t do justice to anything at all. I then allowed her one special dish per visit. And everything else had to be regular food that they ate. Even if it meant leftovers. Nowadays, she sometimes doesn’t cook at all when I visit. I offer to cook or we eat something simple. Like Methi Thepla or Aloo Paratha or Aloo Tikki. Appa’s favourite is the potato bonda. Most days, he doesn’t have any dinner. A bowl of yogurt or a glass of apple milkshake are all that he has. Unless potato bonda is on the dinner menu.

This is the South Indian avatar of this dish. Similar to and yet different from its cousin, the batata vada.

For the Batter:

1/2 cup Gram Flour (Besan)
1/4 cup Rice Flour
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
1 tsp Chilli Powder
1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
Salt to taste
1 tbsp Hot Oil

For the Filling:

3-4 Potatoes, boiled, peeled and cubed
1 tsp Green Chilli Paste
1 tsp Ginger Paste
2 tbsp Coriander Leaves, chopped
Salt to taste


For the tempering:

1 tsp Oil

1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

Oil for frying

Heat the oil for the tempering in a frying ladle. Add the mustard. When the mustard splutters, add the asafoetida. Add the tempering to the potatoes, mixed with salt, chilli and ginger paste, and coriander leaves, and mash the entire mixture. Make small balls and keep aside.

Mix all the ingredients for the batter. Add enough water to make a thick batter.

Heat the oil in a kadhai. Dip the potato balls in the gram flour batter and drop carefully into the oil. Deep fry the bondas until they turn golden brown all around. Drain on absorbent paper and enjoy them with tomato sauce.

(Someone had asked me once what I meant by chilli paste. This is just ground chillies (or ginger or garlic) with a little bit of preservative (Sodium Benzoate or Potassium Metabi Sulphide). Made at right at home. Please feel free to substitute freshly chopped chillies (or ginger or garlic) wherever any of my recipes calls for paste.)

This plate of bondas is off to dear Anita as she celebrates the Anniversary of her blog with a virtual Mad Tea Party. Deep fried love... couldn't get any better than this.