I recently made this delectable little Indian treat native to Maharashtra (think Mumbai/Bombay and surroundings) for my nerdy clerk book club.  We read East of Eden, which is one of the BEST BOOKS EVER, so of course I had to make something delicious and completely not themed to the book in any way.

All inspiration (and the entire recipe) from this awesome blog.  If you want to learn how to cook fun and easy vegetarian Indian cuisine, go visit Hungry Desi and read all the entries.

Here is what you do to make Vada Pav (pronounced, according to Hungry Desi and V, like this: vuh-duh pow). 

Boil potatoes, mash with peas (I also used corn because I JUST DID AND IT’S MY BLOG) and add mix of food-processed delicious spices, garlic, serrano chiles, and … wait for it … I USED ALMONDS.  

Then coat in yummy besan flour batter (chickpea flour — guys, this stuff is good, be responsible and get a huge quantity of it from local indian grocery like I did) and fry in veggie oil.

Then convince your friends to go drive to Escondido and pick up some legit pav buns (OR, IF GULLIBLE-FRIEND-LESS, USE HAMBURGER BUNS) and slather with a bunch of chutneys (I used garlic chutney, spicy mango chutney, and mint chutney - tamarind chutney would be IDEAL but I couldn’t find it … later V and I found some and the second batch was pretty good with that tamarind.)  Also my new discovery of garlic chutney may be life-changing.

Then smush and eat.

If you make wayyyyyy too many like I did, just save some pre-battering.  Then, a few days hours later when you want some more, batter and fry up a new batch then, it takes mere moments.  Although, shockingly, post-battering and frying, they will also save pretty well for a day or two and may even be heated in microwave.

No, I don’t always use dashes correctly and I often over-punctuate and capsify in in this blog sorry I am like the anti e.e.cummings that is just how it is.