Alu amadar chop (Potato fritters with mango ginger)

These fritters are fragrant  of childhood memories  with remembrance of evening get-together with neighbors at home or watching World cup or Wimbledon together with the whole family in television .During my childhood not every neighbor had their own TV  sets so we  as kids used to have fun in the evening watching TV serials or sports with a gang of kids and their family members at home. Bengalis used to have a cultural concept called “adda” which means a get-together consisting of intellectual and cultural exchange of ideas,so be it the busy men after work or housewives ,each and every body used to indulge in this social activity which I am sorry to say has diminished and on the verge of extinction these days due to the Social Networking and Mall culture.Wherever there is a “Adda” or gathering one will find these spicy fritters served with puffed rice or “Muri”. Voila the combination is mind blowing and the aroma which you get during frying is enough to make your mouth water .I used little “amada” or ginger with mango flavor to get the flavor of fresh raw mango but even if you don’t get , it  tastes superb.

Ingredients

1. Potatoes 4 to 5(boiled)
2. Ginger (grated 2 tbsp)
3. Nigella seeds (1/2 tsp)
4. Red chillies (4 to 5) broken to small pieces
5. Roasted Cumin powder (1 tbsp)
6. Red chilly powder (1 tsp)
7. Green chillies chopped fine(1 or 2)
8. Amada or mango ginger(2 tsp) optional
9. Salt to taste
10. Chickpea flour (1 cup)
11. Rice flour(1/4th cup)
12. Rock salt(1 tsp)
13. Oil for frying (1 cup)

Preparation

1. Mash the boiled potatoes very well till smooth.
2. Add 2 tbsp of oiil in the pan and add nigella seeds and red chillies. When the chilies get a little brown add ginger .
3. Add the spices roasted cumin powder and red chilly powder.
4. Add the mango ginger followed by salt.
5. Add the green chilies .
6. Saute the potatoes till the mixture leaves the sides of the pan and does not stick any more.
7. Take it out and let it cool.
8. Make a batter of besan and rice flour.Add salt to taste.The trick is the batter will be just enough to coat the mixture and will be thin.
9. Note the mixture does not have any binding material so you need to be careful during frying as if the outer coating is punctured the potato mixture comes out and spoil the entire oil for frying.
10. Make small round flat disks from the potato mixture ,dip in the batter and fry in hot oil.
11. Serve with little rock salt sprinkled on top with hot tea or coffee.