Deep Fried, Spiced Mashed Potato Dumplings (Batate Ambado/Ambade)

Yummy, deep fried, spicy, potato dumplings are called as batate ambade in Kannada & Konkani. Batate ambado are soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. Spicy, seasoned potato filling is coated with a layer of gram flour batter and deep fried to make amazing batate ambade. You just can't stop at one! 

Batate ambado is a perfect tea time snack and a popular street food from Udupi, Mangalore region. Here's the recipe to make amazing batate ambade for you.

Ingredients:

For the inner potato filling:

3 medium sized potatoes
2-3 green chillies depending on their spiciness.
2 tablespoons of oil
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon urad dal
2 leaflets of curry leaves 
4-5 garlic cloves
1/2 inch ginger peeled & finely chopped
1 medium sized onion 
1/2 teaspoon channa dal (optional)
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
a pinch of turmeric powder
2 tablespoons of fresh coriander
Salt to taste
A pinch of asafoetida powder

For the batter:

1/2 cup chickpea flour/gram flour
1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder 
A pinch of asafoetida powder
A pinch of baking soda
1/4 cup corn flour or rice flour for crispiness
Salt to taste

Others:

Oil for deep frying

Preparation Method:

Preparation of inner potato filling:

1. Clean and cut the potatoes into half. Then pressure cook them until soft. Once cooked, allow them to cool and then peel them. Once peeled, mash them well in a big bowl. It's ok to have few tiny pieces of potatoes. It gives a nice bite to the batat ambado.

2. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok. Once the oil heats up add in mustard seeds, urad dal, channa dal and fry them until the mustard seeds start popping and the urad dal starts to brown.

3. Then add in finely chopped/smashed garlic, finely chopped green chilli, finely chopped ginger, curry leaves and saute for a minute.

4. Add in turmeric powder, asafoetida powder and saute for few seconds. 

5. Add in chopped onions and fry until they start to brown. Add salt to fasten their cooking.

6. Add in smashed potatoes, salt and mix well.

7. Simmer the potato mixture on a low flame for few minutes with constant mixing and sauting so that the flavours combine well the cooked potatoes.

8. Remove off heat, add lemon juice, finely chopped coriander and mix well.

9. Once the potato mixture cools a little, make lemon sized balls of the potato mixture and keep them aside.

Preparation of the batter:

10. Add gram flour into a bowl. Add salt, red chilli powder, baking soda, rice flour/corn flour, asafoetida powder and mix well.

11. Add in water little by little and mix well making sure there are no clumps. The batter should neither be too thick nor too watery. You can also add pinch of turmeric to the batter if you like to give the outer coating of batat ambade a nice colour.

If the batter's watery it'll drip off the potato balls and won't hold onto it. If the batter's thick then you get a thick coating of gram flour batter. 

If the batter gets watery then adjust the consitency of the the batter by adding in more gram flour little by little.

12. Meanwhile heat up the oil.

13. Dip the potato balls into the batter gently so that they are well coated with the batter all around.

14. Let the excess batter drip off in the bowl containing the batter and drop the batter coated potato balls into the rolling hot oil.

15. Deep fry the batter coated potato balls on a medium flame until they turn golden yellow in colour.

If the flame's on low heat then the batat ambade tends to absorb more oil, if the flame's high then they start to burn on the outside and remain raw on the inside. So, fry them on a medium heat.

16. Repeat the same with the rest of the potato balls. You can fry 3-5 balls in a batch depending on the amount of oil you have in the wok and depending on the size of the wok. Fry the potato dumplings in the oil until they turn golden brown throughout. 

17. Once they are cooked through, remove them onto a paper towel to drain excess oil.

18. Enjoy steaming hot batate ambade with a cup of tea or coffee.

Serving suggestion:

Batato ambado tastes best as is or with any coconut chutney, mint chutney or with ketchup.

Serve steaming hot ambado with a side dish of your choice and with a cup of tea or coffee.

Side Note:

1. Onions and garlic are optional. You can make these ambade without onions and garlic.

2. Garlic, ginger, asafoetida are optional. However, they are added to counteract the effects the potato and gram flour has on your system. They enhance the taste of ambade, as well as take care of any gastric issue that arise from potato and gram flour consumption. 

Find more fritter (bajo, phodi) recipes here.

Tags: Batato ambado, Batate ambade, tea time snack, fritters, deep fried, aloo bonda, mangalore bonda, konkani food, Mangalore food, Udupi cuisine, Konkani cuisine, konkani recipe, Udupi Mangalore street food.