Pressure cooking potatoes
rinse and then add 250 grams potatoes or 4 medium potatoes in a 2 litre pressure cooker. also add 2 cups water.

Pressure cook for 7 to 8 minutes on medium flame or for 5 to 6 whistles.
when the pressure falls down on it's own, remove the lid, the potatoes have to be cooked well. Remove the potatoes and let them become warm.

When the potatoes become warm, peel and mashed potatoes with a fork or potato masher. don’t mash too much.

Add 2 tablespoons chopped coriander leaves and salt as required to the mashed potatoes.

Making green chilli+garlic+ginger paste
in a small grinder take 1 to 2 green chilies (chopped), 1 teaspoon chopped ginger and 1.5 teaspoon chopped garlic. Adding more green chillies will give a spicy taste.

Add 1 to 2 tablespoons water and grind to a smooth paste.

You can also use a mortar-pestle to crush ginger, garlic and green chilies. No need to add water if crushing in mortar-pestle. Keep aside.

For tempering potato filling
heat 1 tablespoon oil in a small pan, keep the flame to a low. Add ½ teaspoon mustard seeds and let them crackle and pop.

When the mustard seeds crackle, then add ½ teaspoon cumin seeds.
fry for a few seconds till the cumin seeds change colour and also crackle.
add ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder and 1 pinch asafoetida,quickly give a stir.

Now add the ginger+garlic+green chilli paste. the paste will splutter, so be careful. Mix and stir.

Then add 6 to 7 curry leaves (chopped).
sauté the paste for some seconds on a low flame till the raw aroma of both ginger and garlic goes away.

Now add the entire sautéed mixture to the mashed potatoes. Mix very well.

Making potato filling for batata vada
add ¼ teaspoon lemon juice and ¼ to ½ teaspoon sugar.

Adding sugar is optional and can be skipped.
mix very well. Check the taste and add more salt if required.

Then make medium sized balls from the potato mixture. slightly flatten the potato balls as it helps to fry the vadas easily. keep aside.

Making batter for batata vada
in another bowl, take 1 cup besan (gram flour), ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder, ¼ teaspoon red chilli powder, 1 pinch baking soda and ½ teaspoon salt or add as per taste.

Add ⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon water in parts. begin to whisk.
Adding water in parts whisk to a smooth batter. make a medium thick batter. keep aside.

Frying batata vada
heat oil for deep frying in a kadhai or wok. keep the flame to medium.

When the oil becomes hot, add ¼ to ½ teaspoon hot oil in the batter. mix very well.

Check a small portion of batter in the oil and it should come up gradually and steadily on top. now the oil is ready for frying batata vada. keep the flame to medium-low or medium.

Take a potato vada and dip it in the besan batter.Gently coat it with the batter evenly all over.

Then gently place the vadas in hot oil.
do not over crowd the kadhai. Add vadas depending on the size of the kadhai. Fry on medium flame.

When one side becomes opaque, lightly crisp and light golden, turn each batata vada with a slotted spoon. continue to fry the second side.

When the second side is light golden, turn the batata vada again.This way turn the vadas a couple of times till they are golden. remove with a slotted spoon.

Place the batata vada on kitchen paper towels. this way fry the remaining batches of batata vada.

Serve batata vada hot or warm with the fried salted green chilies, sweet tamarind chutney, coconut chutney and coriander chutney. you can also serve these delicious batata vada with pav.