Spicy Bombs (Hot spicy stuffed bhajias for those who dare!)

I recently had some friends round for a games night. Catering for these can be a challenge as you don’t want to interrupt the flow of the game to start serving up a three-course meal! So I decided to make a selection of finger food that we could easily eat during breaks in the games.

One of the dishes I made on the day is what my brother BT calls Bapu’s bhajias and my friend VP calls packed bhajias.   I have named them Spicy bombs as that’s what Hansa called them in her recipe book.   In her recipe, she adds whole chillies and gathia to the boiled potatoes but I decided against that.  I decided to remove the seeds from  chillies and blend them with sev noodles as I thought that this would blend better and make the bhajias tastier.  I was in one of those dare devil moods and wanted to see which of my friends had the guts to eat these spicy delicacies.   I was expecting to see a few red sweaty  faces but surprisingly, all my friends enjoyed them and found them to taste OK after a few drinks.

Ingredients for enough bhajias for 3-4 people

• 12-16 new baby potatoes

For the batter to dip the potatoes:

• 2 cups of chick pea flour (often called gram flour or besan)
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp of Ajwain
• small bunch of  fresh coriander cut finely (can use coriander powder too)
• Pinch of soda bi carbonate

For stuffing No 1:

• 1 cup sev ( you can buy ready made sev noodles in most Asian stores)
• 4-5 fresh green chillies (washed and blended)
• 1 tsp ground sugar
• small bunch of finely chopped coriander
• 2-3 tbsps lemon juice
• 1 tbsp oil

For stuffing no 2

• 5-6 cloves of  blended garlic
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp chilly powder
• ½ tsp of cumin powder
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp. sesame seeds
• 1 tbsp desiccated coconut
• small bunch of finely chopped coriander

For the Deep Frying:

• 1 litre of cooking oil ( I always use sunflower oil)

Method for both the stuffings:

Prepare the potatoes as below:

1. Steam the baby potatoes with the skin on. I suggest steaming rather than boiling as you do not want the potatoes to over cook and break.

2. Once cooked, allow to cool and peel the skin from the potatoes.

 Prepare the stuffing No 1 (ingredients for 10-12 baby potatoes):

1.  Crush the sev using your hands and mix all the ingredients listed under stuffing No 1 above in a bowl and leave for 20 minutes.

Prepare stuffing No 2 which will be hotter and spicer (Ingredients for 4 baby potatoes)

1. Peel and blend the garlic using a pestle and mortar or a grinder.

2. Add salt and 1 teaspoon of lemon to the garlic to make the blending easier.

3. Remove the blended mixture to a mixing bowl and add the chilly powder and cumin powder to it

4.  Add the finely chopped coriander , desiccated coconut and  sesame seeds to the mixture.

5.  This mixture should resemble a firm paste.

Prepare the chick pea flour batter to dip your potatoes in:

1. Add one cup of water to the Chick pea flour and mix well.  You may need to add half  cup more to get the right thickness of the batter.

2. Add the salt, ajwain, fresh coriander and stir well.

3. The mixture should be fairly thick as shown in my picture.

4.  Allow this to rest whilst you heat the oil.

Now prepare the potatoes for both the stuffings:

1. Cut the potatoes across – but only half way  on one side; turn to the opposite side and cut the potato across half way again.

2.  The stuffing with the sev should now be soft and manageable to use. If it feels too dry, sprinkle a couple of drops of water to moisten it.

3.  Fill the potatoes with the stuffing mixture no 1:

4,  Fill the potatoes with stuffing no 2:

  To finish making the bhajias:

1. To check if the oil is hot, drop a small drop of batter into the oil. If the oil is ready, the batter will rise to the top.

2. Turn the heat slightly low now.

3. Add a pinch of soda by carbonate to the chick pea mixture and stir.

3. Take one potato at a time; using a spoon, dip it in the chick pea flour mixture and transfer it to the oil -using a knife or a chopstick .

4. Allow it to cook one side and turn.

5. Once they look golden yellow, they are cooked and ready to serve with any chilly sauce.

I also make stuffed bhajias slightly different to these so check out this recipe

If you have leftover bread you can make this quick bread and mixed vegetable bhajias.

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