Vegan Garlicky Potato Curry (Lasanya Bateta nu shak)

Anyone who has visited London or seen any movies about London  can’t get away from seeing their iconic London red buses and black taxis. I think one of Harry Potter movies featured them as well.  My sons used to love travelling by bus when they were small.  Some days it was lovely to just take them on a bus and sit on the top deck and pretend to be a tourist and see all the sites.  Kids didn’t  need much entertainment at that time.  These days, kids and adults are too busy looking at their phones or ipads and forget to look out of the window and enjoy the view.

For tourists one of the best ways of seeing London is to go on the open top hop on and hop off buses as they always give a good commentary about the sites of London. Some of these  buses often have themed events too which really makes you visit memorable.  However,  if you were going as a family, the sightseeing trip can work out quite expensive.

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If you are in London for a short time, you can plan your journey by getting a London guidebook and look at  the  – using buses in London website.  Details about the Bus fares are here.  London buses are card only,  so no need for cash. Choose a Visitor Oyster card, an Oyster card, a Travelcard or a contactless payment card to pay your fare.

A single London bus journey costs £1.50 no matter how far you go (unlike the Tube zone fare system). You can even take multiple buses within one hour at no extra charge thanks to the Hopper fare system. Plus, no matter how many buses or trams you take, it will never cost you more than £4.50 a day. Just make sure you use the same payment option across every journey.

Hopping on a London bus is one of the best ways to see the city on a budget.  This link gives you information  to three bus routes which are perfect for a cut-price sightseeing tour, taking in the majority of the city’s most famous sights.  The best thing about all London buses is that they are accessible.  All buses are  fitted with low-level floors, wheelchair ramps and audiovisual announcers.  Wheelchair users can travel free of charge on all Transport for London buses, and registered assistance dogs are also welcome on-board. I hope you are enjoying reading my short tips about visiting London.

Today’s Garlicky curry is one that my FIL often used to make when we had too many boiled potatoes left over in our restaurant.  Another favourite use of boiled potatoes is to use them for making bateta vada (spicy coated potato balls) or spicy bombs which are spicy stuffed bhjias.  This curry is easy to make and lots of the ingredients can be changed to make it to suit your taste.  If you have tried my Chunky potatoes with roasted peanut curry   or my potato curry using roasted peanuts -you will definitely like this one.

Ingredients

• 6-8 boiled potatoes
• 2-3 small shallots or onions
• 2 tbls garlic chutney (Recipe here:)
• 2 tbls oil (I used sunflower oil)
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 2-3 dry red chilies
• Pinch of asafoetida (hing)
• 1 tbls sesame seeds
• 3 tbls Roasted peanuts
• 1 tbls fennel seeds (saunf or valrari)
• 1 tbls ready made sambhar mix ( I used the Gits brand. You can also use rasam mix)
• 2 tbls raisins
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp turmeric
• extra chili powder if required
• Handful of chopped Fresh coriander
• 5-6 cherry tomatoes
• ½ cup passata
• 1 tbls tomato puree
• 1 tbls lemon juice
• 1 tsp Splenda ( you can also use sugar or jaggery)

Method

1. Boil the potatoes in their skin and once cooked, remove the skin. (Don’t use salad potatoes as they don’t soften so well) . Also slit the onions halfway to enable them to cook well. I didn’t spread the garlic chutney to the onions as onions have their own flavour.

2. Slit the potato half way to enable you to spread the garlic chutney between the potatoes. Try not to cut the potato in two. If it happens – it’s fine too.

3. Grind the roasted peanuts and fennel seeds. If you don’t have roasted peanuts, just use raw peanuts but cook them in the microwave for a minute at a time until they look roasted. Usually two minutes is fine but cook them in small bursts as they can burn easily, and this would ruin the taste of your curry. Once ground set it aside. Add most of the sesame seeds to this mixture but save a few for garnishing. Also add the sambhar mix to the ground peanuts. This mixture can be used for a lot of curries such as Okra and karela.

4. Heat the oil and add the cumin seeds and the dry chilies. Once the cumin seeds brown, add the asafoetida (hing) and add the filled potatoes and onions. Stir these gently so that the oil covers all the potatoes and onions. Add the salt and turmeric to the mixture and chili powder if you like very hot food.

5. Sprinkle half of the peanut and sesame see mixture on to the potatoes and mix. Add the raisins too.

6. Add one cup of boiling water to the curry and allow it to cook on a low flame for 5 minutes. The sauce may start to thicken. At this stage, you can decide how runny you want your gravy to be.  You can add more water if you like or add another tablespoon of the ground peanut mix if you want to thicken your curry more. Cooking is all about experimenting with spices and tastes to your own preference.

6. Add the passata and the tomato puree and mix well.

7. Finally add the Splenda (sugar or jaggery) to the curry.

8. Garnish it with coriander, cherry tomatoes and a few sesame seeds and serve it hot with chappatis.

How many of you love potato curry with garlic?

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