Traditionally, Dangar, or fritters, is made out of leftover seafood in a Goud Saraswat Brahmin household. But on Fridays, many Goud Saraswat Brahmins eat vegetarian and they look for vegetarian alternatives. Vegetables with interesting texture are preferred. On my visits to Goa, I learned quite a bit about Goud Saraswat Brahmin cuisine and some of the dishes typically made in their kitchens. This is one such dish. I loved its texture and flavours and wanted to bring it to O Pedro, given that you won’t usually find it at restaurants.

  • Serves

    6

  • Cook Time

    45m

    (Plus 10 minutes to fry and plate)

Ingredients

For Sweet Potato Tikki

  • ½ kg sweet potato, baked in an oven until soft, and peeled
  • 1 cup semolina
  • ¾ cup finely chopped onions
  • ½ cup water
  • ¼ cup rice flour
  • ¼ cup all-purpose flour
  • ¼ cup poi saag, blanched in hot water
  • 3 tbsp sunflower oil
  • 2 tbsp finely cut coriander leaves
  • 1½ tsp garam masala
  • 1 tsp black sesame
  • 1 tsp white sesame
  • ½ tsp turmeric powder
  • Oil to fry
  • Salt to taste

For Raw Mango Chutney

  • 1 cup fresh coriander
  • ½ cup sunflower seed oil
  • ¼ cup raw mango, roughly cut
  • ½ tsp chaat masala
  • 2-3 medium-sized green chillies
  • Salt to season
  • Sugar to taste

For Kachumbar

  • ½ cup finely chopped onions
  • ½ cup finely chopped tomatoes, deseeded
  • ½ cup finely chopped raw mango
  • ½ tsp chopped green chillies
  • 1 lemon, halved
  • Salt to season
  • Sugar to taste

Preparation

For Sweet Potato Tikki

  1. Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a heavy bottomed saucepan, on a medium flame.
  2. Toss in the finely-chopped onions and sauté until translucent.
  3. Add the powdered spices and let them bloom. Remove from heat.
  4. Mash up the baked sweet potatoes and gently mix it with chopped poi saag leaves, coriander, black and white sesame, and spiced, sautéed onions, to form a homogenous mixture.
  5. Season the mixture with salt.
  6. Shape the sweet potato mixture into tikkis of 25 gm each and reserve in a cool place.
  7. In a bowl, mix all-purpose flour and water to make a batter. Season it with salt.
  8. Combine the semolina and rice flour in a shallow tray with lofted sides.
  9. Dip the tikkis in the batter and coat with the semolina rice flour mix.
  10. Once the tikkis are done, reserve in a cool space for at least 1 hour.
  11. Heat oil in a frying pan, on medium heat.
  12. Release a few drops of leftover batter into the oil to check the temperature. If they rise quickly to the surface after touching the base, the oil is ready.
  13. Fry the tikkis in small batches and drain on a kitchen towel.

For Raw Mango Chutney

  1. In a large blender jar, grind together coriander, roughly-chopped raw mango, green chillies and chaat masala.
  2. Once the mixture starts to turn into a paste, start streaming in the sunflower seed oil little by little from a height until the mixture transforms into a smooth, fluffy paste.
  3. Season with salt and sugar.
  4. Refrigerate for a while before serving.

For Kachumbar

  1. Mix all chopped ingredients in a mixing bowl.
  2. Squeeze the juice of one lemon and season with salt. Add sugar to balance.

To serve

  1. Sprinkle the kachumbar over the tikkis and serve with the chutney. 

Hussain Shahzad

Hussain Shahzad

Chef Hussain Shahzad heads the kitchen at O Pedro, a Goa-inspired bar and restaurant in Mumbai. He started his culinary career with the Oberoi Group of Hotels as a Senior Kitchen Executive at Frangipani, Mumbai, before moving to New York, where he worked for a while at the famed Eleven Madison Park. Shahzad’s culinary adventures have taken him around the world and he has also, for a brief period, worked as a personal chef to tennis star Roger Federer. Before taking the reins at O Pedro, he was a part of The Bombay Canteen team.

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