Maru Bhajiya

Where do I start with this recipe? I can eat these any time of the day, it is that good! This is actually my Hubby's expertise - being from Nairobi, Kenya where this is a staple he grew up eating this Bhajiyas. Maru was the name of a restaurant in Nairobi,  that first made this crispy potato Bhajiyas that east Africans all over the world can't stop talking about. There were restaurants in Nairobi who specialized in just Maru bhajia. I ate these the very first time when I visited my Brother-in-law in Arizona.  Him and his Kenyan roommate fried up batch after batch and I kept finishing them up.  Since then I have been a big fan of this fried goodness. The secret of crispy bhajia is not adding any water. That's right, NO water in the batter.


This recipe will Serve 2 people (snack) - be warned - they ARE addictive!

Ingredients

• Light tasting vegetable oil for frying
• 2 large potatoes

For the batter

• 1 1/2 cup chickpea (gram) flour
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 2 green chillies, crushed
• 1 1/2inch ginger - peeled and grated
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• salt to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon chilli powder
• 1/2 cup coriander - finely chopped (you can use methi leaves too)
• water to soak the potatoes

Method

1. Pour enough oil into a small frying pan to enable you to shallow fry the bhajia.
2. Peel the potatoes and slice them very thinly. Soak them in cold water - the thinner the slices, the better (aim for 1 millimeter slices). Then drain them and lay them on a clean kitchen towel to absorb all the water.
3. Put the potato slices in a big bowl, then put the besan flour, cilantro/methi, salt ginger, garlic, chilli paste over the potatoes.  put some lemon juice over this mixture then rub the mixture on each potato slice.  Don't add water because it will make the mixture runny. The lemon juice and salt will lead the potato sliced to release some water and this will aid in helping the batter stick to the potato slices.  If at first it seems too dry, wait a couple of minutes after mixing the ingredients.
4. Check the heat of the oil by placing a drop of batter into the pan.  The batter should sizzle and rise to the surface. It is important to regulate the heat of the oil for the duration of the cooking time.
5. Once the oil is hot enough, place a few slices (no more than 5 at a time - coat each slice with the batter) of potato in frying pan until crispy and golden brown. This will take 3-4 minutes per batch.
6. Place the bhajias on a dish covered with a piece of kitchen towel and let the oil drain.
7. Serve immediately with special tomato chutney - recipe below: 

Tomato Chutney:

• 3 Tomatoes
• 1 large Cucumber (peeled)
• 1 large Carrot
• Cilantro
• 1-2 green Chilli (to taste)
• Ghor (jaggery) (to taste)
• Roasted Cumin (Jeeru) powder
• Salt (to taste)

Method:

Cut the tomatoes, cucumber, carrots into small pieces for a food chopper.  Put all the ingredients in the chopper and run the chopper till everything is in a chutney consistency but coarse in texture.