Bateta Vada

Bateta Vada

£9.00
£9.00
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Bateta Vada
  • Bateta Vada
Bateta Vada

ORDER BY WEDNESDAY 11AM FOR DELIVERY EVERY FRIDAY
READY FOR THE WEEKEND!

Bateta Vada

The street food that started everything.

£9.00
£9.00

Before any of it there was this. Bateta vada is the street food of Mumbai, eaten at every corner, every hour, by everyone.

A spiced potato filling encased in a crisp chickpea batter, fried golden and served hot. It is one of the great snacks of the world. Unpretentious, deeply satisfying, and the kind of thing that once you've had it properly you spend the rest of your life measuring every other version against.

We make ours the way it should be made. Perfectly flavoured with a hint of tang, salt, green chilly, curry leaves and a special ingredient! Our spice mix. The filling is built from scratch. The batter is seasoned. The frying is done at the right temperature for long enough to get the crust right. Nothing is rushed and nothing is skipped.

This is the snack that reminds you why street food exists.
What's included

20 x Cocktail Bateta Vada
You'll also need

  • Bowls or trays for the cooked vadas
  • A barbecue rack or grill rack
  • Large baking trays for cooked items
  • Plenty of foil
  • Oven gloves
  • Hot oil!
Instructions & Allergens

Cook on fire, gas, grill, oven, air fryer or pan fry! Full cooking instructions will be provided with your box. Allergens are detailed below.
Delivery & Returns

Delivery is FREE on orders over £50! We will work quickly to ship your order as soon as possible. Once your order has shipped, you will receive an email with further information. Delivery times vary depending on your location.

Our goal is for every customer to be totally satisfied with their purchase. If this isn't the case, let us know and we'll do our best to work with you to make it right. Please refer to our full Delivery and Returns Policy.

What makes these different

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The filling is the heart of a bateta vada and the thing that most commercial versions get wrong. Ours starts with whole mustard seeds tempered in oil until they pop. The step that releases the oil in the seed and gives the filling its characteristic warmth and nuttiness. Fresh curry leaves go in next, followed by green chilli, ginger, and turmeric, and then the potato. Boiled, drained properly, and mashed with enough texture left in it to give the filling body rather than becoming a smooth paste.

Amchur, dried mango powder. This goes in at the end along with fresh coriander. This is the combination that gives the filling its brightness and stops it from feeling heavy despite the richness of the potato and the warmth of the spice.

The batter is made from besan. Chickpea flour seasoned with turmeric, red chilli, and a pinch of bicarbonate of soda that gives it a light lift and ensures the crust stays crisp rather than turning soft as the vada rests. The ratio of batter to filling matters enormously. Too thick and the batter dominates. Too thin and it doesn't protect the filling from the oil. We've found the balance just for you.

How to cook them

Make little balls of the potato mix. You can keep these chilled in the fridge once you've made the balls. If frying heat up the oil. When ready dip the balls in the batter and straight into the oil. Repeat the process with as many balls as you can safely put into your oil. You might want to loosen the batter mix with a touch of water if it feels thick. The right thickness is when you coat the back of a spoon and you run your finger through it, if the gap stays a second it's right.

Deep Fry: 170°C oil, 3–4 minutes turning once, until deep golden and crisp all over. Drain on kitchen paper or or best results drain on wire rack to stay cripsy and rest for 2 minutes before serving. This is the correct method and the one that gives the best result.

Air Fryer: 190°C, 12–14 minutes, turning halfway. Brush or spray lightly with oil before cooking. The crust will be slightly thinner than deep fried but the flavour is fully preserved.

Oven: 200°C fan, 20–22 minutes on a rack, turning halfway. Brush with oil before cooking. Finish under the grill for 2 minutes for colour and crunch.

Serve immediately. Bateta vada are at their best the moment they come out of the oil.

Full instructions are inside every box. You don't need to do anything except bring the heat and the people.

The Detail

  • Vacuum sealed. Stays fresh for 3 days refrigerated, or freeze on arrival for up to 3 months
  • No artificial ingredients, preservatives, or marinade pastes
  • Allergens: contains dairy and mustard. Karoga cannot guarantee an allergen-free environment.

A note on the OG

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Bateta vada has been eaten on the streets of Mumbai for well over a century. It is the filling inside a vada pav. A sandwich that is sometimes called the Indian burger, the unofficial street food of Maharashtra, the thing that millions of people eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner without ever getting tired of it. We are not trying to improve on the original. We are trying to honour it. To make a bateta vada that tastes the way it is supposed to taste, with the ingredients it is supposed to contain, cooked the way it has always been cooked. Street food at its best is not simple. It is the result of generations of refinement compressed into something that looks effortless. These are our version of that effort.

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