Before You Start
A good aloo tikki is a study in two textures held in one disc: a craggy, deeply browned shell around a centre that is soft, almost creamy, and already well seasoned before anything is spooned over it. Delhi vendors cook them on wide iron griddles with more oil than a home cook would usually dare, pressing each cake flat and turning it until both faces are the colour of old brass. What happens next decides the style of the plate. Some customers take the tikki plain with a dab of chutney, or tucked into a bun, while others want the full chaat treatment, with cool yogurt, a ladle of thin chickpea gravy, sweet and green chutneys and a drift of sev on top. Because the cakes can be shaped a day ahead, and even frozen, this is one of the friendliest chaats for a table of guests, since only the frying and the last-minute topping remain once people arrive.
Where It Comes From
The potato is the awkward fact at the heart of aloo tikki, because it reached the subcontinent only in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, carried by Portuguese traders, which makes every potato snack a latecomer next to the lentil and grain preparations that fill older street menus. Yet the vegetable was taken up quickly and with little fuss, partly because it grew well in the northern plains and partly because it slotted so easily into techniques cooks already had, such as griddling and shallow frying. Delhi and the wider Uttar Pradesh region are where this fast adoption is easiest to see, and the spiced potato cake there became a fixture of the chaat cart, sold alone, stuffed into bread, or used as the base for a larger plate. Elsewhere the same idea turns up with its own habits: some cooks fold chana dal or green peas into the mixture, while others serve the cake with only yogurt and chutney and leave out the chickpeas. No single version has a better claim to being the original one.
How to Make It
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Prep
Mash the potatoes and add the seasoning
Mash the cold boiled potatoes until no sizeable lumps remain. They need to be completely cool, because warm potato still gives off steam and moisture, and the resulting mixture is slippery and refuses to hold together in the pan. Work in the cornstarch, chilli, ginger, ground spices, fresh coriander and salt. The dough should keep its shape when squeezed in your fist, and if it feels slack, another spoonful of cornstarch will firm it up.
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Prep
Form and chill the cakes
Split the mixture into 8 equal portions and press each into a smooth disc roughly 2.5cm thick. Smooth the rims so there are no cracks, since the edges are where a tikki usually splits once it meets the oil. Put the shaped cakes in the refrigerator for 15 to 20 minutes, which sets them enough to be turned over without falling apart.
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Cook
Griddle until the crust is dark gold
Warm the oil on a flat griddle or wide pan over medium heat and lay in the tikkis with a little space between them. Leave them alone for 3 to 4 minutes, until the underside has built a deep golden crust, because lifting too soon is exactly how they tear. Turn each one with care and cook the other side the same way, and about halfway through, press once lightly with the spatula to level the surface and brown it evenly. A batch takes 7 to 9 minutes in all.
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Cook
Cook the chickpeas into a light gravy
In a small pan beside the griddle, heat a spoonful of oil and let the cumin seeds crackle for a few seconds. Stir in the chickpeas, turmeric, chilli powder, salt and water, then leave it to bubble gently for 5 minutes. What you are after is chickpeas that shine under a thin sauce that clings to them, with no pool of broth left behind.
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Serve
Build each plate
Set two hot tikkis on every plate and break up the top of each a little with the back of a spoon, which gives the toppings something to grip. Add a spoonful of the chickpeas first, then the whisked yogurt, then both chutneys.
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Serve
Add the final garnish and eat straight away
Finish with sev, a dusting of chaat masala and a pinch of raw onion, and bring the plates to the table at once while the cakes are still crisp beneath the toppings. A fully dressed plate left standing will lose its crust in a few minutes, so leave the assembling until the moment of serving.
Swaps That Work
Either roasted rice flour or ordinary cornstarch will bind the mixture, and some cooks prefer a spoonful of besan that has been toasted lightly in a dry pan, which adds a slightly nuttier note. When the chickpea gravy feels like too much work, the tikki is perfectly respectable with yogurt and the two chutneys alone, which is close to how many vendors sell it. Part of the potato can be swapped for sweet potato, though the cakes turn out softer and may want a little more binder. A plant-based yogurt does a fair job as the cooling layer for anyone avoiding dairy.
Turning the Heat Up or Down
The cakes already bring a medium warmth of their own from the chilli, garam masala and amchur, whatever goes on top, so cook a small test patty and taste it before shaping the whole batch. For a gentler plate, leave the chilli out of the potato and the chilli powder out of the chickpeas, let the chutneys supply whatever heat is wanted, and pour more of the sweet tamarind-date chutney than the green. If you want more fire, add a second chopped green chilli to the mixture and spoon on extra green chutney, or put a small dish of garlic chutney on the table so that only those who want it need take it.
Where Cooks Go Wrong
Warm or wet potatoes cause most failures, because the patties collapse in the pan, so boil the potatoes early, cool them thoroughly, and make sure no cooking water clings to them when you mash. Going straight from shaping to frying is a close second, since an unchilled tikki is delicate and prone to cracking in hot oil. Oil that is too hot browns the outside before the centre has warmed and set, whereas steady medium heat lets the crust develop slowly and evenly. Finally, dressing the cakes long before they are eaten turns the crust soft, so keep the toppings for the very end.
Keeping and Warming Up Leftovers
To keep: Uncooked tikkis can sit in the refrigerator for up to two days if separated with parchment, or go into the freezer for as long as a month, and they can be fried from frozen with a couple of extra minutes on each side. Cooked cakes without toppings last two days refrigerated and warm up well. The chickpeas will keep for three days in the fridge. Tamarind-date chutney stays good for about two weeks and the green chutney for 2 to 3 days. A finished, topped plate should never be kept, so assemble each portion fresh.
To warm up: To bring back the crust on cooked tikkis that have no toppings, put them in a dry skillet at medium heat, 2 to 3 minutes per face, or bake them at 190°C (375°F) for around 8 minutes. The microwave warms the centre but softens the outside. Chickpeas return to life on the stove with a splash of water. Wait until both are hot before adding anything cold, namely the yogurt, chutneys and sev, and do not heat these together as a finished plate.
Safe Handling
Cooked potatoes should be cooled soon after boiling and kept in the refrigerator instead of on the counter, then used within two days; this covers both the tikki mixture and any boiled potato left over. Keep the yogurt cold until just before serving, and do not let it stand out for more than about two hours, particularly in hot weather. Shallow frying works in batches, so the oil keeps heating and cooling, and you should watch for smoke and throw out oil that has darkened a lot or smells sharp instead of using it again and again. Cooked chickpeas that are not eaten right away should be cooled and chilled quickly, and brought to a full simmer before you serve them again.
Where to Read More
- Lizzie Collingham, "Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors" (Oxford University Press) — on the introduction of the potato to India by Portuguese traders and its rapid absorption into regional cooking.
- K.T. Achaya, "Indian Food: A Historical Companion" (Oxford University Press) — on the development of North Indian potato-based street snacks.