Before You Start
Ragda pattice is a dish of two halves that only works when they meet. The pattice is a potato cake sturdy enough to stay in one piece, with a crust on each flat side; the ragda is a loose curry of dried white peas, cooked until a portion of them collapse and thicken the liquid. Separately, the ragda is a plain homely stew and the pattice is close to aloo tikki, but with one poured over the other and the usual chaat toppings of chutney, raw onion and sev added, the plate becomes something different from both. It is also different from aloo tikki chaat, in which the ragda is omitted and chutneys and yogurt go straight on the patty. The only genuine advance planning involved is the overnight soak that the dried peas need.
Where It Comes From
Ragda pattice is a Mumbai stall classic that belongs to the chaat and bhel scene that took shape across the 20th century around railway stations, seafront spots such as Chowpatty, and neighbourhood carts, many run by vendors from Gujarati and Maharashtrian families. The patty plainly resembles aloo tikki, the North Indian potato cake, and food writers usually see ragda pattice as a Mumbai adaptation that paired that familiar patty with a pea curry of the type cooked in Maharashtrian and Gujarati homes, not as an independent invention. The dish is tied more to Mumbai itself than to Maharashtra generally, and beyond the city and its satellite towns it is rarely found in anything like its original form.
How to Make It
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Prep
Soak the peas and cook them soft
Submerge the dried white peas in a generous amount of water and let them stand overnight, for at least 8 hours, by which time they will have roughly doubled. Drain them, add the turmeric and fresh water, and pressure-cook for 5 to 6 whistles, until they are very soft and starting to collapse. That is a longer, softer cook than most legumes are given, since a degree of mushiness is exactly what thickens the ragda.
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Cook
Start the ragda with a spiced base
Heat the oil in a pot, add cumin and asafoetida, and allow a few seconds of sizzling. Cook the ginger-garlic paste for 30 seconds, take the pot from the burner briefly while you stir in the chilli and coriander powders, so they do not burn, then return it to the heat.
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Cook
Simmer the ragda until it is soupy
Pour in the cooked peas with their liquid, plus more water until the mixture is soupy and pourable, thinner than a dal, since it is supposed to be ladled on liberally. Add salt, bring to a gentle simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, and crush some of the peas against the pot's side so the liquid thickens by itself. Add water if it reduces too much; the ragda should stay clearly soupy and not become thick like a normal curry.
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Prep
Mix the potato and shape the patties
Mash the boiled potatoes smooth with no large lumps, then work in the cornflour, green chilli, ginger, roasted cumin and salt. It is the cornflour that keeps the patties intact while frying, so use it even when the mixture seems firm enough already. Divide into 8 portions and flatten each into an even disc about 2.5cm thick.
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Cook
Shallow-fry until crusted
Warm oil in a flat skillet over medium heat and add the patties, leaving space between them. Fry each side for 3 to 4 minutes, pressing once lightly with a spatula, until both flat faces carry a deep golden crust. Hold back from turning early; the crust needs time to set, or the patty sticks and tears.
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Assemble
Ladle the ragda over the patties
Put two warm patties in a bowl and pour hot ragda over them to cover them partly. Add the tamarind and green chutneys in drizzles, then scatter chopped onion, sev and coriander leaves, finishing with a pinch of chaat masala.
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Serve
Eat it as soon as it is assembled
Serve right away, while the ragda is hot and the sev still has its snap. Within minutes the sev softens and the crust gives up to the surrounding liquid, so this is a dish to plate and eat without waiting.
Swaps That Work
Dried green peas (matar) can replace the white ones with similar results, giving a somewhat greener ragda. When time is short, canned white peas or canned chickpeas, simmered in the same spiced base, give a fair approximation, though the liquid will not thicken as naturally as it does with dried peas cooked until they break down. Rice flour binds the patties just as well as cornflour, and a tablespoon of besan can be used in a pinch, which brings a different, nuttier taste to the patty.
Turning the Heat Up or Down
The ragda itself is only moderately spiced and depends largely on the chutneys and toppings for its final character, so most adjusting happens at the end. For a gentler plate, cut the chilli powder in the ragda, pick a mild green chutney, and let the sweetness of the tamarind do more of the work. For more heat, simmer a chopped green chilli into the ragda, or top the finished plate with a thin line of hot green chilli and garlic chutney, which some stalls in Mumbai keep as a separate, fiercer condiment beside the usual two.
Where Cooks Go Wrong
Peas that were not soaked long enough, or were not cooked enough, are the most frequent problem, because the ragda then comes out thin and watery with none of the natural thickening that breaking-down peas provide, so allow the whole overnight soak and an unhurried simmer. A ragda that is too thick, like a dal, is another; it ought to run easily off a ladle, since the soupy contrast with the firm patty is part of the appeal. Leaving out the binder makes the patties crumble in the pan, and cornflour or rice flour is doing structural work there. Lastly, assembling too early softens the sev and the patty alike, so build each plate to order.
Keeping and Warming Up Leftovers
To keep: Refrigerated in a sealed container, the ragda keeps up to 3 days and tastes a little better after a night. It tends to thicken while it stands, so loosen with a splash of water when warming it. Unfried patty mixture can be shaped and kept covered in the refrigerator for a day before frying, or frozen in shaped, uncooked patties for as long as a month. Do not store the dish after it has been assembled with chutneys, onion and sev.
To warm up: Put the ragda in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally and adding water as necessary until it pours easily again. Avoid the microwave if possible, because it heats unevenly and can burn the thickened peas at the edges. Warm the patties on their own in a dry skillet over medium heat, about 2 to 3 minutes on each side, to bring back some crispness; the microwave leaves the crust soft. Bring hot ragda and hot patties together only when serving.
Safe Handling
Dried white peas must be soaked in full and cooked until tender, because undercooked legumes are harder to digest and should always be boiled through and never left firm. Cooked ragda, like any legume dish, should be cooled and refrigerated within two hours, especially in warm weather, and reheated until steaming right through and not merely warm at the rim. As the patties are shallow-fried, use fresh oil for each batch if possible and avoid oil that has blackened or smells burnt after several rounds of frying.