Before You Start
A good aloo tikki is a study in two textures. The outside should be browned and slightly rough to the bite, while the inside stays soft and almost creamy, and the patty should taste of cumin, ginger and chilli before a single topping lands on it. Delhi vendors cook them on a big flat tawa with plenty of oil, pressing each one down and turning it until both faces have colored deeply. What happens next depends on the customer: some get the tikki plain with a dab of chutney, others get the full chaat treatment with yogurt, a ladle of thin chickpea gravy, both chutneys and sev on top. If you are cooking for guests, this is one of the easier chaats to organize, because the patties can be shaped a day ahead and chilled, or even frozen. On the evening itself you only need a few minutes at the stove and a few more at the counter to finish the plates.
Where This Dish Comes From
Aloo tikki belongs to the street-food world of North India, above all Delhi and the surrounding Uttar Pradesh towns, where spiced potato patties browned on a griddle are sold on their own, pressed inside a bun, or used as the foundation of a loaded chaat plate. It is worth remembering that potatoes only reached India in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, brought by Portuguese traders, so this snack is young compared with the grain and lentil preparations that preceded it, even though it now feels like it has always been there. Writers on Indian food history point out that the potato was taken up quickly across the subcontinent because it was easy to grow and slotted neatly into the frying and griddle methods cooks already knew. The tikki shows that process well. You will find regional variations, with chana dal or green peas worked into the patty in some places and a plain yogurt-and-chutney finish in others in place of the chickpea gravy, and none of these can claim to be the original.
Step by Step
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Prep
Mash the potatoes and mix in the seasonings
Start with potatoes that have been boiled and left to cool all the way through, then mash them until no sizeable lumps remain. Warm potatoes give off steam and moisture, and that extra wetness is what makes a patty slump or tear when you try to lift it. Stir in the cornstarch, green chilli, ginger, spices, fresh coriander and salt until the mixture looks even. Press a small piece in your palm: it should keep its shape without crumbling. If it feels soft or sticky, sprinkle in a little more cornstarch.
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Prep
Form and chill the patties
Split the mixture into 8 equal pieces and flatten each into a smooth disc roughly 2.5cm thick. Look closely at the rims, because small cracks there are where a tikki usually starts to break in the pan, and pinch them closed with your fingertips. Put the discs in the refrigerator for 15 to 20 minutes before cooking. The short chill firms the surface so you can turn them over without trouble.
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Cook
Pan-fry until the crust is dark gold
Warm the oil on a flat griddle or wide pan over medium heat and set the tikkis down with a little space between them. Leave them alone for 3 to 4 minutes, until the underside has built a deep golden crust. If a patty resists the spatula, it is telling you it is not ready, so give it another minute rather than forcing it. Turn each one with care and brown the second side in the same way. Halfway through that second side, press down once with the spatula to even out the surface. Plan on about 7 to 9 minutes in total for each batch.
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Cook
Cook the chickpea gravy while the tikkis fry
In a small pan, warm a little oil and let the cumin seeds sizzle until you can smell them. Tip in the boiled chickpeas, turmeric, chilli powder, salt and water, and simmer for 5 minutes. You want the chickpeas glossy and the liquid reduced to a loose gravy that clings to a spoon, not a thin soup that will run all over the plate.
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Serve
Build each plate
Set two hot tikkis on every plate. Use the back of a spoon to press and roughen the top of each one, which gives the toppings something to hold on to. Add a spoonful of the chickpea gravy first, follow with the whisked yogurt, and finish with both chutneys.
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Serve
Add the final garnish and eat straight away
Shower the plate with sev, chaat masala and chopped onion, and carry it to the table at once. The crust underneath stays crunchy only for a short while once wet toppings are on it, and a plate left standing turns soft in a few minutes, so assemble as close to eating time as you can.
Swaps That Work
For the binder, plain cornstarch and roasted rice flour behave almost identically. Some cooks use a tablespoon of besan that has been lightly toasted in a dry pan, which brings a slightly nuttier flavor. If the chickpea gravy feels like too much work, serve the tikkis with only yogurt and the two chutneys; plenty of vendors sell them exactly that way. Swapping some of the potato for sweet potato gives a sweeter patty that is softer to the bite, and you may need a touch more binder to hold it together. A dairy-free yogurt is an acceptable stand-in for the topping.
Turning the Heat Up or Down
Warmth in this dish comes from the patty itself, through the green chilli, garam masala and amchur, as well as from the toppings, so it helps to fry one small test tikki and taste it before you shape the whole batch. To keep things gentle, leave the chilli out of the potato mixture and the chilli powder out of the chickpeas, and rely on the chutneys for any heat, spooning on more of the tamarind-date than the green. To turn it up, put a second green chilli into the patties and use more green chutney, or set out a small bowl of garlic chutney so that only the people who want extra fire add it.
Where Cooks Often Slip
If your patties collapse in the pan, the likely cause is potatoes that were still warm or were not drained well, so boil them early, let them cool completely and make sure no cooking water clings to them when you mash. Skipping the chill is closely related: a tikki that goes straight from your hands into hot oil is fragile and tends to crack. Oil that is too hot is another trap, since it darkens the crust before the center has warmed through, while steady medium heat lets the crust form slowly and evenly. Last, do not top the tikkis long before serving, because the crunch fades quickly once yogurt and chutney touch it.
Keeping and Warming Up Leftovers
To keep it: Uncooked tikkis can sit in the refrigerator for up to two days if you layer them between sheets of parchment, or go in the freezer for up to a month; cook them straight from frozen and allow a couple of extra minutes on each side. Tikkis that are already fried but not yet topped will keep refrigerated for up to two days. The chickpea topping lasts up to three days in the fridge. The chutneys follow their usual timings: tamarind-date up to two weeks and green chutney 2 to 3 days. A fully assembled plate should not be stored, so top the tikkis only when you are about to eat.
To warm it up: To bring cooked, untopped tikkis back to life, warm them in a dry pan over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, or put them in a 190°C (375°F) oven for roughly 8 minutes. A microwave will warm them through but leaves the crust limp. Reheat the chickpea topping on the stovetop with a splash of water to loosen it. Wait until both the tikkis and the chickpeas are hot before adding the cold items, meaning the yogurt, chutneys and sev, and never warm them together.
Kitchen Safety Note
Cooked potatoes should be cooled quickly and refrigerated instead of being left out on the counter, and they should be used within two days. That goes for the tikki mixture and for any boiled potato left over. Keep the yogurt in the refrigerator until the moment you serve, and do not let it stand out for more than about two hours, particularly in hot weather. Because shallow-frying uses modest amounts of oil that heat up and cool down between batches, keep an eye out for smoke, and throw away oil that has turned dark or smells sharp instead of using it again and again. If the cooked chickpeas are not eaten right away, cool and refrigerate them promptly, then bring them to a full simmer before serving them again.
References and More to Read
- 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.