Before You Start
Neither half of ragda pattice is very exciting alone, and that is the point. The pattice is a potato patty, firm enough to keep its shape and crisp on both flat sides. The ragda is a loose, mildly spiced curry of dried white peas, simmered until some of them collapse and thicken the liquid. By itself the ragda reads like a humble stew, and the pattice like an aloo tikki. Put them in one bowl, add the usual chaat finish of chutneys, raw onion and sev, and you have something quite different from either.
It also differs from aloo tikki chaat, which leaves out the ragda and instead dresses the patty directly with chutneys and yogurt.
There is one thing to plan for. The dried peas need an overnight soak, and that is the only real advance work the dish asks of you.
Where This Dish Comes From
Ragda pattice is a classic Mumbai stall dish, part of the wider chaat and bhel culture that grew up through the 20th century around railway stations, beaches such as Chowpatty, and neighbourhood stalls, many run by vendors of Gujarati and Maharashtrian background. The pattice, a spiced pan-fried potato cake, is plainly related to aloo tikki, the North Indian potato patty. Food historians generally see ragda pattice as a Mumbai variation that paired that familiar patty with a pea curry closer to Maharashtrian and Gujarati home cooking, not as a wholly separate invention. It is tied most firmly to Mumbai itself, more than to Maharashtra as a whole, and you rarely find it in anything like its original form beyond the city and its satellite towns.
Step by Step
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Prep
Soak the white peas and cook them soft
Cover the dried white peas with plenty of water and soak them overnight, for at least 8 hours, until they have roughly doubled. Drain, then pressure-cook with the turmeric and fresh water for 5 to 6 whistles, until they are completely soft and beginning to fall apart. This is a longer, softer cook than you would give most legumes, and the slightly mushy result is what gives the ragda its body.
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Cook
Start the ragda with spices
Warm the oil in a pot, add the cumin seeds and asafoetida, and let them sizzle for a few seconds. Stir in the ginger-garlic paste and cook it for 30 seconds. Then take the pot off the heat for a moment and mix in the chilli powder and coriander powder, which stops them scorching, and put the pot back on the heat.
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Cook
Simmer the peas into a soupy curry
Tip in the cooked peas along with their cooking liquid, and add more water until the mixture is soupy and pourable. It should be thinner than a dal, because you will be ladling it on generously. Season with salt, bring to a simmer and cook for 15 to 20 minutes. Mash a few of the peas against the side of the pot with a spoon to thicken the liquid naturally. If it reduces too far, add water; the ragda must stay clearly soupy and never turn thick like a regular curry.
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Prep
Mix and shape the patties
Mash the boiled potatoes until smooth, with no big lumps, then work in the cornflour, chopped green chilli, grated ginger, roasted cumin powder and salt. The cornflour holds the patties together during frying, so include it even if the mixture seems firm enough already. Divide into 8 portions and shape each into a flat, even disc about 2.5cm thick.
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Cook
Pan-fry until crusty
Heat the oil in a flat skillet over medium heat. Lay the patties down with space between them and fry 3 to 4 minutes per side, pressing once gently with a spatula, until a deep golden-brown crust forms on both flat faces. Leave them alone until then. The crust needs time to set, and a patty turned too early sticks and breaks.
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Assemble
Ladle the ragda over the patties
Set two warm patties in a serving bowl and ladle hot ragda over them, enough to cover them partway. Drizzle on the tamarind and green chutneys, then top with chopped onion, sev, coriander leaves and a pinch of chaat masala.
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Serve
Eat it straight away
Bring it to the table while the ragda is hot and the sev still crackles on top. Once assembled it does not wait. Within minutes the sev goes soft and the patty's crust gives way to the liquid around it, so plate it and eat it right then.
Swaps That Work
Dried green peas (matar) can stand in for white peas, with very similar results and a slightly greener ragda. When you are short on time, canned white peas or even canned chickpeas, simmered with the same spice base, give a fair approximation, although the liquid will be less naturally thick than with properly overcooked dried peas. Rice flour binds the patties as well as cornflour does. In a pinch you can use a tablespoon of besan (gram flour), which brings a slightly different, nuttier taste to the patty.
Turning the Heat Up or Down
The ragda is only moderately spiced and leans on the chutneys and toppings for its final character, so make most of your heat adjustments there. For a milder dish, go lightly on the chilli powder in the ragda, choose a gentle green chutney and let the sweetness of the tamarind chutney do more of the work. For more heat, add a finely chopped green chilli to the ragda as it simmers, or finish the plate with a thin drizzle of hot green chilli-garlic chutney, which some Mumbai stalls keep as a separate, hotter condiment next to the usual two.
Where Cooks Often Slip
Under-soaking or undercooking the white peas is the commonest slip. The ragda comes out thin and watery, without the natural thickening you get when peas break down, so give them the full overnight soak and do not hurry the simmer. The reverse also happens. A ragda that is too thick, more like dal than curry, loses the soupy contrast against the firm patty, so it should pour easily off a ladle. Leaving out the binder lets the patties crumble in the pan, since the cornflour or rice flour does real structural work. Finally, putting the dish together too early turns the sev soggy and the patty soft, so build each plate to order.
Keeping and Warming Up Leftovers
To keep it: The ragda lasts up to 3 days in an airtight container in the fridge, and the flavour improves slightly overnight. It may thicken as it stands, so loosen it with a splash of water when you warm it up. You can shape the unfried patties and refrigerate them, covered, for up to a day before frying, or freeze them shaped but uncooked for up to a month. Do not store the dish once it has been topped with chutneys, onion and sev.
To warm it up: Warm the ragda in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring now and then and adding water as needed to bring it back to a pourable thickness. Try to avoid the microwave, which heats unevenly and can scorch thickened peas at the edges. Reheat the patties separately in a dry skillet over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes per side to restore some crispness, since the microwave leaves the crust soft. Bring the hot ragda and hot patties together only when you serve.
Kitchen Safety Note
Soak the dried white peas fully and cook them until soft. Undercooked legumes can be harder to digest and must always be boiled thoroughly, never served al dente. Like any cooked bean dish, the ragda should be cooled and refrigerated within two hours of cooking and not left sitting out, particularly in warm weather, and it should be reheated until steaming hot all the way through, not merely warm at the edges. Because the patties are shallow-fried, use fresh oil for each batch where you can, and avoid reusing oil that has darkened or smells burnt after several frying sessions.