To begin making the Chole Aloo Tikki Chaat Recipe,we will first soak the Chola completely immersed in water for about 8 to 10 hours. After the soaking period, cook the Chola along salt and with its soaked water, adding additional water if required. Cook until it is soft and tender.
You will know it’s cooked right, when you press the Chola between your fingers it will mash easily. Keep the cooked Chola aside.
Heat oil in a large heavy-bottomed pan. Add the cumin, ginger and bay leaves and stir-fry for a few seconds till you can smell the aromas coming through.
Stir in the tomato puree and the spice ingredients and saute until the color changes to a dark brown color. The anardana powder, along with the black pepper and the dry mango powder will help in getting the desired brown color for the chana masala.
Once browned, add in the cooked chickpeas into the masala and stir all the masala well into the chickpeas so that it coats it well. Check the salt and spice levels and adjust to suit your taste. Cover the pan, turn the heat to low and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes until the Chola gets well coated with the masala and looks brown as well.
Cover the pan, turn the heat to low and simmer the Chana Masala for about 30 minutes until the chana gets well coated with the masala and has attained an outer brown coating. Give the Chana Masala a final taste. Keep it aside.
In a large mixing bowl, mash in both the boiled regular potatoes and sweet potatoes. Add the steamed green peas, a teaspoon of ginger, two roughly chopped green chillies, a large finely chopped onion, two tablespoons of green chutney, some salt to taste and finally a tablespoon of corn flour binding.
Mix all the ingredients well and shape them into circular discs of desired sizes (about 1-1/2 inch diameter)
Dust the Aloo tikki in breadcrumbs and place them on a baking sheet, drizzle some oil over it place it in a preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes at 200 C.
After about 15 minutes, remove the tikkis from the oven. Notice the light browning from the top. The tikkis will not brown too much as they have no oil in them. If you want it to be crisper then you can drizzle some oil on top before they go into the oven.
You can also alternatively tawa cook the Aloo tikki. Pre heat a tawa and pan fry these tikki’s with little oil until they are browned and crisp on both sides.
You can also shape the dough in the form of a cylinder like the kebabs, dust them in breadcrumbs and insert them into a skewer and grill them. Place the tikkis in an oven and bake for 15 minutes until lightly browned and crisp.