It’s Ramadan time once again and who doesn’t love a crunchy snack on the Iftar table. Infact, all hands reach out, for the crunchy deep fried delights in eagerness. Truth be told, these will just ruin your system in the long run, other than the fact that there are a lot of empty carbs in such treats. Iftar menu’s always have a lot of non veg too, which is why I decided on a veg recipe.
My Corn Tikkis are a glutenfree and grain free snack idea served alongside a super healthy dip . It’s crispy on the outside and soft inside; you can air fry, bake it or simply shallow fry with minimum oil and still enjoy a delicious treat. All you need is soft boiled corn and potato to kickstart the preps. And in keeping with Ramadan theme, the dip is Tahini-Yoghurt based (healthy and child friendly too), but incase you don’t have the dip ingredients, feel free to serve them with a side dip of mayo, ketchup or the traditional mint chutney. So let’s head to the recipe and don’t forget to #saffronbowl on socials with your creation.
Ingredients
- 2 large potatoes
- 1 and 1/2 cups cooked Sweet corn
- 1 inch ginger piece ,grated finely
- 1 tsp himalayan salt
- 1/4 cup chickpea flour
- 1/2 tsp chaat masala
- 2 green chillies, finely chopped (optional, avoid it for kids, or replace with 1/2 tsp black pepper)
- 1/2 cup fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped
Slow roast the chickpea flour on a low flame on a pan until it slightly changes colour, then set it aside after turning off the flame. Boil the potatoes in salted water. Once done, let them cool slightly, then peel and mash them before it turns cold. Take 1/2 a cup of the corn and roughly run it through a food processor. It should come to a coarsely blended consistency, but not a puree. Now, in a large bowl, add the mashed potatoes with all the corn (whole and blended), roasted chickpea flour, salt, chaat masala, green chillies and coriander leaves. Make sure you mix all the ingredients well with a spatula or using your hands will be easier.
Shape lemon-sized balls from the dough, roll them well in the palm of your hands and lightly press down to form the circular shape of a tikki/ patty. Once you've made all of your tikkis, they're ready to fry. These can be deep-fried, shallow-fried, air-fried or even baked.
The shallow-fry method gets the best crispyness without soaking in too much of oil. Take a non stick pan and pour oil to just cover the surface of the entire pan, say around 5mm and let the oil heat up. Now add your corn tikkas for frying into the hot oil. It should crisp up on one side within 5-7 minutes on a medium flame and then flip it to cook on the other side. You'll get roughly 20 corn tikkis from this batch. Once they look golden brown, they are ready to be devoured.
Tip- To bake or Air fry, spray oil or lightly brush the tikkis with minimum oil and then proceed with the cooking process.
Tahini yogurt dip
Ingredients: - 2/3 cup unsweetened yoghurt/ curd - 2 heaped tablespoons tahini / sesame seed sauce - 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice - 1/2 tsp Himalayan salt - 1 tsp finely chopped parsley - 1 tsp finely chopped mint leaves Whisk the yogurt well to remove all lumps. Now add the tahini sauce, one spoon at a time, with the yogurt and mix it well. In goes the rest of the ingredients - lemon juice, salt, mint and parsley. Mix it well once again and serve this refreshing dip along with the Corn Tikkis.