Alur Chop
Bengal's tea-stall croquette: a fist-sized ball of spiced mashed potato wrapped in chickpea-flour batter, deep-fried mahogany. Eaten with kasundi mustard.
Overview
Alur chop (alu meaning potato, chop being a Bengali loan-word for a fried cutlet, inherited from the British "chop") is the workhorse of Bengali street snacks: every tea stall, every train platform, every late-afternoon adda has a stack of these warming under a glass cover. The construction is two layers. The inner mash is heavily seasoned: boiled potato folded through fried onion, ginger, green chilli, roasted cumin and a measured punch of Bengali bhaja moshla (a dry-roasted spice blend of cumin, coriander and dried chilli). Some versions add a few peanuts or roasted chana dal for crunch; in Kolkata the mash often includes a slick of mustard oil for fragrance. The outer shell is a thin chickpea-flour batter, the same family as beguni and piyaju, fried hot so it sets into a thin crisp casing rather than a heavy crust. The trick is contrast: a shell crisp enough to crackle, a centre soft and yielding and a touch wet from the onion. They are sold individually wrapped in newspaper for a few rupees and eaten standing up, often with muri puffed rice and a small dollop of kasundi (Bengali fermented mustard sauce) on the side. A monsoon and winter snack above all, when the cold air makes the hot oil and the inside-warm chop feel particularly right.
Ingredients
Mash
- 500 g floury potatoes (peeled, cut into 3 cm chunks)
- 2 tbsp mustard oil
- 1 red onion (small, finely chopped)
- 15 g ginger (finely grated)
- 2 green chillies (finely chopped)
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tsp roasted cumin powder
- ½ tsp ground coriander
- ½ tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
- ¾ tsp salt
- ½ tsp sugar (rounds out the spices, very Bengali)
- 1 tsp bhaja moshla (see notes), or extra roasted cumin
- 15 g fresh coriander (finely chopped)
- 1 tbsp lime juice
Batter
- 120 g chickpea flour (besan)
- 25 g rice flour
- ½ tsp nigella seeds (kalonji)
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
- ½ tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ¾ tsp salt
- 150-170 ml cold water
To fry and serve
- 500 ml mustard oil (or neutral oil)
- 1 red onion (small, sliced into rings, to serve)
- 2 green chillies (to serve)
- Kasundi mustard (or tomato ketchup, to serve)
Method
Stage 1 - Boil the potatoes
- Boil the potato chunks in salted water for 12-15 minutes until completely tender.
- Drain very thoroughly; return to the dry pan over low heat for a minute to steam off remaining water.
- Mash smoothly with a fork or masher. The mash should be dry, not wet.
Stage 2 - Season the mash
- Heat the mustard oil in a small frying pan until just smoking; reduce the heat to medium.
- Add the onion; fry 4-5 minutes until soft and lightly golden.
- Add the ginger and green chilli; fry 1 minute more.
- Stir in the turmeric, roasted cumin, coriander and chilli powder; fry 30 seconds.
- Tip the spiced onion mixture into the mashed potato.
- Add the salt, sugar, bhaja moshla, fresh coriander and lime juice.
- Mix thoroughly until uniformly coloured. Taste and adjust salt and chilli.
- Cool until cool enough to handle.
Stage 3 - Shape
- Divide the mash into 8 equal portions (about 70 g each).
- Roll each portion firmly into a smooth oval croquette around 7 cm long. Pack them tightly so they don't fall apart in the oil.
- Set on a plate; chill 15 minutes if the mash feels too soft.
Stage 4 - Batter
- Whisk the chickpea flour, rice flour, nigella seeds, turmeric, chilli powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.
- Whisk in the cold water gradually until the batter is smooth and the consistency of thick double cream - it should fully coat a chop without dripping in sheets.
Stage 5 - Fry
- Heat the frying oil in a karahi or deep pan to 180 C. If using mustard oil, bring it to smoking first then reduce the heat to take off the raw edge.
- Roll a chop in the batter, turning to coat evenly.
- Lift it out with a slotted spoon and lower carefully into the oil.
- Fry 2-3 chops at a time, turning gently with the spoon, for 4-5 minutes until deep golden brown all over.
- Lift onto kitchen paper; let the oil come back to temperature between batches.
Stage 6 - Serve
- Pile hot onto a plate.
- Serve with raw onion rings, whole green chillies and a spoonful of kasundi mustard on the side. A glass of hot milky tea is the proper accompaniment.
Notes
- Bhaja moshla: a roasted Bengali spice blend. Dry-toast 1 tbsp cumin seeds, 1 tbsp coriander seeds and 2 dried red chillies in a pan until very fragrant; cool and grind. Keeps in a jar for a month. A tiny pinch lifts almost any Bengali dish.
- Dry the mash: wet mash makes the chops fall apart in the oil and lets the batter slide off. After boiling, return the potatoes to the pan over low heat for a minute before mashing.
- Mustard oil for the mash: even a teaspoon of raw mustard oil stirred through the finished mash gives the authentic Bengali fragrance.
- Shaping: press firmly. A loose chop disintegrates the moment it hits hot oil.
- Variations: some Kolkata versions include a hard-boiled egg quartered inside the chop, or a few raisins and peanuts in the mash. Both are good.
Storage
- Best eaten within an hour of frying.
- The shaped, unfried chops can be refrigerated covered for up to a day, batter-coated and fried to order.
- Cooked chops re-crisp acceptably in a hot oven (200 C, 5 minutes); soggy reheats are not worth it.
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