Sweet Potato Bhajia with Samo rice flour - Crunchy Spicy treat for Mahashivratri Fast.

My warm MahaShivaratri wishes to all  followers, readers and visitors. Lord Shiva's blessings may always be with you. Today I made spicy sweet potato (shakkarkand,ratale) bhajia with samo rice flour, since samo flour do not contain gluten I used mashed potato for binding. Cumin and green chili added zest. Fritters turned extra crispy and delicious. This is easy and delicious fasting treat.

Pictures of Lord Shiva Pooja done at home with offerings of Belpatra,

Belfal, Dhatura leaf and fruit, Bhang leaves. (Picture credits - S)

Sweet potato / ShakarKandi Bhajia Recipe

Ingredients :-

• 2 Cup Sweet potato (ratale,shakkar kand) cut into juliennes (just like matchstick, I used julienne slicer)
• 4-5 Green chilies - finely crushed
• 1/2 Cup Samo rice flour
• 4 Tb.spoon - Instant mashed potato flakes or you can use 1/2 Cup boiled finely mashed potato.
• 1 T.spoon - Cumin
• 1/4 Cup water to bind batter/mixture ( you may need little extra)
• 2 Cup oil for deep frying

Process of making Sweet potato Fritters :-

1. In a medium size bowl combine julienned sweet potato, salt,  finely crushed chilies, samo rice flour, cumin and mashed potato flakes. Slowly add water and stir-mix with wooden spoon. You may use fingers to combine all ingredients together. Batter/Mixture should be thick and not flowy, it should just coat around sweet potatoes.
2. Heat 2 cup oil in wok/Kadhai. Drop tiny piece of sweet potato in oil; it should quickly rise up to the top and should not quickly get dark. This is the  indication of right oil temperature. I dropped fritters with fingers, if you have no prior experience to use fingers then use dinner spoon.
3. Merge five fingers together and pick one tablespoon quantity batter and slowly drop into oil. Avoid making exact round shape to get nice crab like shape. Drop  6-8 fritters at a time and fry each side for at least 1.5 minutes or until fritters turn golden and crispy. After frying two batches if mixture gets a bit flowy then sprinkle some samo flour/ potato flakes or add more sweet potato.
4. Remove from oil and set them on paper towel lined plate. You can make about 25 fritters. Enjoy with peanut-coconut chutney.

Peanut and Coconut Chutney

Ingredients :-

• 1/4 Cup - Fresh coconut
• 1/4 Cup Roasted peanuts
• 3-4 Green chilies
• 1/2 Cup water

Process :-

Combine coconut, roasted peanuts, green chilies and salt  into small blender jar - Add half cup water and grind to fine paste.