Upavasacha Batatyacha Kees (Grated Potatoes for Fasting)

Hello one and all!

Last few days were really hectic and it seems the days just vanished in the air. Today my dear cousin P had visited us with her DH, MIL and her one year old daughter V. She had told me to make fasting food for them as they all fast on all Mondays of Shravana maasa. So I made sabudana khichadi, butter milk, fruit salad and the batatyacha kees. I am really glad they visited us and at least enjoyed eating the preparations as they were so badly stuck in traffic jam that they were extremely exhausted by the time they reached home.

The kees is a common fasting food in all Maharashtrian homes and is my personal favorite. I do not need to fast to eat this. During my school days my mom used to give me this in my lunch box as it’s quite filling and extremely tasty. The word Kees in Marathi  means basically anything grated. Since here the grated item is potato (in marathi batata) it is called batatyacha kees.

The preparation is quite simple, needs a few ingredients and is very tasty, but surely needs a few precautions while cooking. As we all know that potato contains large amount of starch, hence it’s important that after grating the potatoes  they be dipped in water for while for the starch to get separated. If there’s starch left in the potatoes then there are chances that the preparation turns soggy as well as dark in color. Also in this preparation the potatoes should be peeled (which I normally never do) to get a more clean textured preparation. This preparation tastes better when a little spicy and the spice should come from green chilies and not from red chili powder.

Ingredients

8-10 peeled and grated potatoes (medium)

5-6 green chilies finely chopped

a small handful of raw peanuts

1 tbsp cumin seeds

a cup or a little more of coarsely pounded roasted and peeled peanuts

salt to taste

1 tsp sugar

ghee or oil for cooking (about 5-6 tbsp)

Method

Dip the grated potatoes in water and leave for some time so that the starch settles down.Decant and then wash the grated potatoes thoroughly with water so that excess starch gets separated. Squeeze out excess water.

Heat oil or ghee (tastes better with ghee) and crackle the cumin and add chopped green chilies, peanuts and fry. Now add salt to taste. Adding salt at this stage ensures that it gets applied evenly everywhere later. ( I have not taken any  pics till this stage as I never had in my mind that I should post this).

Add the potatoes and give it a quick mix. Cover and cook till half done.

Once half done spread half of the the coarsely pounded roasted peanut and mix. Take precaution that the peanuts are not roasted overly as the color of the pounded peanuts spoils the color of the kees.

Cook covered till done and then add the remaining pounded roasted peanut, mix and serve hot with curds/yogurt.

  Do try this if you haven’t tasted it till now.

A quick reminder to readers from US/UK/Canada to enter the CSN giveaway which  ends tomorrow, the 7th September.

Since all kids love potatoes which are high on carbs and the peanuts in the preparation  adds a good lot of proteins so  I am sending this to Neha’s Kids Menu Event

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