Dahi Tikki, Camp Version
Potato patties fried in ghee, spooned with rehydrated yogurt and a fistful of sev.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 4.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 116
- protein
- 11 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 30 min
- water
- 300 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Snack
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Instant mashed potato flakes | 1 1/2 cups | stands in for eight boiled potatoes |
|---|---|---|
| Roasted gram flour (besan or ground pottukadalai) | 2 tbsp | binder and grit |
| Corn flour | 1 tbsp | |
| Red chilli powder | 1 1/2 tsp | |
| Garam masala | 1 1/2 tsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | replaces 10 fresh cloves |
| Ground ginger | 1/2 tsp | |
| Dried green chilli flakes | 1 tsp | or more, the original uses ten fresh chillies |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Whole milk yogurt powder | 1/3 cup | the curd, shelf-stable |
| Ghee | 3 tbsp | stays liquid-stable for weeks, no fridge |
| Plain sev (ompodi) | 1/2 cup | carried in a rigid container or it becomes dust |
| Saffron strands | a pinch |
Method
- Mix the yogurt powder with about 100 ml of cold water in a cup or bag. Let it sit while you do everything else. It thickens as it hydrates.
- Boil 200 ml of water. Pull the pot off the heat and stir in the potato flakes, gram flour, corn flour, chilli powder, garam masala, garlic, ginger, chilli flakes, and salt.
- Let the mash cool until you can handle it. It should hold a shape without sticking to your palm. Add flakes a spoonful at a time if it is loose.
- Press into six flat patties, roughly the width of two fingers.
- Wipe the pot dry, melt a spoon of ghee over medium heat, and fry the patties in batches. Three or four minutes a side. Add ghee around the edges as they cook.
- Spoon the thickened yogurt over the tikkis, drop the saffron on top, and cover with sev. Eat before the sev softens.
The original is a street snack built on eight boiled potatoes and hung curd, neither of which survives a pack. Instant potato flakes get you the same mash in one pot with one boil, and the gram flour and corn flour from the source recipe still do the binding so the patties hold together in the pan. Yogurt powder rehydrated thick replaces the drained curd, which is really just yogurt with the water taken out anyway.
Ghee is the reason this works over a stove instead of a tawa. It has a high smoke point and no milk solids to burn, and it keeps at ambient temperature for weeks. The sev goes on last and only last, because it goes limp within a minute of touching the yogurt.
Packing
Potato flakes, flours, and all the spices go in one bag premixed at home. Yogurt powder in its own bag. Ghee in a screw-top jar with a taped lid. Sev in a rigid container, packed last.
Variations
- Skip the frying and eat it as spiced mash with yogurt stirred through. Same calories, one fewer step, no ghee splatter.
- A squeeze of tamarind concentrate over the yogurt gets you closer to the chaat version.
- Crushed chips or crumbled crackers instead of sev if you cannot find ompodi.
https://www.awesomecuisine.com/recipes/24490/dahi-tikki