"Batate Gooli" or Mashed Potato balls - an Ancient Konkani dish

"Batate Gooli" means mashed potato balls in Konkani.
This is a very ancient konkani dish, which is very simple, and which every mother/grandmother would make for their children.
This dish dates back to the really olden days, when fast foods and instant foods were not yet available in India.
In large joint families when little children would not like the curries or dishes cooked for a meal, or when the children were just hungry, the olden day grand mother would make this a jiffy.
I have improvised the dish a little, by rolling the potato balls in semolina and shallow frying them for 2-3 minutes to give it a little bit of crispiness.
But the traditional dish is without any frying.


Makes 12-15
Ingredients:
Potatoes - 4 medium
Onion - 1 - finely chopped
Red chilly powder - 1 tsp
Salt - 1 tsp
Coriander leaves - finely chopped - 1 tsp ( Optional - although in olden days they did not use this)

Method:
Boil the potatoes till soft and peel them.
Take a large bowl, add the boiled and peeled potatoes, chopped onions, red chilly powder, salt and coriander leaves and mix well so that no lumps are formed.
Divide into 12-15 equal portions and shape into balls.
Normally serve with Steamed Red rice Konji/Porridge also called "Pej" in Konkani.
My twist
You could roll these potato balls in Semolina or rice flour and lightly shallow fry them in 1 tsp of oil or ghee to make them crispy, and then eaten as a snack.