Peel the potatoes and keep them submerged in cold water while you grate them one by one. Grate three potatoes in the medium sized grater and one potato in the small grater. There will be a lot of water accumulating on the plate on which you are grating and it’s normal.
Once you completed grating all the potatoes, squeeze out the water entirely and keep the potatoes in a bowl. Add salt and pepper and the corn flour and mix them with your fingers.
At this point, there are two ways of making the baskets. One is using two strainers of different size and deep frying and the other way is to use a muffin tray and an oven. In case you do not have the oven, then you will have to do the deep frying method.
Method 1, using a muffin tray and OTG:
Grease the muffin tray thoroughly and then divide the potato mixture equally in all the muffin cavities. Using your fingers, press the potatoes inside the cavities, making the shape of a bowl. Then bake it in a pre heated oven at 180 degree c for 35 to 40 minutes or until golden brown. When it is done, take the tray out and let it cool down a bit. Using a sharp knife, carefully remove the edges and take each bowl out.
The one thing I noticed while doing this is that the potatoes don’t get evenly cooked and some places remain soft and soggy. To take care of this problem, all you have to do is take a deep frying pan or a kadai and deep fry them in any regular cooking oil. It gives really crunchy baskets that you can store in an airtight container for a couple of days too.
Method 2, using tea strainers:
You will need two sizes of tea strainers where one will go into the other one. Take the larger strainer and place a portion of the potatoes in the strainer. Using your fingers, press the potatoes against the wall of the strainer to create a shape of a bowl. Then use the other strainer to press the larger strainer. Using both the strainers, deep fry this in a kadai with regular cooking oil.
Once golden brown, take the strainers out, pull out the top smaller strainer and using a sharp knife, slowly release the basket from the big strainer and place on a kitchen towel.