Pakoras (Vegetable Fritters)
Pakoras are an essential item of Indian festive food. They can be
made with almost any vegetable (commonly bell pepper, cauliflower,
eggplant, potato, or spinach; your veggie club president makes some mean
tofu pakoras with extra-thick tahini sauce -- Vijay). This is also
a nice way of getting people to eat vegetables they don't normally like.
Ingredients
- oil for deep frying (corn oil is an excellent choice)
- 1 cup of besan (gram flour; available at Indian stores)
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- pinch of hing
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1/2 tsp chilli powder
- cut vegetables (bitesize, strips, or wedges)
Preparation
Heat up the oil in a wook or deep-frying pan.
In the meanwhile, make a batter by mixing together the flour and all
the spices. Then, add enough water to make a thick batter. It should
be of a consistency that will thinly coat the vegetables (ie. it can't
be runny, but at the same time, it can't be so thick that all your
fritters are half dough!).
The oil is ready for frying when batter drops quickly crisp and
crackle in it. You should coat the cut vegetables in the batter, and
then slip them into the oil (don't slam dunk them, as this will cause
your oil to splash and burn!). Don't do too many at a time; make sure
the vegetables have enough swimming space.
Serve as hot as possible!.
Variations
If you make cauliflower pakoras, tell your meat-eater friends that
they're fried shrimp... Once they like the pakoras, then let 'em know
they're vegetables!
You can also fool your friends by cutting the vegetables up like
chicken wings; of course, you have to also spice the pakoras a little
bit differently for that.