Pakora

Whatever is dipped, the batter is gram flour, sometimes cut with rice flour.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 200 g gram flour
• 50 g rice flour
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground fenugreek
• 1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• about 220 ml cold water
• 3 onions, sliced thin
• 3 green chillies, slit
• oil for deep frying

Method

1. WHATEVER IS DIPPED, THE BATTER IS GRAM FLOUR, SOMETIMES CUT WITH RICE FLOUR -- and that is the dish, not the vegetable. Its article is a technique rather than a recipe: pakoras ARE MADE BY COATING INGREDIENTS, USUALLY VEGETABLES, IN A SPICED BATTER, AND THEN DEEP FRYING THEM, and the batter IS MOST COMMONLY MADE WITH GRAM FLOUR OR A MIXTURE OF GRAM FLOUR AND RICE FLOUR. Change the vegetable and it is still a pakora; change the flour and it is a fritter of some other country.
2. THE RICE FLOUR IS THE QUARTER THAT MAKES IT CRISP. Gram flour alone goes soft within minutes of coming out. Fifty grams in two hundred and fifty holds for half an hour.
3. THE SPICES ARE OPENLY THE COOK'S CHOICE, WHICH THE ARTICLE SAYS OUTRIGHT. THE SPICES USED IN THE BATTER ARE UP TO THE COOK and may include CHILLI, FENUGREEK, GINGER, CARDAMOM, TURMERIC AND CORIANDER. Four of those six are below; there is no wrong answer here and the article declines to pretend otherwise.
4. MIX THE BATTER THICK, NOT POURING. It should coat a slice of onion and cling, which is about the consistency of double cream. Add the water slowly; gram flour takes up far less than wheat.
5. LET IT STAND TWENTY MINUTES, THEN BEAT IT AGAIN. The flour hydrates and the raw taste goes. The soda goes in at the very end, just before frying.
6. SALT THE ONIONS SEPARATELY AND LET THEM WEEP FIRST. Ten minutes, then squeeze and fold them into the batter. This is why a good onion pakora holds together with hardly any batter: the onion's own water does the binding.
7. FRY THEM AT A MEDIUM HEAT, IN LOOSE HANDFULS, NOT BALLS. Drop them in ragged -- the spikes are what go crisp. Five or six minutes, turning once, until deep gold. Too hot and the batter sets before the onion softens.
8. FRY THEM TWICE IF THEY ARE NOT FOR EATING IMMEDIATELY. Out at pale gold, rested ten minutes, back in hot oil for ninety seconds. Its article has them eaten with chutney or raita, and offered with masala chai to guests at weddings.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes