Recipe: Pakora

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For those of you that don't know already, my meals have mainly consisted of food brought to my house made in the school hostel kitchen. While at first, I found the food exciting and interesting for its novelty, the same dish of rice, chapati, and dal have made my taste buds crave for something new. It's for this reason that I decided to try my hand at cooking some local dishes. I've already gotten several offers from people willing to teach me a thing or two, and as they teach me, I want to teach you guys!

Let's begin with a really simple, yet delicious, dish called pakora. To be honest, of all the food I've tried so far in India, pakora still remains at the top of the rankings. Thank you to Vimulbhai's family for offering to help me learn to cook and offering their kitchen as a classroom! I'm sorry if the recipe is hard to read/use. I promise to try to improve on them as the year continues!

Vegetable Pakora
Serves: 4
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
1.5 cups chickpea flour (You can find this at Asian grocery stories, especially if they have an Indian section. Substituting with regular flour is ok, but will affect the taste)
2 medium sized onions
2 tablespoons minced small green chili peppers (food processor works best to bring out the flavor)
1/2 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon salt
1-2 cups water
vegetable oil (amount will vary)

Instructions:
1. Finely dice the onions.
2. If you have a sifter, sift chickpea flour into a separate plate. If you don't have a sifter, do your best to breakdown clumps of flour. The finer the flour gets, the better the consistency will be at the end.
3. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and diced onions.

pakora batter
4. While kneading, add water in 1/4 cup increments. Stop adding water once the batter becomes thick and smooth (not clumpy).
5. Mix in the minced green chili pepper and salt.
pakora batter
6. Either in a deep fryer or a deep pan, heat vegetable oil on medium-high heat. Oil should be at least 2 inches deep at its deepest point if you're using a pan. To test if oil is hot enough, add a small amount of batter to the oil. If the batter begins to fry and floats to the top only after a few seconds, the oil is ready.
7. To drop pakora batter into the oil, you can either use your hand or two spoons. Using your hand, scoop out a little less than a tablespoon of the batter mixture. Refer to the picture below to see where the batter should be positioned. Suspend your hand over the oil (not too high or oil will splatter) and use your thumb to push out the batter into the oil. It takes a little practice to get it them to turn out nice and ball-shaped.
8. Continue to add pakora balls until the surface of the oil is just about covered.
pakora
9. Fry for 3 minutes or until they become a darker golden brown (but not crispy). Flip over the pakora in the oil after the 1st minute. If you remove them when they just become golden brown, the insides might still have uncooked batter.
pakora
10. Let them cool slightly, the enjoy! Be creative with a dipping sauce! Ketchup is always served with pakora here, but I think a mango chutney would be perfect with it.
pakora!
I hope you guys will enjoy cooking and eating this dish as much as I did! Look forward to more recipes soon! Here's a video showing the pakora dropping technique that I still have to work on.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Eric,

I am so glad to read your blog and here what is going on in Kadod. It was such a pleasure meeting you at the gala.

I just wanted to tell you this is FANTASTIC idea to get some of the local food recipes. Honestly, I have been craving Indian food so badly, and I hope to learn some things from you!

Remember, the old fellows are here if you need any help. Be sure to stay in touch.

Best,
Pamela

Noona rulez said...

Hyunjae! This is such a good idea to post this :) Umma and I will try it out soon.

cindi said...

hahah "noona rulez" so clever! this sounds really delicious, will have to try once i have a real kitchen. i am going to put bacon in mine... i heart your blog!, and im glad you survived your kitchen fire!!

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