Pakoras/Bhaja/Bhajia

[Suvir Saran]

Where do you go eat pakoras?

Do you make them at home?

What vegetables do you use and why?

What makes a pakora special?

What are the key ingredients for a good pakora?

[Simon Majumdar]

The key, I have found is to have a sufficiently thick batter.  this acts to protect the vegetables inside from the oil and allows the contents to steam rather than fry.  This releases all their wonderful natural sweetness.  in the same way that fish and chips in England had batter to protect the fish while it was cooking.  This batter was then thrown away and the fish eaten.  fortunately we have become more "civilised" now and learned to love the batter

Good gram flour is essential and I like to spice it up with a little cayenne and cumin.

Best suited for the contents are  cauliflower and onions and also a mix of mashed potato and peas with spices.

A great dip is simple yoghurt and carriander whizzed in a blender

[Jinmyo]

Chicken and mushroom. Mushroom. Potato, onion, and mushroom. Rapini.  

[Suvir Saran]

Jinmyo,

Tell us about the chicken-mushroom, mushroom-chicken... do you make these?

Would you mind sharinga recipe?

Simon, I add some coarsely ground carom (ajowain) seeds into the batter.  They are a good flavor to the batter and also help cutting the grease in the body.

[Jinmyo]

Suvir, yes I make them. Sorry, I don't use recipes and do things differently most times.

In general, I make a thickish batter with gram and all-purpose flours with cumin, salt, chiles in it. Leftover chicken and chunks of cremini, rolled in spices, moulded by hand, then dipped. Or whole cremini or largish oyster mushroom pieces.

A dip sometimes involving lime, minced concasse of tomato, coriander, scallions, a bit of beer. Sometimes just kefir and chiles.

[Jinmyo]

Actually, Suvir, I think it was you who gave me the idea of using chicken a few months ago.

[Simon Majumdar]

Jinmyo

A pie by any other name.........

[Jinmyo]

...is still a pie.

[Suvir Saran]

Thanks Jinmyo, it was the mushrooms that threw me off.  I am not sure how the mushrooms would fare in deepfrying.  But sealed in the chickpea flour batter, I am sure they do just fine.  What a great new pakora ingredient.  I will try them soon.

[Jinmyo]

Suvir, mushrooms work tremendously well in tempura batter. Pakora is a much thicker and enfolding batter. So I just use somewhat larger mushrooms than I would for tempura.

[Suvir Saran]

Thanks Jinmyo!

[Steve Plotnicki]

I love a good Bahja. We order the assorted one from our local Balucchi's all the time (it still happens to be good even if they turned into a chain.) Red peppers and cauliflower are both good fillings. I find starchy fillings like potato mixtures to be too heavy. They are a treat for me because I am intolerant to wheat flour and chickpea batter fritters are right up my alley. I wish I could find a place that makes bread exclusively from Gram flour.

[Suvir Saran]

Steve,

Maybe next time you are at Dimple you may want to try Dhoklas and Khandvi.  They are made from lentil and bean flours and one is like a steamed cake (Dhoklas) and Khandvi is like nothing I know of to comparein western cooking, maybe a rolled crepe of sorts. For your wheat allergies, these would be great.

And they also make Baajra Nu Rotlas.  Flat breasds made with millet at Dimple.

In fact at Indian stores you can sometimes find flatbreads in the freezer section made from chickpea flour.  You can also buy those and keep for those bread cravings.  They are easy to toast in a toaster oven and taste great with plain yogurt or even some Indian style pickles.

I love Pakoras in all their many forms.  There is something wonderful about their taste and they also make me start salivating at the thought of the name.  In fact I will go and make some after I post this.  They take little time to make and are just sooo soulful.

I make spinach pakoras.  Sometimes with frozen chopped spinach when making them at the spur of the moment and lazy to go out shopping, at other times with freshly chopped spinach, at other times with whol baby spinach leaves.  

I sometimes mix rice flour to the pakora batter.  It makes the batter more crunchy.  Works well for the whole leaf spinach pakoras.  I actually sometimes make a thick batter with rice flour alone and dip spinach leaves in it and fry them.  The leaves come out nice and crips and the rice flour gives them a very sheer cruncy coating.  I then toss a Bhel on top of the spinach pakoras and make my own version of a Sev Puri.  The puri in this instance is made with spinach leaves instead of whole wheat.

I make paneer, onion, cauliflower, bread, potato, hot chile pepper, sweet potato and baby corn pakoras.

[Suvir Saran]

What condiments are your favorite with the pakoras???

Do you make them at home?

[Steve Plotnicki]

Suvir - Mango Chutney is where it's at for Bhaja and me. And we don't make them at home. Actually it's probably a good thing to try out in the Hamptons where we can fry up batches of veggies.

[Suvir Saran]

Steve, have you every tried making a simple mint-cilantro and yogurt chutney?  It world very well with piping hot pakoras.

Also is very easy to make.  

I also like an alternating dip into a tamarind-date chutney.

Or at times, Heinz Ketchup.

[Jinmyo]

The other day I took some left-over saag paneer and made pakora with it. Of course I moulded it with my hands and squeezed out excess moisture. Very nice with a lime and coriander dipping sauce.

I also had some large jalapenos stuffed with chevre that I had roasted and these also made great pakoras.