Cauliflower and potato pakoras

Cauliflower and potato pakoras

Many years ago, a friend recommended I join Twitter to share my food blog. For many years, I enjoyed being there and sharing my various thoughts, news, and other stuff. One thing I did was post "cooking threads" setting out dishes I was cooking, with ingredients, instructions and photos. This pakora recipe was originally one of my cooking threads. Sadly, for *reasons* Twitter isn't such a nice place any more, and therefore I am rescuing this old recipe thread and sharing it here as a blog post. 

 

 

Serves 2 as a light lunch or 3-4 as a side dish

 

Ingredients

 

1 large potato, peeled

Half of a cauliflower, cut into florets

3 cloves of garlic

1”/2.5cm piece of ginger (use the thicker part of the rhizome)

Half a teaspoon of Chaat Masala (you could also use Garam Masala or Kitchen King)

Freshly ground black pepper

Half a teaspoon of salt

1 red or green finger (or birds eye) chilli, very finely diced (deseeded if you prefer)

1 cup (240 ml) gram flour (besan/ chick pea flour)

Water – please see instructions below – from 120 to 180 to a limit of 240 ml

2 tbsp cornflour

Ground nut or Rapeseed oil for frying

Optional (to serve): Mango chutney, chilli chutney, coriander chutney,  tamarind sauce, Freshly ground black pepper, Amchoor.

 

Variations:

 

For extra crunch/crispiness, leave out the cornflour and add a little finely ground semolina. If you don't have cornflour, either substitute with rice flour or leave it out altogether.

 

Some people might want to add a little bicarbonate of soda to add a little air to the batter. I don't do this, and neither does my Mum. But feel free to experiment. Another way of adding air to the batter (which isn’t authentic, but would work) would be to use either fizzy water (good) or beer (even better) as you might for Tempura batter.

 

Other vegetable suggestions: - Onion - Bhindi (ladies' fingers)  - Courgette - Aubergine - Bell pepper - Chilli - Lau (bottle gourd) – Spinach leaves.

 

If you like bitter flavours and want to try something really different, you could try Karela or bitter gourd. No need to take the seeds out.

 

Method

 

1. Finely grate three cloves of peeled garlic and a peeled 1" piece of ginger. Add to a jug or bowl, with half a teaspoon of Chaat Masala, a touch of freshly ground black pepper, half a teaspoon of salt and a very finely chopped chilli.

 

2. Add a cup of gram flour (besan) and a couple of tablespoons of cornflour and mix well.

 

3. Slowly add water, starting with half a cup, working up to three quarters of a cup (maximum one cup), mixing as you go until you have a batter the consistency of double cream. Your batter is ready.

 

Pakora batter

 

4. Parboil your potato for 10 minutes, drain and run cold water to arrest the cooking. Slice into thin slices. Then coat in batter. (If you slice and then parboil, you will have to dry the slices before battering to ensure the batter sticks.)

 

5. Cut up half a cauliflower into florets and parboil for 4 minutes. Drain well and either dry off or give it a spin in a salad spinner. Get them as dry as you can to get maximum batter cling.

 

6. In a wok or karhai, heat up either rapeseed oil or groundnut oil (about 2" of oil will be ample).

 

7. Coat the veggies in the batter, batch by batch. Fry until golden brown, again, batch by batch. Don't overcrowd the pan or the oil will become too cool. Fish out with a slotted spoon or wire spoon.

 

8. Try to get rid of excess oil by drying on kitchen paper. 

 

 

 

9. Season well. Serve with Indian chutney or sauce: Mango chutney, chilli chutney, coriander chutney or tamarind sauce. For extra zing, you could sprinkle a little Amchoor.

 

Potato pakoras, seasoned generously

 

10. Enjoy as a snack or lunch, or as an accompaniment to your favourite Indian. Pakistani or Bangladeshi dishes. 

 

 

Cauliflower and potato pakoras

Spicy crispy bhindi bhaji

Okra, Ladies’ fingers, bhindi or dharoosh… there are many names for this green, geometric, pointy vegetable. It equally inspires very different reactions from its fans and its haters. 

 

The people who love it need no explanation as to the variety of ways of cooking bhindi. It can be stewed, curried, shallow fried and deep fried. Boiling is not recommended by me, but I am sure there are people who don’t mind it cooked that way.

The haters tend to dislike one thing in particular: the sliminess which can be present in this most maligned of vegetables. To those haters I say this – my recipe here uses chick pea flour which not only absorbs the moisture in the ladies’ fingers, but it also provides a basis for a "barely there" crispy batter.

I made this recipe in a frying pan, which I partly filled with vegetable oil. That oil I intend to reuse for other bhajis or pakoras. I try to use oil more than once if possible, except for when that first use is for meat and then a vegetable dish is likely to follow, or when I know the batter is likely to leave burned bits in the oil.

You could also cook these bhaji in a karahi/karai or a wok, a deep fat fryer or maybe even an air fryer. You will have to tweak the recipe accordingly.

This recipe is a great side dish for the curry of your choice or even with a simple dahl and rice. It is vegetarian and vegan. 

Even though there is chilli powder in this dish, the result was not hot. So I don't think you need to worry about the result being too fiery. If, however, you like it hot, feel free to either add a little more chilli powder or perhaps some cayenne powder. 

Spicy crispy bhindi bhaji

Recipe: 

250g okra/bhindi/ladies’ fingers

¼ teaspoon turmeric (for colour, so you could omit this)

½ teaspoon coriander

½ teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon chilli powder

½ teaspoon amchur (green mango powder)

½ teaspoon Chaat masala – a tangy and spicy condiment well worth investigating (if you lack amchur, use more chaat masala and vice versa)

½ teaspoon salt

Vegetable/rapeseed/sunflower oil (amount depends on pan and method of frying used).

4 tablespoons of chick pea flour (besan).

You will need:

A large bowl, a small bowl, a frying pan, a spatula or similar, a large plate, kitchen paper, knife, chopping board, scales, measuring spoons.

Method:

1. Prepare your bhindi. It should be trimmed at the top, then quartered lengthwise. Put in a non-metallic bowl ready for being marinaded.  

2. Mix up all the spices and salt in a small bowl.  Pour over the okra, rub all over.

3. Leave to marinate for at least half an hour.

4. Measure out 4 tablespoons of chick pea flour (besan). Add two tablespoons and mix thoroughly. Add the rest bit by bit, mixing as you go. You only want to coat the okra a little. You don't want clumps.

5. Take a large frying pan and fill either half an inch or 1" with oil. Or alternatively, you could use a deep fat fryer filled with the same oil. I didn’t want to try this as I didn’t want bits of the batter coming off and potentially burning in the fryer. Cleaning it out is a necessary but unpleasant task!

6. Heat up the oil. Fry the okra in two batches. 

7. Put on kitchen paper to absorb excess oil. Lightly season with salt if needed.

8. Enjoy immediately!