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

Snig’s Statler salad

The classic Waldorf salad involves apples, celery, walnuts and mayonnaise. It is famously named after the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, USA and was invented in 1896. Since then, it has evolved to include grapes and celeriac, and has even become a julienne style salad rather than a chopped salad. 

I wanted to change things up a little. Usually only green or white/beige ingredients are included. Hence the addition of Stilton cheese and cooked salad potatoes. To add a little variation of colour, I added the red of the salad radishes. I also switched out the classic apple for pears. My version is designed to be a meal in a bowl, rather than a smaller starter.

This salad is dedicated to the immortal Jim Henson, the creator of the character of Statler, one of the grumpy geezers who sat with Waldorf up in the gods who heckled the Muppet Show in every episode. If you know, you know. 

(Vegetarian, but not vegan).

Snig’s Statler salad

Serves 2

Ingredients

2 pears, peeled in stripes, cored and cut into small chunks

8 salad potatoes, boiled with skins on, carefully dried, then cut into chunks

6-8 salad radishes cut into small chunks

2 spring onions, cut into small rounds

1 celery stalk, peeled for strings, then finely sliced

80g Stilton cheese cut up into small cubes

A couple of handfuls of salad leaf of your choice

A couple of handfuls of walnuts

Dressing:

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Salt, pepper

Method

Take two bowls and place a handful of salad leaf in the bottom of each.

In a small bowl, whisk together the dressing ingredients together, taste and season accordingly.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the pear, potato, spring onion, celery and Stilton pieces, add the dressing and toss until all the ingredients are well coated.

Serve up in on top of the salad leaf, then top with the walnuts.