Archive for the ‘SNACKS’ Category

Any snacks lover would never say no to hot and spicy pakora. It is one of the easiest preparations of all the snacks variety and also takes very less time. It a perfect tea time snacks and also serves as a side dish in the absence of vegetables.

First let me tell you the basic ingredients of the Pakora

Ingredients

Besan or kadalaimavu -2 cups
Rice flour – 1 cup
Salt – 1 Tsp
Turmeric Powder – 1/4 tsp
Ginger Garlic paste – 1 tsp
Sonuf (optional) – 1/2 tsp crushed
Butter of Ghee – 2 tsp
Chili powder – 1 tsp
Green Chilies – 4 nos finely chopped
Curry leaves – 10-15
Coriander – 1/2 cup finely chopped
Baking Powder – 1 pinch (optional)
Oil- for deep frying

The above mentioned are the basic ingredients of pakora. We can make different types of pakora by adding different types of vegetables and nuts to the above ingredients.

1. ONION PAKORA

- Take a large bowl. Mix the above mentioned ingredients first without adding water.

- Finely chop 2 big onion and add to the above mixture.

- Sprinkle some water and make it into a thick batter.

-Deep fry till it is golden brown. Thoroughly drain the oil with the help of a slit ladle.

-Spread it on a thick tissue paper so that extra oil will be absorbed.

Serve it hot with tomato Ketchup.

To make your pakora more crispy before sprinkling water, just add 1 ladle full of hot boiling oil to the flour mix. Mix it well and then add the required amount of water.

2. CASHEW WITH MINT PAKORA

The procedure for this remains the same for this pakora also. Instead of onion you are going to add 1 cup broken cashew nuts and 1 cup of chopped mint.

Remember while adding cashew make into half and then mix it with the flour. If you try it with full cashew, some time it may not get fried properly. The pakora will not be very crispy.

At the same time you should not break into very small pieces. It will be over fried, it will blemish your pakora’s taste.

3. PALAK PAKORA

Children may not prefer to eat palak in ordinary cooked form. So we have to modify the greens in such a way that children prefer to have them. Here is one way. Make it into pakora, garnish it and just give them as evening snacks, without telling that it is made out of palak or any other greens. Within few minutes the plate will be empty and they will be asking for more pakoras.

The procedure is same as that of onion pakora , the only change you have make is instead of using 2 big onions use one and 1 cup full of finely chopped palak or any other greens ( usually the prefered greens are palak, methileaves, arai keerai, mulaikeerai, murangai elai or drumstick leaves).

4. MIXED VEGETABLE PAKORA

The addition to the base ingrediants are 1/ 4 a cup each of finely chopped onion, carrot , capsicum, cauliflower, baby corn, fresh pees, potato & grated paneer. Then the procedure remains the same. You have to be careful while frying, otherwise it will be over fried. Also increase the quantity of chilie powder by 1/2 a tsp because you are adding more vegetables.

5 ALOO PAKORA

Use only besan for aloo pakora. Don’t add rice flour to it. Aloo itself is full of starch.

Add 1 cup of grated aloo and 1 cup of finely chopped onion and repeat the same procedure as that of onion pakora. You can also make as separate aloo pakora without adding onion.

The above mentioned varieties are the ones which I tried personally at home and was relished by me & my family. You also try it out and post your comments. Bye.