Crispy, fried vegetable pakora is the Indian version of battered fries, except with a little more spice! Monsoons in India are synonymous with these fried treats and when it rains, it provides the much needed respite from the blistering sun. So cooler weather calls for hot tea accompanied with Pakoras!

I just have to share a story about pakoras and rainy season, So we were newly weds and were living in an apartment in South Calcutta and the apartments/homes are built very close to each other. I had a neighbor by the name of Debrani and we had become pretty close. So one weekend , it started pouring and we both happened to be by our respective windows. We talked about the weather and how I was getting ready to make some tea and she said she was getting ready to fry some pakoras.

So we decided I would make tea for her and her husband and she said she would make pakoras for the two of us. The thing was it was pouring so hard, we couldn’t get to each others house. Then we came up with an ingenious plan! Since the windows of the two homes were so close, she actually took a really long pole, put the pakoras in a couple of plastic bags and passed it to me and I put the tea in a flask and put it in a bag on the same pole and passed it to her! Of course, it was something we discussed and laughed about, later on.

Memories and food are truly entwined!

Palak aloo pakore

Print Recipe

Course Breakfast, Party Appetizer, Snacks

Cuisine Indian

Ingredients

1 large Potato Chopped. I did not remove skin of potato,but you can.
1 large onion
1 cup spinach chopped
1 1/2 cups Gram flour/Besan
1 jalapeno chopped
1 tbsp Cilantro chopped
1/2 tsp Coriander seeds coarsely ground
1/2 tsp Red Chili powder
1/8 tsp Garam Masala
Pinch of Carom Seeds/Ajwain
Water as needed to make the batter I used approximately 1/2 cup

To be added just before frying

Pinch of Baking soda
2 tsp oil
Salt as needed
Oil for frying

Instructions

Chop Potato, Onion and Spinach.
Mix all the spices and water and make a batter of dropping consistency.
Heat the oil in a pan or Karahi.
Mix salt, pinch of soda and a little oil, only to the amount that you are going to fry.
Drop batter using a spoon or hands.
Fry till crisp and golden.

Notes

The reason we don.t add salt to the entire batter, is because by the time you get to the end of the batter, the vegetables start sweating because of the salt and the batter becomes very watery. Mix salt, soda and oil in a small bowl to only the amount that will go into frying pan at a time.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Here is the step by step pictorial recipe-

Vegetables for Pakora