My favorite pakoras!!!!!! I remember when I used to shop at Liberty Market, Lahore (Pakistan), these pakoras were always on my “shopping snacks list”. I love street food and Thank GOD I don’t have any immune system issues. I can eat, drink, digest and sustain all this food easily, I never get sick after having them and whenever I go out for shopping (no matter what shopping; clothes, books, shoes anything) I always choose the markets with best street food.

The thing I like about these Pakoras is that they give veggies a lite coating of flour mixture, just to give an extra crunch and to hold them together which makes them lite otherwise Pakoras people make at home during Ramadan are just so dense and cake like. So here is the recipe……. enjoy!

Ayesha’s Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cup besan
• 1 tspn baking powder
• 1 tbspn yogurt
• 2 large potatoes (cut into thin lengthways slices)
• 8 – 9 green chillies chopped
• 2 large red onions sliced
• Salt to taste
• 2 tbspns red chilli flakes
•  1 tspn cumin seeds
• 1 cup spinach leaves (roughly sliced)
• 2 tbspns whole coriander seeds
• 1 tspn garam masala
• Some cold water ( ½ cup) to make the paste
• 4 tbspns chopped fresh green coriander
• Some chaat masala to sprinkle afterwards
• Oil for deep frying

Procedure:

-In a deep mixing bowl combine besan with all the spices, green chillies, baking powder, coriander and yogurt and stir. Gradually mix in some cold water and make a medium consistency paste (not too thick like dahi bhalle mixture nor too thin like gram flour paste, just like pancake batter)

-Make sure the batter is smooth, no lumps of flour.

-Now add all your sliced veggies and mix with your hands.

-Keep aside for 30 minutes.

-Heat oil to 180 degrees Celsius. (I am sure that hawker does not have a candy thermometer 😀 but the oil should be hot enough that if you drop a tiny bit of the batter it should not sink to the bottom of the wok. The mixture should rise and splatter on the surface of the oil.)

-Now drop tbspns of the pakore batter into the hot oil and fry until the pakoras get crisp and brown. Take them out onto your wire rack or any strainer BUT NO PAPER TOWEL. We don’t want our pakoras to get soggy. So put them on anything that is 1 cm above the surface of your bench top and has holes in it.

-Sprinkle some chaat masala for extra kick and serve hot with tamarind sauce or mint chutney.