Potato (or Cauliflower) Pakoras

Cauliflower pakoras.

by Gita Sharma & Alan Whykes
Pakoras are a tasty snack for any time of day or as an accompaniment to a meal. We had a free demonstration of this recipe and tasters to give away at Taste of the World at Moonah, Hobart, on 30 March 2014. Many thanks to Gita for doing a great job: seemed like the audience very much appreciated the 60 or so pakoras we served up.



Ingredients
2 medium potatoes
1 cup besan flour
130ml water
1 tsp salt
1 pinch baking powder
½ tsp curry or chilli powder (optional)
500ml oil (for frying)




Method

1. Mix the besan flour, salt, baking powder, curry powder and water in a bowl. Stir steadily until you have a thick batter.
2. Slice the potatoes thinly. You can peel the potatoes if that's your preference.
3. Heat the oil in a deep saucepan or wok until it's hot but not smoking. Dip each slice of potato in the batter and carefully slide it into the oil. Cook several pakoras at a time for 3 or 4 minutes until golden brown. Lift from oil and drain on a paper towel. Allow to cool for a few minutes as the vegetable piece will continue to cook inside the pakora.
4. Serve as is or with spicy chutney, hot dipping sauce or slices of cucumber. At Taste of the World we served some of our pakoras with a chutney made from mint leaves, dessicated coconut, ginger, onion, chilli, cashew nuts, almonds, vinegar and salt. Grind it in all into a paste and adjust seasonings to your taste.

Tips

• Other vegetables can used for making pakoras: pieces of steamed cauliflower, slices of onion, whole mushrooms, etc.
• Besan is a tasty flour made from chick peas. You can find it in Asian grocery shops and health food stores. Besan is gluten-free.
  
• Eat fried foods in moderation. Pakoras can be part of a nutritionally-balanced meal that includes for example steamed rice, mixed vegetable curry and lentil daal.

Interestingly, there's an enormous variety of wonderful vegan snacks and dishes from around the globe. I like to explore these cuisines, especially those of places where I have lived such as Indonesia, Italy, Germany and Russia. Specialty ethnic cuisine classes are usually titled Ethnovegan on my workshops page.

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