Friday, July 17, 2009

1001 easy Fritters ( Pakoras)

1001 Pakoras
Any edible flour can be made into a batter, into which a variety of goodies can be dipped in and deep fried. This is the logic behind all the fritters, North Indian pakoras, Japanese tempuras, American hush puppies, South Indian bajji, North Indian bhajias, South Indian bondas, Japanese kakiage, South Indian pakodas, French beignets., Italian frittas and all such recipes, which exist in virtually every cuisine. Understanding the principle behind deep frying is the only way to cook a light and crispy fritter every time.


The batter:
Different cuisines use different flours to make the batter. Column 1 lists some of them

  • Gram flour forms the base for most North India Indian pakoras which are served with a spicy chutney.
  • Wheat flour is the base for Japanese Tempuras. Whole-wheat / All purpose flour is mixed with equal amount of ice cold water and mixed briefly to make a light Tempura batter , which gives a light and crunchy texture. Eggs can be mixed in this batter. Almost all veggies, seafood, meats can be dipped into this batter and fried. Tempuras are served with a dipping sauce.
  • Dry flour , usually gram flour, is used in south Indian Pakodas ( chiefly onion, spinach, cabbage). The water content in the veggies makes the flour cling to them. These are eaten plain as a snack.
  • Yellow corn meal batter is used in southern states of America to cook up Corn fritters / Hush Puppies . These are served with maple syrup / honey.
  • Finger millet flour is used to cook up Ragi pakoras popular in Tamilnadu.
  • Rice flour is used to cook up Almojabanas, a Puerto Rican recipe.
  • Rava (cream of wheat) mixed with yogurt can be used to cook up a crunchy fritter.
  • Any edible flour can be used to make a batter. Some all purpose flour is usually mixed in so that the batter made from flours which have less gluten can cling to the stuff being fried.

The flavouring
A range of flavouring agents listed in column 2 can be mixed in with the batter to cook up scores of variations. Some fritters like the Tempura use little or no flavouring.

The goodies:
A variety of goodies listed in column 3 can be dipped into the batter and deep fried. There are no fixed rules about the goodies & batter combination. Experiment with your favourite goodies!

Fry safe!

Rushina, whose blog is on my most admired list, calls for aPakora competition and was nice enough to request an one page pakora cookbook. I really enjoyed doing this one. This also goes to Srilekha's EFM - Savouries & Shanti's Lovely Winter Recipes.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Very good blog - I love the way you word everything- makes it fun to read. More importantly, the explanations of why and how you do something are truly helpful, instead of just a series of instructions. Thanks!!!!!!!

Food Consultancy / Licensing / Crash Courses

Contact siramki@gmail.com for complete Food consultancy from concept to completion.

Customised one page cookbooks now available for pressure cooker / microwave / mixie / masala & other cooking product manufacturers. Replace bulky recipe books with easy to refer One page cookbooks and watch your sales soar !

Twecipies

Blog Archive

Cooking is fun - Duplication is a pain !

"It is extraordinary to me that the idea of creating thousands of recipes by mixing building blocks takes immediately to people or it doesn’t take at all. .... If it doesn’t grab a person right away, ... you can talk to him for years and show him demos, and it doesn’t make any difference. They just don’t seem able to grasp the concept, simple as it is". ( Thanks Warren Buffett !)

"What's angering about instructions in many cookbooks is that they imply there's only one way to cook a dish - their way. And that presumption wipes out all the creativity." Cook dishes your way - Download  1001 South Indian curries now and learn to cook, not to duplicate ! ( Thanks Robert Pirsig !)

"Recipe purity is no different from racial purity or linguistic purity. It just does not exist. Cuisines are alive and change all the time. What is traditional today was esoteric just a few decades back. So being a 'foodist' is as bad as being a racist !

About Me

My photo
Chennai, Tamilnadu, India
Okay, let me start from the very beginning. 1500 crore years ago, with a Big Bang, the Universe is born. It expands dramatically. Hydrogen forms, contracts under gravity and lights up, forming stars. Some stars explode, dusting space with the building blocks of life. These condense into planets, one of which is Earth. Over time, self replicating molecules appear, multiply and become more complex. They create elaborate survival machines (cells, plants, animals). A variety of lifeforms evolve. Soon, humans arise, discover fire, invent language, agriculture and religion. Civilisations rise and fall. Alexander marches into India. Moguls establish an empire. Britain follows. Independence. Partition. Bloodshed. The license raj is in full sway. I'm born. India struggles to find its place. Liberalisation. The Internet arrives! I move from Tirupur to Chennai. Start a company. Expand into Malaysia, Singapore and the Middle East. Poof! Dot com bust. Funding dries up. Struggle. Retire. Discover the joy of cooking, giving, friendships and the pleasures of a simple life. Life seems less complicated. Pizza Republic, Pita Bite and Bhojan Express bloom !

Looking for Treatment?