Any edible flour can be used to coat a variety of goodies which can then be deep fried into crispy treats – The Pakodas. South Indian Pakodas belong to the fritter family consisting of North Indian pakoras, Japanese tempuras, American hush puppies, South Indian bajji, North Indian bhajias, South Indian bondas, Japanese kakiage, , French beignets., Italian frittas and all such crispy, deep fried recipes, which exist in virtually every cuisine. All these are nothing but goodies dipped in batter and deep fried into crunchy treats. Pakodas are unique that they use dry flour as a coating and not batter. The water content of the goodies used is enough for the flour to cling to them. Unlike other members of the fritter family, Pakodas are shapeless.
1. Use safflower or sunflower oil which can heat up to higher temperatures.
2. Have enough oil so that it is at least twice the depth of the food you fry. Using less oil results in its temperature dropping fast when you add stuff to it is added.
3. Fry at the right temperature. Too high and you burn the batter. Too low and the batter soaks up oil and becomes greasy.
4. If the oil smokes, it is too hot. To check temperature, drop a couple of bits of batter into the oil. At the right temperature, batter sinks a bit, but bobs right up and browns within a minute. If the batter sinks, oil is not hot enough. If it dances on the surface, oil is too hot.
5. Do not overcrowd the oil. Carefully add the batter, leaving lots of space around each piece. Too much food causes oil temperature to drop and makes the food greasy.
6. Cook with fresh oil. Unless filtered and stored well, oil earlier used gives a stale flavour.
7. Cook with clean oil. After every couple of batches, filter away the particles of batter floating around.
1. Never fill over half the pan with oil.
2. A smoking oil can catch fire. Reduce heat immediately.
3. To clean oil spills, sprinkle flour and wipe clean.
4. Avoid frying stuff with high water content as it splashes heavily.
5. If oil catches fire, cover the pot immediately to cut off air supply.
6. Gently slip the batter into oil. Plonking it in would cause splashes.
Different cuisines use different flours. Column 1 lists some of them
1. Gram flour forms the base for most North Indian pakoras , South Indian bajjis, Bondas and Pakodas.
2. Wheat flour is the base for Japanese Tempuras.
3. Pearl millet flour is not very usual but can be used to get crunchy pakodas.
4. Yellow corn meal batter is used in southern states of
5. Finger millet flour is used to cook up Ragi pakoras popular in Tamilnadu.
6. Rice flour is used to cook up Almojabanas. , a Puerto Rican recipe. It is also mixed in with gram flour to cook crispy pakodas.
7. Rava (cream of wheat) is used estensively in Konkan cuisine to cook up a crunchy fritter.
8. Any edible flour can be used to cook a pakoda. Some all purpose flour is usually mixed in so that the flour clings well.
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 dredged in the flour and deep fried. There are no fixed rules about the goodies & flour combination. Each flour and goodie combo will have its own crunch. Experiment with your favourite goodies!
This post was inspired by Nandu’s world famous Pakodas. I’ve repeatedly bumped into people who are exceptional in cooking up one recipe – and stop at that. When you have mastered a core principle ( deep frying in this case), you can easily extend your expertise in cooking up a huge array of similar recipes – by just varying the building blocks. This is what One page cookbooks are all about. I hope we get to see a post on more world famous pakodas from Nandu. J
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