Last evening, hubby and I craved for home-made
pakodas, and I made some in a hurry. The qualifier is necessary because the shape and texture of the
pakodas weren't very good. (Check the pic!)
Let me give you the recipe of these.
For the batter, I mixed
besan (gram flour),
mangraila (nigella seeds/onion seeds),
haldi (turmeric), finely chopped
adrak (ginger), red chilli powder (you may replace this with finely chopped green chilies) , and salt. I cut brinjal, capsicum, onions into medium thin pieces. I also made chilli
pakodas; I made a vertical slit in the chillies before dipping them in the batter. I dipped the vegetable pieces in the batter one by one and deep-fried them in hot vegetable oil.
Pakodas, however, taste the best when fried in mustard oil, as any Bihari or Bengali will tell you.
I also got hold of some
kumrah/kohnra (pumpkin) last night and made
konrah bachkas. I cut the pumpkin into thin slices (Thick slices won't cook well and don't taste that good.). I mixed a couple of spoonfuls of rice powder with some salt, red chilli powder, and a spoonful of water. I rubbed both the sides of the pumpkin slices with this mixture and deep-fried them. These
bachkas are typically served with a meal, not as a snack. '
Bachka' is a term similar to the term '
pakoda'. Other
bachkas are prepared in completely different ways.