Dance on the tunes of rain with a plate of yummy vegetable fritters in one hand and cuppa chai in another hand!! / Vegetable Pakodas Recipe

Aloo Pakodas with Mix Vegetable Pakodas

It’s raining!! And how can we Asians forget to enjoy the scented air and cool breeze without any fried edibles especially our top listed pakodas or fritters. Rain has always been a sense of celebration for Asians and we never forget to express it through the means of inviting food. Since the time I am with Hashim, we have always spent most of our moments at the beach enjoying the drops of nature. Sometimes, having crunchy chunks of sliced guava with a dash of chat masala powder and salt. Or relishing the roasted flavored corn – the corn seller has a pile of raw corns and he would quickly peel the dried sunny leaves of the corn and give it a quick toss on the deep bottom pan filled with heated charcoal for a natural roasting process. The gentle warmness oozing out from charcoal fire surrounds us in no time. The entire mechanism is fitted perfectly to his mobile selling cart. The fragrance of fresh roasting of corns complementing with the smell of rain has been just the best part of the entire happenings. Mr. Seller would then slice a fresh piece of lemon and rub it thoroughly over the warm roasted corn with a few species and do some recycling by using the corn husk as the perfect replacement of serving plate. He would place the hot roasted corn on its dried leaves so that we enjoy its warmness without expressing the kick of burn. Munching corns by the side of sea view is all what we look for. I have also uploaded a short video clip of spicy corn that I had tried at some mall and the sweet corn kernels were perfectly boiled and flavored. For its live recipe you can click on the highlighted link!

As home cooking is our motto these days, I wanted to try something different in fritters. I had a few veggies stored and decided to use them this time instead of just shallow frying potato fritters, onion fritters or zucchini fritters. Vegetable fritters were spongy in bites, easy going and most importantly healthy as I made them by chopping spinach, onions, potatoes, eggplant, bell peppers with few seasonings. They were served hot with tomato ketchup and cuppa chai (tea) with the lovely view of rain showers.

Vegetable Fritters Recipe

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Serves: 3 persons

Ingredients:

1 eggplant, finely chopped

1 potato, finely chopped

1 onion, finely chopped

1 bowl of chopped spinach

1 or 2 bell peppers, spice it up the way you prefer

½ teaspoon cumin seeds

½ tablespoon chili powder

1 tablespoon chaat masala powder, optional

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 large cup gram flour

Cooking oil for frying

Water as needed

Salt according to taste

Recipe:

• In a bowl, mix 1 cup gram flour with water to make a thick paste like consistency. Add water little by little to avoid running formation of paste or any lumps.
• Add all the chopped veggies into the gram flour paste, add ½ tablespoon chili powder, ½ teaspoon cumin seeds. 1 tablespoon chaat masala powder, ¼ teaspoon baking soda and salt. Taste the batter and adjust the salt and spices.
• In a non-stick pan, heat cooking oil on a medium flame and drop a small amount of batter to check the heat. As the batter rises up in the oil, start dropping the batter with the help of a spoon.
• Shallow fry them until they are crisp and golden brown in color. Remove them from hot oil on absorbent paper, sprinkle some chaat masala powder and serve it hot with tomato sauce. Enjoy!