Paneer and Potato Pakoras (Fritters)

Pakora or bhajiyā is a fried snack (fritter) found across South Asia.

Pakoras are created by taking one or two ingredients such as onion, eggplant, potato, spinach, cauliflower, tomato, chili peppers, or occasionally bread and dipping them in a batter of gram flour and then deep-frying them.

Pakoras are usually served as snacks or appetizers. The word pakoṛā is derived from Sanskrit पक्ववट pakvavaṭa-, a compound of pakva 'cooked' and vaṭa 'a small lump' or its derivative vaṭaka 'a round cake made of pulse fried in ghee'.

The most popular varieties are palak pakora, made from spinach, paneer pakora, made from paneer (soft cheese), pyaz pakora, made from onion, and aloo pakora, made from potato.



Ingredients:



2 and 1/2 cup Besan (Chick peas Flour)

1/4 cup Rice Flour

1/4 cup corn starch

½ tsp Cayenne pepper Powder or to taste

1 tsp Turmeric Powder

1 tsp Baking soda

Pinch of Asfoetida

Salt to taste

3 teaspoon sugar

1/4 cup lime juice or 1 table spoon Mango powder

2 teaspoons roasted cumin powder

5 cloves of finely chopped garlic

2-3 inches of grated ginger

1 tablespoon of ground fresh green chili

1/4 cup finely chopped Cilantro

2 potatoes

1 slab of paneer (14 0z)

1 and 1/2 cup water



Method:




* Mix Besan, corn starch, rice flour, salt, baking soda and all dry spices.

* Add water, mix well until the batter is smooth with no lumps.

* Flour has a tendency to be very clumpy, so you should add water slowly with constant stirring.

* Add garlic, ginger, lemon juice, cilantro, ground chili and sugar.

* Mix well.

* Peel potatoes and slice them in to thin round slices, soak them in water so they don't turn brown and set aside.

* Cut Paneer in long thick strips or for bite size in to 1 and 1/2 - 2" cubes, set aside.

* Heat oil in deep fryer at 375 degrees.

* When oil is hot dip the paneer strips one by one and coat them with batter and dunk them in hot oil one by one 3-4 at at time so they don't stick together.

* When one side turns light brown, flip it gently and carefully with skewer and cook the other side until both sides are evenly crispy light brown.

* Take them out of oil and drain them over newspaper or thick layers of paper towels.

* Once finish making all the paneer pakaro, you may slightly dilute the batter with little water if desired.

* At this point test one slice of potato in the batter.

* There should just be a thin coat of batter on each slice. Batter should not be too dilute.

* Dip the potato slices in the batter and dunk them in hot oil one by one fry them till they are golden brown.

* Make sure not to over crowd the frying pan.

* Remove them from the oil and set them on a paper towel for a minute to soak up the excess oil.

* Serve both the Pakoras with ketchup, Hot chili Garlic sauce, sweet and sour pepper sauce or Cilantro Mint chutney (recipe on this blog)




Suggestions/Hints:



* Variations: With this batter you can make any veggies pakoras (fritters): like mushrooms, sliced sweet potatoes, cauliflower florets, spinach large leaves, zucchini slices, green tomatoes slices, tender eggplant slices, small chili peppers stuffed with chat masala and believe it or not thick Bananas slices (yes ! ripe bananas :).

* You can make onion rings with this batter too, but I like the Onion pakoras more crispy and there is another recipe on this blog for Onion fritter which make very crispy and tasty Onion fritters. You may want to check it out.

* You you desire, you may slit the Paneer bites and fill it with chat masala or spicy coriander chutney before dipping in to batter and frying them so the panner bite is not plain.




Pakora description source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakora
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-
ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License

Recipe and Photographs by Surekha.

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Simple Fruit and Veggie Chaat

Chaat (Hindi: चाट) is a term describing savoury snacks, typically served at road-side tracks from stalls or carts in India. With its origins in east India, chaat has become immensely popular in the rest of India and the rest of South Asia. The word derives from Hindi चाट (tasting, a delicacy), from verb "chaatna" चाटना (to lick), from Prakrit चट्टेइ (to devour with relish, eat noisily).

Most chaats originated in Uttar Pradesh, but they are now eaten across South Asia. Some are results of cultural syncretism - for instance, pav bhaji (Bread/bun with cooked and mashed vegetables) reflects a Portuguese influence, in the form of a bun, and bhel puri (Sev puri), was created by a Gujarati migrant to Mumbai.

The chaat specialities vary from city to city. Chaat from Agra and Mathura are famous throughout India. In Hyderabad, chaat is mostly prepared by vendors hailing from Bihar, and is different in taste.

For me this recipe brings back lot of childhood memories. I grew up in Uttar Pradesh. Everyday when the school bell rings and kids are getting ready to come out of closed gates of school, all the street vendors line up by the school gate to sell their goodies to the kids.

Goodies that kids love: Chooran, Imli, Icecream, Snow cones, Snow cones with rabdi and colorful syrups, Gol gappa, Alu tikki, Papdi chaat, Samosa Chat, Channa chat, Roasted peanuts with and without spices, Berries, Falsa, Watermelon, and Guava with spices and lime and of course my favorite of all, this simple, spicy fruit and veggie Chaat.

I loved to copy the exact taste of chaat that was sold by the street vendor by my school. My mom of course was very pleased that I decided to make it at home so that it would refrain me from buying the chaat that was sold by the vendors, who in her eyes don't use the best ingredients and there is always a chance of getting sick due to non hygienic conditions of utensils and tools used. (she was right, but at that time when I was just a kid, and I didn't care :)

Here is my version of recipe. This recipe yields ~ 5-6 servings.


Ingredients:


* 1 Ripe banana cut in to slices

* 2 Potatoes boiled, peeled and cut in small cubes

* 1 Apple cut into small pieces

* 1 English Cucumber cut in to small pieces

* 2 Tomatoes cut in to small pieces

* 1 Juicy lime

* 1 teaspoon Cayenne pepper

* 2 teaspoon roasted Cumin powder

* 2 teaspoon Mango powder

* 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

* 1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

* 1/2 teaspoon black salt

* 1/2 teaspoon Chaat masala (optional)


Method:


* In a large bowl toss all the cut veggies and fruits with all the spices.

* Drizzle fresh lime juice over them.

* Toss gently until everything is well incorporated.

* Serve chilled or at room temp.



Hints/Suggestions:


* Again this too is very versatile recipe, in addition to fruits and veggies that I used, you can use Pomegranate, Pears, Pineapple, Grapes, Kiwi, Guava or any exotic fruits or veggies that you like.

* Since I was making it exactly the same way like the vendors used to sell so I used the same ingredients (which of course are the one that are least expensive and easy to find all year round) You can vary the amount of one fruit or veggies or omit bananas if you don't care for them.

* Also you can adjust the amount of spices or one particular spice that you like or dislike the most.

* If you don't have all the separate spices as listed above, you can just use 1 and a half tables spoon of Chaat masala that is readily available at local Indian grocer.



Description of Chaat source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License

Recipe and Photographs by Surekha.

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Versatile Seven Layered Salad

One good things about office pot luck parties is that you make one thing and you get to try and exchange so many recipes.

Again this recipe is from one of my dear friend and co-worker Debbie P.

She made this salad with Bacon and Boiled eggs, but she knows that I am a vegetarian and don't like boiled eggs, so she made a separate one for me without Bacon and eggs.

It looked so pretty in the glass bowl. I am not a big fan of Mayo, but I couldn't believe how good it tasted. Debbie gave me the recipe and I would love to share this with you all.


This recipe yields 8 servings.


Ingredients:


* 1/2 head of lettuce

* 1 cups of spinach

* 6 mushrooms

* 12-15 grape tomatoes

* 1 seedless cucumber peeled and cubed

* 3 green onions chopped with green part intact

* 1 1/2 cups Frozen Peas, microwave for 3 min on mw safe steamer

* 1 15 oz can of chick peas

* 1/2 Red Onion, chopped or sliced

* 1 red Bell Pepper sliced or chopped

* 1/2 cup walnuts

* 1 cup Real Mayonnaise

* 1 tsp Seasoned Salt

* 1/2 tsp ground black pepper (or to taste)

* 1 cup Cheddar Cheese, grated

* 4-6 strawberries for garnish



Method:


* Arrange salad greens in a see-through salad bowl, layer with spinach, peas, chickpeas, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes and then the red pepper. (or any which way you like)

* Mix together Mayo, seasoning salt and pepper to taste.

* Top green onion layer with the dressing.

* Sprinkle grated cheese and walnuts.

* Repeat the layers.

* Garnish the top with strawberries and remaining tomatoes.

* Refrigerate the salad and toss it just before serving to mix all the dressing with salad.

* You can alternate the layers of veggies and Mayo or you can top it with mayo, I did the alternate layers so the dressing is evenly incorporated.

* You can add or change any of the ingredients.

* I also drizzled it with little raspberry vinaigrette to give additional flavor. You can make any variation with this salad, you can not go wrong.


Enjoy :)





Recipe Source my dear friend and co-worker Debbie P.

Photographs by Surekha.

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