Pakoda or Pakora Ingredients:

1. Besan flour (Gram flour) – 2 cups
2. Onion – ¾ cup (finely chopped)
3. Red chilli powder – ¾ tsp or to taste
4. Salt – to taste
5. Curry leaves – 10 (finely chopped)
6. Coriander leaves – few (finely chopped)
7. Oil – for deep frying

Pakora Preparation:

Take a large mixing bowl and add gram flour, onions, curry leaves, coriander leaves, chilli powder and salt.

Without adding any water mix well.

If necessary add very little amount of water to make a thick paste.

Leave it for 10 mins.

Then take a deep pan and heat with oil.

Drop the mixture in the form of un even sized pieces.

Deep fry till they turn into golden brown colour.

In-between stir well.

Remove from heat and drain the oil completely.

Serve warm with green chutney or ketchup.

Preparation time 20 mins
Cooking time 15 to 30 mins
No. of Servings 6 to 8

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Another Recipe for Ramadan Iftar:

Onion Pakoras (Fritters)

Onion Pakoras & Ketchup Chutney Recipe
Makes 20-24
Serves 4 – 6 (or 2 very hungry adults)

It’s amazing how we inherit recipes through family. My mother inherited this recipe through marriage. When she married my father, she learned how to cook Indian food and she’s very good at it. She can make a mean pakora and her chicken curry is out of this world. My mother learned this recipe from my aunt S. who is a phenomenal Indian home cook.

I prefer serving this ketchup chutney to serve with the pakoras, buy my grandmother loves eating pakoras with sriracha sauce, which is also lovely. I prefer the Shan brand of chaat masala, which can easily be found at an Indian/Pakistani grocery. If you can’t find chaat masala, a mixture of ketchup and sriracha sauce tastes just as great.

Ingredients:

Ketchup Chutney:
½ cup ketchup
1 tablespoon water
½ tablespoon chaat masala
½ teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt

Pakoras:
2 cups (250g / 8.8 oz) Besan (also known as: Chickpea Flour or Gram Flour)
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 green chilii pepper, sliced
½ cup Cilantro leaves, chopped
1 yellow onion, sliced into 1/8-inch half moons (should look like this)

1 cup luke-warm water

Sunflower oil (or any neutral oil like vegetable, safflower, canola, etc.), for deep frying

Preparation:

Make the Chutney: Mix all of the chutney ingredients together in a bowl.

Make the Pakoras:
Fill an 8-inch cast-iron skillet half-way up with oil. Heat the oil to 360-375ºF.

In a large bowl, mix together the besan, red chili flakes, salt, baking powder, sliced chilli pepper, cilantro, and sliced onion.

Slowly add in the water, while mixing with a wooden spoon or your hands. Vigorously mix for a couple of seconds. The batter should be thick, almost like heavy (double) cream and there should be air bubbles throughout.

Once the oil is heated, carefully place in heaping tablespoonfuls of batter into the hot oil. Try not to overcrowd the oil because it will result in greasy pakoras. Fry until the pakoras are a pecan-brown. Drain on a cooling rack placed over a cookie sheet.

Repeat with the remainder of the batter.

Serve right away, and enjoy.

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Vegetable Pakora Recipe for Ramazan Iftaari:

Vegetable Pakora

Ingredients:

400gm gram flour
1 onion, chopped
1 green chili,chopped
2 potatoes
1/2 tsp red chili powder
salt to taste
1 tsp garlic, chopped
1tsp ginger,chopped

How to make Vegetable Pakora:

1. Add slowly more and more water while kneading the dough.
2. In the end it should be a creamy substance, pancake-like.
3. Let it stand for 5 till 30 minutes to soak through.
4. Heat oil in a deep pan and deep-fat-fry spoonfuls of dough.
5. Alternatively slice a raw potatoes into thin slices, turn them in the dough and deep-fry.
6. If you like it hot, sprinkle some chat masala on the brown Pakora pieces.
7. Vegetable Pakora is ready to serve.
8. Enjoy!

for more Pakora Recipes in English & Urdu, visit the Pakora Recipes