Baby Corn Pakoras with Ginger coffee

I love lunch time. To me it's more than just about food. I usually skip breakfast in working days and tend to take an early lunch... and so, I always wait for lunch hour. Also its a great excuse for me to take an extended break from work and chit-chat with friends, while getting recharged with some great food. In summer it gets extra special for me as I take a leisure walk around my office building enjoying some fresh air right after my lunch. It greatly refreshes me to handle the rest of the day. So, I never skip lunch hours even if I'm extremely busy at work. While getting the work done is important, I feel that certainly there should be some break time to just refuel myself, so that I am more productive for the rest of the day. While writing this, I remember a friend of mine who used to work with me in my previous office. During lunch time he would grab his lunch box and drive to the airport which is about 10 mins drive from our office. He then finds a spot outside the airport from where he can watch the planes take-off and land while having lunch! It used to be his favorite time of the day! He wouldn't miss it no matter how busy he is at work. He said he enjoys that a lot as his own private time. I used to admire his habit and was quite impressed the way he was creating a "mini-vacation" time everyday just for himself.

Things were different in India though. Back in India, my favorite time used to be coffee break instead of lunch time! May be perhaps, I used to have home-made breakfast before leaving to work, so I wouldn't starve until lunch. Mine would be a quick lunch most of the time. I worked in India for a few years before moving to the U.S, and we all friends at office used to enjoy going out for a short coffee break! There were plenty of snack shops/coffee shops around our office, and we used to enjoy hot and fresh onion pakoras, samosas, veg. puffs etc with coffee. To me that was a good fun time with friends. I miss those good old days.

Well, about this recipe now.. I made this over the weekend while we were mostly in a mood to munch. A very quick snack if you happen to have some baby corns in your fridge. It came out great and was a perfect snack for the evening. We enjoyed the pakoras with "Sukku Malli Coffee" - coffee spiced with ginger and corriander. I love this coffee and I used to have in India on road-side coffee shops. A very healthy drink made of dried ginger powder, corriander seeds powder and jaggery. Its known to help digestion.

The recipe goes for the Rushina's Pakora Event and this picture of Sukku Malli Coffee goes for Jai & Bee's Click Event.

Ingredients

• Baby Corns - 20
• Ginger/garlic paste - 2 tsp
• G.chillies - 1 (optional)
• Maida/All purpose flour - 1 tbsp
• Corn flour - 1 tbsp
• Besan - 1 tbsp
• Chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Baking powder - 1/4 tsp
• Salt

Procedure

• Mix all ingredients in a bowl by sprinkling water little by little. Mixture should be thick and stiff. Should NOT be watery like bajji batter.
• Deep fry in oil.

Serve hot with chutney or ketchup.