Sunday, January 31, 2010

Onion Pakoras - Onions at its best!

I would say street cooks are magicians. With just a few basic cooking essentials like a griddle and a deep-fryer they come-up with delicious meals or snacks! Its interesting to me when I watch them assemble their mobile kitchens, and within a few mins they are all set for making some of the best street foods. Street foods give identity to any place. My home town Madurai is also famous for street foods as I had mentioned in this post.
No one wants to get sick, but avoiding street food means denying yourself an essential part of the food experience :) Onions Pakoras are one of those street-side snacks that I enjoy anytime. While I was working in India, there used to be a few road side tea-stalls closer to my office. Many evenings we used to take a walk to those stalls to hang out with friends and enjoy these hot & crispy onion pakoras with a glass of tea. Sometimes I take masala vadas, but mostly would stick on to onion pakoras. They are served in banana-leaf over a plate with coconut chutney on the side. Hmm, yummy! Especially on a rainy day! Those are some of the nice-to-remember days, athough now I can't believe that I never fell sick eating those street side foods that often!
With that said, ironically, I rarely try making onion pakoras (though I make onion bhajjis often) at home until recently, when I thought I will give this a try. I searched for the recipe through various sources and finally came up with this recipe from mixing different steps from different recipes for onion pakoras. It was perfect and came out very close to those road-side pakodas. So easy and simple!
Ingredients:
  • Sliced red onions - 2 cups
  • Grated ginger - 1 tbsp
  • Chilli powder - 1.5 tsp
  • Soaked cashews (soak for 5 mins) - 2 tbsp
  • Chopped curry leaves - 1 tbsp
  • Finely chopped cilantro - 2 tbsp
  • Lemon juice - 1 tsp (optional)
  • Gram flour/Besan - 1 cup
  • Rice flour - 1/2 cup
  • Baking soda - 1 tsp
  • Oil - 1 tbsp
  • Oil - to deep fry
Procedure:
  • Mix the sliced onions, ginger, cashews, lemon juice, a little bit of salt, chopped curry leaves and corriander leaves in a bowl. Set aside.
  • In another bowl, mix the gram flour, rice flour, chilli powder, baking powder, the remaining salt and 1 tbsp oil.
  • This recipe hardly requires any water to mix, as the onions release a lot of moisture when mixed with salt in the first step, and also because we are adding some oil in the second step.
  • Now add the onion mixture to the flour mixture and sprinkle little bit of water to make the mixture to a binding consistency. The consistency should be in such a way that the mixture can bind and stay together if we make balls. This is different than bhajji consistency.
  • Take a portion of the mixture and drop it bit by bit in the oil - don't have to make them in round shape.
  • Drain them and place them in a paper napkin.

Serve hot with green chutney or sweet chutney!

29 comments:

Tina said...

Pakoras looks tempting and delicious...Nice and beautiful click...

chef and her kitchen said...

pakoda's look very yummy..nothing can beat these deep fried fritters on a rainy day..

Priya Suresh said...

Feel like grabbing few pakoras from the click, prefect evening snack for chilled weather..

Anu said...

wow my fav.... looks tempting...

Dershana said...

what a lovely picture! the addition of cashews and lemon juice in pakoras is something i haven't done. and yes, i too love watching those streetfood walahs conjure up stuff

Finla said...

I really wish i could grab few.

FH said...

Slurp! So yum, I would eat those for breakfast!! :D

Sarah Naveen said...

Nice click and pakoda looks super yummy!!!!

Sailaja Damodaran said...

Super with hot tea.....

Cham said...

I rarely make the bhajji but do pakodas that is quick side dish for any kuzhambu!
Beautiful click Suja!

Ranjani said...

those pakoras look fabulous!

Uma said...

looks absolutely delicious!! How are you Sujatha?

Sujatha said...

Doing fine Uma! Hope you r doing fine too!

Gita Jaishankar said...

Wow...great pictures Sujatha...looks very appetizing :)

Soma Pradhan said...

Onion Bhajiia with a cup of tea always makes my day..Looks lovely and crispy

Ramya Vijaykumar said...

Pakoras have come out really well... The color and presentation is so good, shall I grab a few ;)

Laavanya said...

My dad & husband love pakoras and I make the onion version often - use diff proportions tho. Perfect to battle the winter blues

Parita said...

Delicious pakodas, lovely click!

Malar Gandhi said...

That is superb presentation...who cud say 'no' to this? love it:)

suvaiyaana suvai said...

tempting!!

Usha said...

Oh these look yum and very very tempting ! Great picture !

Mahimaa's kitchen said...

super yummy and tempting!!

AdukalaVishesham said...

very beautiful presentation... and pakoras looks so appetizing...

Dori said...

I am always tempted by pakora's of any sorts... I am making these next :)

Raks said...

You are right and in all of the pakoras,onion pakoras will be the best one right,I always love that,they are made for each others :)

Srividhya Ravikumar said...

Haii.. pakoras looks awesome.. visit my site when you have time.. Following you and i am very glad that i am your 50th follower..

Mrs.Ahmed said...

Hi,
Pakora looks tempting and Yummy...beautiful Pic... U can visit my blog,as am new :)
http://hyderabadicuisinerecipes-angel.blogspot.com/

Sindhura said...

Lovely pic.onion pakoras r very crispy n inviting....
Do drop in sometime

plasterers bristol said...

Lovely, i love this, and been meaning to make some myself. Thanks for sharing this recipe.

Simon