Monday, August 13, 2012

Bread Pakoras


Its been a very hot summer this year and almost everyday I have been trying to make something chilly like smoothies & lemonade as thirst quenchers. With extreme heat, we have been avoiding outdoors mostly this summer. I try making a few new snacks whenever I have some time in the afternoon and I now look forward to making them everyday since they don't require a lot of thought and could be pretty satisfying for a mini meal. I try to keep it healthy as much as possible like Yogurt parfait, Fruit medley, Fruit muffins etc.

Today, for a change I tried a hot and savory snack - Bread Pakoras. This is a great snack when you have those few extra slices of bread that you don't want to waste. And a  great tea-time snack too!

For the Batter
  • Gram Flour (Besan) - 1 cup
  • Rice flour - 2 tbsp
  • Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
  • Baking soda - a pinch
  • Salt - as required
 For the Stuffing
  • Bread Slices - 6 (White or Wheat, medium size)
  • Potatoes - 1 large
  • Chopped vegetables - 1/2 cup (Peas, Carrots, French beans - mixed)
  • Ginger - 1 tsp (finely chopped)
  • G.Chillies - 2 (finely chopped)
  • Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
  • Corriander leaves - a hand full (finely chopped)
  • Salt - as required
  • Green chutney (Optional) - 1 tbsp (store bought is fine)
  • Oil to deep fry
Procedure
  • Boil the potatoes, peel and mash them. Set aside.
  • Boil all other vegetables together, drain and save the water, mash the vegetables slightly with a laddle.
  • Add the mashed potatoes to the vegetables and mix well.
  • Now add salt, ginger, g.chillies, cumin seeds and corriander leaves and mix well to make a thick stuffing.
  • Make 6 medium sized balls out of this mixture and arrange it on a plate.
  • Heat oil for deep frying.
  • Prepare the batter by mixing all ingredients given under batter along with some water. The batter needs to be a little watery and not thick.
  • Transfer the cooked water from the vegetables in a wide bowl.
  • Take a bread, cut off the crusts and quickly dip the slice in the vegetable water. The slice should be fully wet, but not over soaked.
  • Place the wet slice flat on your palm, use the other palm and squeeze out the excess water.
  • Spread the green chutney on the bread and then place a vegetable ball on the slice. Cover it with the slice and seal the top. To make it easy, I usually use a round shaped cookie cutter and cut the wet slice to a round slice - this is easy to cover and seal the stuffing. If not, you can still make it with square slices and remove the excess bread left at the top while sealing.
  • Dip it in the batter and deep fry it in oil under medium heat until golden brown.
  • Repeat it with all other slices and drain the excess oil in a paper towel.
Serve hot with sweet chutney and hot tea!

5 comments:

Laavanya said...

This looks fabulous... i love that picture! I used to make bread pakoras as a kid but that was using a different method... Can't wait to try this sometime.

Sujatha said...

How are you, Laavanya? I will have to catchup with your yummy recipes too.
Yes, I have tried other methods too, but this method of making the pakoras come out better for me.

Reva said...

Yummy snack..:)) loved it..
Reva

Cynthia Pinto said...

Hi you have some mouth watering, finger licking recipes here. Unfortunately, I dont find this blog easy to navigate as you dont have a recipe index. So if I need to search for an 'a' recipe, I have run through the whole menu. You have, I think over a hundred recipes here, and somewhere during the search, I lose interest when Im not able to find what Im looking for and shift over to another blog. Though your template is very appealing, it is a recipe index that would make your blog complete.

Sujatha said...

Hi Cynthia.. Thanks for your feedback. Yes, I agree the template is not easy to navigate. I just recently switched to this template and still experimenting with other templates.. I will soon be updating the template.

Meanwhile, You can still navigate the recipes through "My Collection" thats located in the right side of the screen. There is a plain grey bar on the right side, just place your mouse on that, "My Collection" will show up.

Regards
Sujatha.