Onion pakoda
These are easy to prepare when you have a sudden guest or friend at home and you want to make them feel special. These make a good tea time
snack especially during the cold winters
.onion
pakora can also be prepared with corn flour or wheat flour or a mixture of both but they are a good option to those who would like to avoid chickpea flour (besan).
Ingredients:
3 medium size Onions, finely sliced
1/2 cup Gram Flour (Besan Flour)
1/4 cup Rice Flour
1 teaspoon grated Ginger
5-7 Curry Leaves, chopped, optional
1/2 teaspoon Red
Chilli Powder
A pinch of Baking Soda (soda-bi-carbonate)
2 tablespoons finely chopped Coriander Leaves
Oil, for deep frying
Salt to taste
Method:-
1) Take sliced onion in a large bowl.
2) Add gram flour, rice flour, ginger, curry leaves, red
chilli powder, baking soda, coriander leaves and salt.
3) Mix well using
spoon and keep aside for 10 minutes.
4) Add water little by little (approx. 1/4 cup) and mix all the ingredients such that sliced onion is coated well with flour batter. Do not add more water unless required – if batter becomes too watery or
thin then pakodas will not turn crispy.
5) Heat oil in a deep pan over medium flame. Check whether oil is sufficiently hot or not by dropping a pinch of
mixture in hot oil – if it comes upward immediately, then oil is sufficiently hot for deep frying. Take small portion of
mixture in the hand and gently drop 3-4 small fritters into the oil and deep-fry until they turn golden brown in color – keep stirring occasionally in between so that they cook evenly and keep
heat/flame to medium.
6) Take them out using
slotted spoon and drain excess oil. Place them on paper towel
in a plate to absorb excess oil. Repeat the process for remaining batter and deep-fry in batches. Do not over crowd the oil with onion fritters, this will help them cook evenly.
Tips and Variations:
If you want to prepare
pakoda once and enjoy over 1-2
days then do not add any water in step-4 while preparing batter. The water released from sliced onion will be sufficient to coat onion with the mixture. If required, add only 1-2 teaspoons water.
Do not fry them over
low flame, it will make them soggy and absorb too much oil.
