Onion and potato pakoras/Aloo arr piyajer pokuri

Tea time. Hah! It’s evening time and with tea what’s better than a plate of something piping hot served with it. The Indian palate likes the tastes of the deep fried pakoras, why alone pakoras, it can be garam garam samosas/singara as in Bengali or even some vegetable chops or cutlets or even…I can just breathe with these thoughts... Why me even others can go on naming so many mouth smacking snacks…hot and piping…to go with their evening tea.

Bah! It’s been a long gap and I’m back. Not that I didn’t cook or eat or had shut down my kitchen, but writing here, I hadn’t been doing for many many days, is it days? no months, no no more than a year. Not that I wanted to stay away so long but something else had held me back.

So what, again the key board has started going tak tak tak and …

It’s so simple to make pakoras. For my dish I’ve used:

Besan or gram flour: 1 ½ cup (sift and keep it aside)

2 Onions  cut into thin long strips

1 potato peeled and cut like (thin) French fries

2 green chilies chopped

Haldi ¼ tsp for colour

Red chilli powder ¼ spoon (add this if you like to feel the heat)

Salt to taste

Baking powder ½ tsp

Water for the batter

Oil for deep frying.

After taking the besan in a bowl added all the ingredients except the oil and water. I’ve used my hand to mix all the ingredients, that’s how I like. To this started adding water and mixed well to get a thick batter…consistency not thin and flowing and not very thick either…my friends have understood for they too make pakoras at home.

Heat enough oil in a kadhai/wok. Slowly in went the dumplings into the hot oil as I sang “you’r my dumpling dumpling hello honey bunny”.  Fried till it got the golden colour and then out they came onto the tissue covered plate. The same tune and the next consignment was done. Why do some jingles make so much impact on a person…don’t have an answer… And the end result you can see from the photo.

There was some dhania chutney to go with it. It’s such a pleasure in winter to gobble up such fries freshly cooked in the kitchen. I think you too like the ones from your kitchen. But, of course, sometimes those served by roadside thelas taste so good. Isn’t it for a change? Think about the hygiene factor ha ha ha…

© gouriguha 2013

Vegetable Fried Rice

Usually on Sunday’s love to cook Fried Rice...and what more my favourite Kosha Mangsho (see here) tastes so good. As I was going through my food album, saw this picture of Vegetable fried Rice and thought, “why not post this recipe for today”.

I had some carrots, french beans and capsicum. Thought that could make for the day’s dish. When I had cooked this dish there were no external tears for onion...hope you understand what I mean...

Now onions make us cry...soaring prices and for its scarcity in the market. That’s what politicians in our country want from us...cry for some reason or the other...

Think of politics and politicians and the food tastes bland. So I’m on my move to write down about my Fried Rice.

Ingredients:

Basmati rice: 2 cups

Carrots: 2

Capsicum: 2

French beans: 6-7

Onions: 3-4 (medium size)

Cooking oil: 3-4 tbsp. I’ve used refined groundnut oil.

Salt: to taste

Sugar: 1 ½ tsp

Preparation:

Cook the rice and drain the water. Be careful the rice is not over cooked. For this be careful ... the pinch of the grain between the two fingers can feel the minute hardness in the middle... when the water has to be drained and the rice spread out on a open plate.

Next chop the vegetables into small pieces.

Slice the onions into thin long pieces.

Now heat about 1 tsp oil and toss fry the carrots for a minute and take it out. Do the same with the chopped capsicum and french beans.

Next add the rest of the oil and fry the onion till it becomes translucent. To this add the rice and mix it up. Add salt and sugar and mix well for a couple of minutes over low flame. Soon add the vegetables and give a good mix.

Serve hot.

Cucumber and Onion Salad – My Summer Frequent

There isn’t much to say about Salads. Each one has his/her own way of presenting salad. My cucumber and onion salad is very simple. I give it a sharp touch with lime juice and balance this sourness with some sugar. The green chillies add a spicy tang.

This salad finds a place in my home more in the summer days, and I call it My Summer Frequent. This is how I make my khatta meetha cucumber onion salad.

Cucumber: 1 wash, peel off the skin and cut into thin long narrow pieces.

Green chillies: 2-3 finely chopped

Onion: 1 cut into ring shape.

Mix cucumber, chillies and onion in a bowl. Mix it properly.

Now add salt (to taste) and squeeze the juice of a lemon into this mixture. To this add some sugar to balance the tangy taste. Mix it carefully so that all the ingredients blend properly. Keep it aside till the salt, sugar and lemon juice blend.

Ready to serve and taste.