Fruitful Pagoda Recipes

ONION PAKODA | ONION PAKORA

Steps:

• Slice onions moderately thin and add them to a mixing bowl.
• Add chilies, ginger, curry leaves, pudina and salt to the same mixing bowl.
• Nicely squeeze the onions with your fingers few times without mushing them up.
• Leave it aside for 5 minutes. This helps the onions to release some moisture.
• Then sprinkle besan, ajwain, cashews and more salt if needed.
• Mix everything well to coat the onions with the flour. The mixture will be fairly dry at this moment.
• Add water 2 tbsps each time and mix the flour to make a moist mass of dough.
• The dough must be tight yet very moist and not soggy like batter else they absorb lot of oil while frying.
• Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a kadai until very hot.
• Be careful as it is too hot. Pour this to the dough.
• Immediately the oil will sizzle. Mix the dough with a spoon and not hand as the oil is too hot.
• Heat oil in the same kadai or fry pan for deep frying the pakoda.
• Check if the oil is hot enough in the kadai by sliding a tiny piece of dough first.
• It has to rise and not sink in the oil. Next it should not brown too quickly. This is the right temperature.
• When the oil is hot enough, regulate the flame to medium high.
• Take a small amount of dough and make small pakoda with your fingers and slide them gently in the hot oil.
• Do not add too many pakodas in the pan. They should have some space in the pan to swim around & fry well.
• While frying stir & if needed flip the onion pakodas occasionally for even frying.
• Fry them till they turn crisp & golden. Then transfer them with a ladle to an absorbent tissue placed in a plate or to a colander.
• Continue to make more onion pakoda in batches with the rest of the dough.
• Serve onion pakoda hot with a cup of tea or coffee. You can also serve them with Coriander Chutney, Mint Chutney or Green chutney.
• Or sprinkle some chaat masala or any ground seasoning of your choice.

CAULIFLOWER PAKODA

Steps:

• Separate the florets from cauliflower. Do not chop them to small florets. (check the pictures in the step-by-step guide)
• Heat 4 cups of water in a pot until hot (not boiling). Add the cauliflower florets and sprinkle ½ teaspoon salt. You may also add turmeric to the water. This step is done to bring out the worms if any in the florets.
• Leave them for a minute or 2 and then drain the water. Rinse them thoroughly. Drain to a colander.
• Transfer them to a mixing bowl. Add ginger garlic paste, chopped curry leaves & green chilies. Sprinkle chili powder, carom seeds and garam masala all over. Mix them well.
• Sprinkle gram flour, rice flour and salt all over evenly. Sprinkle 2 to 3 tbsps water and begin to coat the gobi well with all the dry ingredients.
• Keep splashing more water as needed and mix until all of the flour coats the cauliflower well. It should resemble a wet marinade. (check pictures above)
• Taste test the batter and add more salt if needed.
• Heat oil in a deep pan for frying until hot enough.
• To check if the oil is ready to fry, Drop a small portion of batter to the hot oil. The batter should rise if the oil is hot enough.
• Regulate the heat to medium. Gently drop each floret separately in the hot oil. Do not crowd a lot of them as they will get stuck and won't fry well.
• Do not stir for 1 to 2 minutes. Then use a perforated ladle and stir them gently. Fry until golden & crisp on a medium heat.
• The bubbles in the oil will reduce when the florets are fried well.
• Remove them to a steel colander. Serve cauliflower pakoda hot with a cup of hot tea or coffee.

AGUA FRESCA DE PITAYA (DRAGON FRUIT)

Steps:

• Cut pitayas in half and scoop out flesh. Combine pitaya, water, lime juice, and sugar substitute in a blender; blend until smooth.
• Fill 2 glasses with ice and pour agua fresca over ice.