Rice Flour And Cashew Pakora Fritters Recipes

CASHEW PAKORA (CASHEW FRITTERS)

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients
• Chop onions into thin 2 inch slivers. Any bigger would make the pakoras unwieldy. Chop the chilies, mint and cilantro and curry leaves finely.
• In a bowl, place the chopped ingredients. Top with the flours, and add salt, hing, chili powder, and ghee on top. Add the cashew pieces.
• Mix gently with a fork initially. Sprinkle spoonfuls of water at a time, and with your fingertips, gently mix everything together into a coarse, not too wet mix. This dish does not take too much water. Adding too much water will make it dense instead of flaky, and soak in lots of oil while frying. The consistency should be neither like a dough nor a batter
• While you do all this, pour the oil (roughly 2 inches depth) in a small frying pan and heat it to medium heat
• When the oil is hot, drop small spoonfuls of the dough/batter/pakora mix gently into the oil
• Move the pakoras every couple of minutes so that they cook evenly. They are done when the bubbles in the oil disappear
• Take them out with a slotted wide spoon (we use what is called a jalli karandi in Tamizh - it has holes to drain the oil as you lift them out) and drain on a paper towl
• Make sure you cook on medium heat slowly. If the heat is too low, it will take a long time to cook and become soggy and oily. Too high heat and the outside will turn brown too quickly, leaving the inside un-/undercooked.
• While you make these, have your husband make the coffee or masala chai so they're both ready at the same time :)
• Enjoy with a side of thunderstorm!

PINCHED RICE FLOUR PAKORA FRITTERS WITH PAPAYA

Steps:

• 1. In a food processor, pulse together the ginger, green chile peppers, onion, cilantro, spinach, and lemon juice until just minced. (Do not Purée.) Add the papaya and pulse until coarsely chopped (do not mince). Transfer to a bowl. Add the rice and chickpea flours, salt, and baking soda and mix well to make a thick, almost dough-like mixture. Add some more rice or chickpea flour, if needed.2. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a small nonstick saucepan over medium-high heat and add the mustard seeds and asafoetida. They should splutter upon contact with the hot oil, so cover the pan and reduce the heat until the spluttering subsides. Quickly add the curry leaves, stir 30 seconds, then mix the spices into the mixture.3. Heat the peanut oil as per directions in INFORMATION AND SPECIAL TECHNIQUES: __Frying Fritters (Pakorae Talna). Divide the mixture into 12 equal portions and form into rolls or cylinders, each about 1 inch thick and 3 inches long (they don't have to be smooth). Carefully slide them into the hot oil, adding as many as the wok can hold at one time without crowding, and fry, turning and moving them around as needed until golden, 2 to 3 minutes.4. Transfer with slotted spatula to paper towels to drain. When cool enough to handle, pinch off about 1-inch pieces from each roll and refry in hot oil, drain on paper towels again, then serve on a bed of shredded lettuce.From "1,000 Indian Recipes." Copyright 2002 by Neelam Batra. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.