Tonight I made pakora with cold strands of spaghetti squash and slivers of spring onion, in a batter made with Hodmedod’s Fava Bean Flour— I added salt and chilli flakes and cardamom powder, and fried the fritters in coconut oil. Children and I still remembered the tasty Pumpkin Peasemeal Pakora I’d made in a flurry of you-don’t-need-a-real-recipe, and indeed you don’t. This time I just mixed the pulse flour with baking soda, salt, and slowly whisked in water, and then fragranced it with the warm spice I most easily found in an overcrowded cupboard in which no garam masala was to be found, or concocted. Then I dredged spoonfuls of the squash in the batter, and sauteed whereas perhaps I should have deep fried.
I say this because I hate frying, and I don’t feel I’m any good at it. So, delicious as some of the pakora were, or parts of each that managed to get properly browned in oil, even perfectly crispy, they looked unappealing and were inconsistent. (To be fair, wet squash is a more difficult fish-to-fry vegetable than something, anything, dryer.)
So I’m determined to learn to fry pakora because they are so delicious.
PLEASE: all advice about frying is welcome. Anything you think readers and I should know that will help me/us to get good at treats like this. THANK YOU.
Do people know this marvellous collection of recipes, Yamuna Devi‘s 1987 Lord Krishna’s Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking? It’s a labour of love, and a true gift as a document of the devotion of Yamuna Devi (nee Joan Campanella) to Swami Srila Prabhupada, with whom she travelled much through many regions of India, collecting vegetarian recipes from homes and temples, in the late 1960s and 70s:
“Sometimes I was able,” she writes, “to attend fairs or melas devoted to reading sacred texts and the chanting of sacred songs. Such festivals around the pastime of Lord Krishna are attended by millions of pilgrims and provide yet more opportunity to learn about the dietary habits and the roots of Lord Krisha’s cuisine [hence the book title] at its source.”
Hers is a book I read as much for pleasure and interest as refer to for recipes (though it’s our go to for all things dosa and chutney).
This winter’s culinary goal, I’ve decided, is to get over my lack of confidence, enjoyment and ability in frying pakora — a good task through the long darknesses of northern winters. And I am going to do that by working through the many enticing recipes for them in Lord Krishna’s Cuisine. I list them here because I reckon you too will get pleasure just imagining how very delicious each one will be:
- Zucchini Pakora with Crushed Peanuts
- Potato Pakora with Dried Pomegranate Seeds
- Bell Pepper Pakora with Nigella Seeds
- Eggplant Pakora with Poppy Seeds
- Spinach Pakora with Ajwain Seeds
- Panir Cheese Pakora
- Cauliflower Pakora
- Buckwheat Flour-Potato Fritters (ok,not pakora but I ❤ buckwheat flour)
- Green Tomato Pakora with Cornmeal (to be remembered when people enquire about green tomato recipes – might have to find a substitute if winter)
- Crispy-Fried Eggplant Slices
- Herbed Cornmeal Pakora
- Batter-Coated Mashed Potato Balls
- Chopped Spinach and Tomato Pakora
- The Great Shallow-Fried Vine Leaf Rissole
- Batter-Coated Stuffed Baby Tomatoes
The book is nearly 700 pages of recipes and lots of pages for reference and information. You get the idea. It’s spectacular. Leafing through, I’m just randomly noticing:
- Shredded Radish, Coconut and Carrot Salad
- Pear Chutney with Dates and Pecans
- Sweet Yogurt Ambrosia
- Sauteed Brussels Sprouts with Coconut
- Spiced Creamed Spinach
and on and on and on, as beautifully and hypnotically as her singing in these songs of devotion (with fun photographic glimpses of Yoko Ono, George Harrison, and others):
Kitchen Counter Culture 
Honey, I am a child of the American South, and sadly, all the advice I can give you about frying will fit in a very small space:
(1) Make sure the oil comes halfway up whatever you’re frying, so you cook it evenly.
(2) Get that stuff HOT before you drop anything in it. Mom said you should be able to flip a couple of fingers of water at it and watch them bounce across the surface. Get it hot enough, and your food will be done but not greasy.
Note: This does NOT guarantee good fried chicken. I have cooked it with Mom standing at my elbow, coaching every move, and mine still doesn’t come out right.
All that said, I highly recommend cutting into a thick bit (like a joint of chicken or the middle of a pakora) to make sure it’s done all the way through. If not, well — that’s why G-d made microwave ovens!
Thank you so much for writing this. Ok, deep and hot is my takeaway from you 🙂 And no more pan-frying.
I am also a big fan of pakoras and believe that it is essential to deep fry them. Deep frying in coconut oil might be rather costly. Canola oil is fine . More crunch in the batter comes with the addition of a little rice flour .
Thank you Francesca! Interesting tip about rice flour.
Yes I second the rice flour. Annie, wet veg such as squash will benefit from being lightly salted and left to drain for 20 minutes or so. Give it a good squeeze before adding it to the batter. You can add the liquid that drains off to soup or the stockpot. Yes definitely deep oil, but don’t add any food until the oil is hot enough to sizzle at the end of a wooden chopstick. Don’t overcrowd the pan either because if the temperature of the oil drops too low the pakhoras will absorb too much oil. I have the oven hot 180C, and keep each batch hot in the oven on a tray lined with kitchen paper until all are cooked. Hope that helps a little
Thank you!!!!! What oil do you use to fry? That’s always a problem for me, such a complicated decision.
I avoid canola, too hard to monitor Monsanto’s input into what’s available. I choose grapeseed, sunflower or rice bran instead. Once cold after use, strain the oil and keep in the fridge, it will be good for a few more uses
I love this book, and have used it for years. Astonishing number of recipes, and her love for her adopted culture shows. She is so good with dairy, as befitting anything to do with Krishna, since he was a cowherd.
Frying.
1) I use a narrow but deep pot so that I don’t waste too much oil
2) Let it get quite hot so the oil shimmers deep at the bottom, but before it smokes. I realize that instructions like ‘don’t let it smoke’ are completely absurd but you could use a thermometer–let it get up to 250 F.
3) Drop in a tiny bit of batter. It should sizzle and hold together and float up pretty quickly. Then it is ready
4) Drop in batter by tablespoonfuls. Gently swish them around with a slotted spoon. They will be bobbing around at the surface.
5) After about a minute turn them over.
6) Golden brown. Not blond, not dark brown. Remove them with a slotted spoon onto paper napkins.
7) I’ve used canola but also pure olive oil (not EVOO)
8) Great, you enjoyed your fried pakoras. Now what? Do you throw away the oil? No, of course not. Wait for it to cool. Set up a coffee cone with a coffee filter over a jar or large enough cup, and send the cooled oil through it. It will take hours, but you will have clean oil that you can reuse for shallow frying. Of course, if you want to deep fry some more, you don’t have to filter it, I use deep-frying oil at least 3 times before I do the filtering.
Thanks so much for great advice, Aneela. I trust you verily. Also glad to know you like the book, was wondering what you would think. She really went searching in her fieldwork and that’s why I think so many of her “recipes” reflect food combinations that happened in kitchens rather than were codified as recipes, so she’s really good to learn from.
My husband gave me a copy of The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking years ago! But I find the recipes so intimidating and overwhelming with their long list of ingredients and mostly use it for pressing tofu (since it’s the Biggest book!), which my husband is not too pleased about. I really think I’m just intimidated since I’m so unfamiliar with Indian cooking even though I happily cook from so many other cultures (to see what I do check out http://www.sweetgreenkitchen.com, thanks!). But I do love pakora and your list of recipes gives me some new inspiration to tackle some of these recipes, I think I’ll start with the buckwheat-potato or maybe the spinach and tomato, I am sure my Indian food loving husband and daughter will be very happy taste testers!
I can totally relate to how daunting these recipes can be, because they do require so many spices and procedures to get the maximum deliciousness. Last night I made a shortcut with a kind of weird store-bought garam masala and I felt it ruined the whole dish somehow. Love the thought that you make tofu! And am now following your blog. Thanks for commenting! Cheers, Annie