South Indian Onion Pakodas 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.

SOUTH INDIAN ONION PAKODAS

Steps:

• Sift the flours together.
• Rice flour is available in most asian grocery stores.
• Using all chick-pea flour will make the pakodas a little less crisp.
• Rub a little salt into the chopped onions.
• This is to bring out the natural juices from the onions so that we can add less water later.
• Meanwhile, heat oil to about 350 degrees.
• To the onions, add the two flours, chili powder, grated ginger, green chillies, baking soda, curry leaves and salt to taste.
• Remove 3 tbsp of the hot oil and add to the mixture.
• Mix well.
• The mixture will be slightly dry at this stage.
• Divide the mixture into several portions.
• To one portion, sprinkle a little water.
• Mix well.
• The mixture should just hold together when pressed.
• Please do not add too much water in which case the product will be like the pakoras that we can find in most Indian restaurants (not a bad thing really).
• Adding water to individual portions is mainly to keep the baking soda active when the mixture is fried.
• You can also test for spicyness and salt after frying a small portion and make adjustments to the other portions, if needed.
• Take the mixture and make into small balls or any shape really and drop into the hot oil.
• Some mixture can also be sort of crumbled into the oil to get crispy bits of fried onion, chillies and curry leaves.
• The key is to make small bits and pieces rather than a few large fritters.
• Fry until golden brown.
• The crumbled bits may be done earlier than bigger bites.
• Drain on paper towels.
• Repeat for the remaining portions of the raw mixture.
• Store in an air-tight container.
• Variations: Finely chopped mint and cilantro can be added to the mixture.
• Or the quantity of onion can be reduced and whole cashew nuts can be added.