Topic: Pakora(s)

[Kashmiri Bob]

Chicken tikka pakora

Batter:





Pre-cooked chicken tikka dunked in batter and deep fried. Cooling down on paper towel:





Nice and crispy. Best eaten straight away:





King prawn pakora


Need a bit more spicing.  Prawns first marinaded in G/G paste, lemon juice and salt.  Then a little mustard oil and Mr. Naga pickle.  Batter altered to include chopped fresh chilli and cracked black pepper. Very tasty:





Fish pakora

Cod. Shah Jeera (black cumin) batter. Served with a simple home-made mint dip (yoghurt, mint sauce, fresh garlic paste, fresh coriander, salt and single cream). Garnished with fresh coriander, chopped fresh chilli and chives:





Rob 

[Stephen Lindsay]

Looks great Rob (The Tikka King)

[chewytikka]

Hi Rob
More like the Pakora king
These look really professional, a step up from a TA.

If your experimenting, add a good pinch of rubbed Ajwain to your batter.
Your King Prawn Pakora would be great tossed in a sticky Manchurian sauce.

You've got me reaching for the Besan
cheers Chewy

[976bar]

What's the recipe for the batter please Bob?

[Kashmiri Bob]

The chicken tikka pakora batter is pretty much the same as one of my my local TAs.  Very popular, but they don't seem to travel well. 

I just make a small amount of the batter.

Start with 100 ml of water in a measuring jug.  Add about a 1/2 tsp each of mix powder, kashmiri chilli powder, and chaat masala. A pinch of methi, and just under a 1/2 tsp of ajowan (carom seeds). Whisk in 1 egg, a pinch of salt, and a pinch of orange food colouring. Then blend in self-raising flour (about 3 tbsp or so) to give a runny soup consistency, with bubbles.  Adjust salt etc. to taste.  I felt the prawns/fish needed more in the way of spicing, so just played around with those, G/G paste etc.

I think Chewy posted recently that it's better to add the "liquid" to the flour (rather than the other way around like what I did).  I didn't have any problems, but can see myself getting into a pickle if making a larger quantity.  Most recipes I've seen call for besan flour.  I checked with my TA any they definitely use "naan flour".  Posh chicken nuggets.

Good tip for rubbing the ajowan Chewy.  Will try that.  I just bunged it in.  Had planned to add a bit more next time for more flavour, but breaking some of the seeds may do the job.  Never heard of sticky Manchurian sauce before.  Sounds very nice.

Rob 

[Peripatetic Phil]

Never heard of sticky Manchurian sauce before.  Sounds very nice.

As in this recipe ?
** Phil.

[Kashmiri Bob]

Never heard of sticky Manchurian sauce before.  Sounds very nice.

As in this recipe ?
** Phil.

Ah yes. No. Just done a search.  Seems to along the lines of chicken 65 but not as hot/peppery. I guess this is also the stuff some restaurants use for shashlik and mixed grill type starters. Mighty fine. Not used at my local TAs, but the tandoori chef told me he has in the past used Heera chilli garlic sauce for the purpose.  Goncalo has just made a recipe for it. Would indeed be fantastic with king prawns. 

I'll get some free-range king prawns so you can make it as well Phil. 

Rob     

[Peripatetic Phil]

I'll get some free-range king prawns so you can make it as well Phil. 

You can't pull the wool over my eyes, Rob; unless they have the little lion stamped on their shells, I shall know straight away that they aren't free-range

** Phil.

[Kashmiri Bob]

You can't pull the wool over my eyes, Rob; unless they have the little lion stamped on their shells, I shall know straight away that they aren't free-range

** Phil.

Ha ha! Like it. 

Just remembered I've got some chicken 65 in the freezer.  That's tonight's nose-bag sorted!

Rob 

[Kashmiri Bob]

Thought I'd have a go at making something along the lines of the Adil's Green chillies bhaji starter.


Chilli garlic pakora


Selected some nice plump fresh bullet chillies.




A simple batter again.  No chilli powder this time.  So, fresh G/G paste, crushed carom (great tip from Chewy), 1 1/2 tsp of sugar, cracked black pepper, roasted fennel seeds, and 6 very finely sliced cloves of garlic.  The batter needs to be slightly thicker for the shiny chillies in order to coat them properly, compared to, for example, tikka pakora.  The thin garlic slices stick to one another and wrap around the chillies nicely when mixed up in the batter. 




Only take a few mins to deep fry.







I liked these!  Great little starter. The smell of the chillies cooking is also delicious.  You can tell from this when they are nearly just right. They also start hissing at you.  I think next time I'll try finely diced garlic, or perhaps julienne, to add garlic crunch.  Cracked roasted coriander seeds instead of fennel.


Rob