Sunday, July 13, 2014

Avalakki Pakoda/Poha Pakoda


I refrain from making bajjis/pakodas at home, because so far I’ve only had 20% success rate! Either they end up too oily, or too thick, or too hard, or very elastic.. 
But the times they’ve come out good, they’ve come out really good. How? - raam jaane!

When I came across this pakoda recipe, it looked fairly easy and kind of gave me a sense that - what could possibly ever go wrong with such an easy recipe? So I tried.
But I was wrong.. it did go wrong :) 
It so happened that the pakoda split open inside the oil.. and when one opened, all others opened up one after another in series!!! but luckily it was not happening with every batch.. so I ended up putting only 4-6 for frying, when I could’ve put like 10-12, being very careful not to accidentally break it open while turning it in the oil. 

The taste was good! especially with green chutney! yum! yum! The poha in it gave it a nice crunch. Actually it tasted more like crunchy aloo tikki... 


Later that day my cousin, Shilpa, gave me a very useful tip, which has given me lots of hope to try it for next time. I’ll definitely try it and update here.. I’ve mentioned the tip below.

Do give it a try.. if not pakodas, they’ll make very tasty patties for burgers.



Ingredients

Poha - 2 cups
Maida/Corn flour - 1 tbsp

Onions - 2-3 medium size
Potatoes - 4 medium sized
Red chilli powder - (according to taste) - I added 3/4 tsp
Cilantro - handful
Salt

Oil for deep frying

Method

Finely chop onions and coriander leaves. Mix everything except potatoes in a bowl. Do not add water. The water from the onion is enough. Leave it aside for half an hour.
Meanwhile pressure cook potatoes for 3-4 whistles. Once they are cool enough to handle, peel the skin and mash it into the poha mixture. Mix properly and make medium size balls out of it. The balls need to be really tight. 



Heat oil and fry the pakoda till golden brown.

Serve with tomato ketchup or green chutney.



Shilpa’s tip - the key is not to let too much water seep inside the potatoes while boiling. So do not add too much water while boiling and do not leave them inside the boiled water while waiting for them to cool down. 



No comments:

Post a Comment