Bread Pakora

Shruti Kakkar: "Kya pata, aaj frendship kar raha hai, kal I love you bol dega." (Who knows, you are making me friend today, tomorrow you will tell me "I Love You".

    

Bittu Sharma: "Nahi yaar, BREAD PAKORE ki kasam, aisa kuch nahi hoga." (No, this won't happen, I swear by Bread Pakora!)

The above dialogues are from Band, Baaja, Barat movie... One of my all time favorite movie!! It was not till I watched this movie that I realized how much Bread Pakoras are famous in Delhi, India's Capital. I always thought that this was the snack that my buaji (Dad's sister) invented and is only eaten in our family.. oh Gosh, how childish I was am :).

I later on met couple of my friends from Delhi and asked them about bread pakoras and found out that this is one of the local street snacks just like Pani-puri & Dhoklas of Gujarat and Vada-Paus of Mumbai. Buaji used to make this snack for us every now and then and it was our all time favorite dish. I actually learned this from her. I would like to dedicate this post to my Buaji who has always been there for me us, in our good and bad times; for fulfilling all of our random demands of food, such as home-made samosas, dhoklas, handwa, Dahi-bade, noodles, chana-chatpati, and much more. She is a great person to be with and is an excellent cook as well. If I can only be half of how she is, I would feel my life to be fulfilled!!!!

Bread Pakoras are very easy to make and can be served as a tea-time snack or guest serving. Bread Pakoras are famous as an Iftar item in our household. I am sending this recipe to Iftar Moments event hosted by Sister Ayeesha of Taste of Pearl City and to What's everyone Having for Iftar event hosted by Sister Roha of Hyderabadi Cuisine Recipes.

Ingredients:

1. Two medium potatoes - peeled, cubed, and boiled.
2. A bunch of fresh coriander leaves
3. Two-three green chilies - finely chopped.
4. 1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder
5. One tblsp lemon juice
6. Salt per taste
7. For tempering - half tblsp cumin seeds, half tblsp mustard seeds, and two tblsp oil.
8. For Batter - Half cup chickpea flour, 1/2 tblsp red chili powder, 1/2 tblsp dhaniya powder, a pinch of turmeric powder, salt per taste, and Half cup warm water.
9. Six breads - cut diagonally
10. Oil for deep frying.

Process:

1. Mash boiled potatoes, add in coriander leaves, lemon juice, green chilies, salt and turmeric powder. Mix well, add a little bit of water (only if needed).
2. Heat oil for tempering, add in cumin and mustard seeds, let it splutter, then sprinkle over potato mixture and mix well. Keep aside.
3. The potato mixture should look like this filing that I had previously made for Aloo Paratha.
4. Mix all ingredients for batter - make sure there are no lumps of chickpea flour and the batter should be more towards the thicker side. Adjust water quantity as needed.
5. Spread some potato mixture on the one of the diagonally cut bread, place the second bread on top and press tightly. Repeat the process for rest of the breads.
6. Heat oil for frying.
7. Dip the potato filled breads into the batter and deep fry till golden brown. Repeat for the rest of the sandwiches.
8. Serve hot with some tomato ketchup.

Do give these a try, you will start swearing by Bread Pakoras!!! Bread Pakore ki Kasam Yaar!!! :)

ENJOY!!!

Reposted this recipe at http://desizayeka.blogspot.com/2012/07/ramadan-collections.html

Submitting to the following events (see further details at the link above):
Joy from Fasting to Feasting - V

Ramadan Friendly Recipes