Tempting Finger food snack. It is a great snack for any day of the week, deep fried and quick to make! addictive combo! right?!
Today, June 21, 2015 is the Fathers day honouring fathers and celebrating fatherhood. To be frank, I really don’t know how these days like fathers day, valentines day, mothers day,siblings day and so on was discovered. And I really cant take these to my heart and celebrate. May be it is because I got to know these days only few years back and not from childhood. But what I believe is that I have very few people in my life who made me who I am now, and I really whole heartedly dedicate all my posts to them like my dad,mom, sister, boy friend and very few close friends. And I couldn’t celebrate this fathers day with my dad, he is in India. So, I don’t find the point to celebrate it. It is not special if we are not surrounded by that person! I really want to spend the day with him when I heard that today is fathers day. But truly not practical. And also 😉 I am not sure if I can be expressive as I am now typing this. But thanks to my Relishthebite that I at least have the privilege to share my love somewhere. I am sure I miss my parents, but thanks to phone calls, facetime and skype for bridging the distance. And also dedicating to all DAD’s in this world!
I surely have loads to talk about my dad, this post or even my whole website is not enough. But I just wanted to share few lines about him for now 😉 . To start with, I love the way he is there for my mom always. And in India, it is not like all men get to help wife or share the work. But my dad does always. He works hard at work, cooks, cleans the house, buys groceries, helps me with studies. He does every little thing he could do to help my mom. He is always been my Hero. I was very close to my dad up to an age, then somehow may be in my teenage I was close but not as I was when I was a kid. I would have hurt him many a times, I know I would be wrong mostly but I love him so much and I am sure he knows it! He cooks really well, and wanted to start a restaurant. May be that was cultivated into my mind somewhere deeply and my boyfriend dig it and brought it into action 😀 ! My Dad always wanted me to be independent and hopefully I will follow that 🙂 dad, this post is for you!!!! I owe you more than this for sure ;)! here is a picture of me , mom , dad taken in september 2012 in Niagara! 🙂
This is a simple post with a simple recipe. It takes only few minutes to do. But surely an important chapter of Indian cooking and surely a masterpiece. The batter has to be in right consistency. If you never got a chance to have them , do taste them. May be I would say it looks like vegetable tempura but with a spicy Indian touch 😉 and ofcourse more flavourful! I have done onion, bread, potato and Mirchi (big banana pepper) bajji here. You can follow the same for other vegetables and fry them.
The exterior is crunchy and interior is soft. There are so many veggies to try for these. Here is the list that I remember:
1. Onion
2. Plantain/Raw banana
3. Bottle gourd
4. Eggplant
5. Pumpkin
6. Cauliflower
7. Mirchi/ Big Banana chilli pepper
8. Bread
9. Paneer
10. Potato
You can do variations in these too by stuffing them and so on. My other snacks & appetizers recipes are here. I guess I said enough 🙂 Lets go to the recipe now. 🙂
ONION,CHILLI,POTATO BAJJI PAKODA/ VEG FRITTERS
Author: Suganya Hariharan
Recipe type: Appetizer
Cuisine: Indian
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 15 pieces
Ingredients
- Gram flour - 2 cups
- Red chilli powder - 1 tbsp
- Rice flour - 1 cup
- cumin seeds - ½ tsp
- ajwain seeds/Carom seeds - 2 tsp
- baking powder/baking soda- ¼ tsp
- Asafoetida - ¼ tsp
- Salt & water - as needed
- Hot oil - 1 tbsp (optional)- to make it crispy
- Oil - to deep fry.
- Vegetables - Onion- 1, Potato -1, Mirchi big chilli banana - 2,
- Bread - 1
Instructions
- Slice the onion and keep aside. Remove potato skin, and slice the potato thinly and dip in water to make it not oxidise. Keep it aside. Chop the ends of the bread, cut into your desired shape and keep them aside. Take big banana pepper, wash them, pat dry with kitchen towels, slit them each lengthwise but without completely split them into two. carefully scrap away the seeds with knife and keep the chilli big banana aside.
- In a mixing bowl, mix together gram flour, rice flour, red chilli powder, sodium bi carbonate, salt, asafoetida and hot oil (optional), ajwain. Add water little by little and mix well to a batter not thick or too thin.
- Mean while, heat enough oil in medium to high heat to fry the bajjis in a kadai/pan. Dip one by one the veggies like onion, chillies and drop carefully into hot oil. Cook until golden brown and crisp on each side for around 2 mins.
Notes
1. For chillies, the seeds should be totally removed.
2. Add water slowly, so you start from thick consistency to thin consistency. If you add more water, its hard to get back to the consistency you want. DIlute it slowly. Making thicker batter also removes the lumps.
3. Small bubbles are formed because of the soda to make it light.
4. Do not fry them when it is really hot. When you fry them at right temperature, it will be not be oily when you remove them from pan.
5. Do not fry when the oil is not hot, it will make your food greasy and the batter wont stick to the vegetables well.
6. Do not crowd the pan with vegetables, it will make the oil cold and the whole process is waste.
2. Add water slowly, so you start from thick consistency to thin consistency. If you add more water, its hard to get back to the consistency you want. DIlute it slowly. Making thicker batter also removes the lumps.
3. Small bubbles are formed because of the soda to make it light.
4. Do not fry them when it is really hot. When you fry them at right temperature, it will be not be oily when you remove them from pan.
5. Do not fry when the oil is not hot, it will make your food greasy and the batter wont stick to the vegetables well.
6. Do not crowd the pan with vegetables, it will make the oil cold and the whole process is waste.
These bajjis can be seved with any kind of chutney. Coconut,mint, tamarind or spicy chitney. Served with a cup of tea, these bajjis are the best snack. You will amaze your guest with these really hot bajjis!
