Vegetable Pakora

Ingredients

• 180 g gram flour
• 250 g potatoes, coarsely grated
• 2 onions, sliced thin
• 100 g spinach, shredded
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp amchur
• 2 green chillies, chopped
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• vegetable oil, for frying
• a handful of coriander

Method

1. Salt the vegetables

   Toss the grated potato, onion and spinach with a teaspoon of salt and leave 15 minutes. They release plenty of liquid, and that liquid is all the water this batter needs.

   15 min

2. Add flour to wet vegetables

   Scatter over the gram flour, spices, chillies and coriander and mix with your hands. Add water only a teaspoon at a time if it truly will not come together — a wet batter fries into heavy dumplings rather than crisp tangles.

3. Bicarb at the last moment

   Stir in the bicarbonate of soda just before frying. It lightens the batter but starts reacting immediately, so mixed in early it does nothing by the time the pakora hit the oil.

4. Keep them ragged

   Drop irregular spoonfuls into oil at 170°C, keeping them loose and craggy rather than compacted. The sticking-out bits are the best part, and a tight ball stays raw in the middle.

   5 min

5. Double fry for crunch

   For a really crisp result, fry once until pale, rest five minutes, then fry again at 190°C for a minute. Drain on a rack and salt while hot.

   1 min