ASSORTED VEGETABLE PAKORA / FRITTER

Weekends are for indulgence. We do not bind ourselves to a rulebook and just let it be. For me it is a weeklong wait for lazy wake ups, chit chats, happy cooking, an elaborate lunch together, a cosy evening tea & snacks with the television on almost 24/. If we are not going anywhere or do not have any guests coming over, we love to relax over food, adda [chitchat] and movies. I feel if other family members live far off, we get bond tighter with the ones we live with. 

After a beautiful weekend, again it is a routined week. Though I am occupied with a couple of activities, I eagerly wait for the evenings for their homecoming. The more I am aging, the more mentally dependant I am getting to be. I cannot believe in the prime years of my life I lived months after months without my senior, which is quite normal of the mariners' wives. We are strong. My little boy missed his daddy so much so that he landed with a shore job. For the sake of that happiness, should not we be little indulgent  over the weekends and happily do some sinful eating ?.... We should.

The Indians / South Asians perhaps prepare fritter or pakoras with almost all vegetables. My men are not vegetable lovers, hence I need to play certain tricks with veggies to feed them the same, at times in the form of a kofta curry or preparing pakoras with them. The other day I had some veggies in the pantry like carrots, a bowl of shredded cabbage, few French beans... not enough to prepare a veggie dish... which my men will not love at all. Since I cannot comply with the idea of throwing away food, I thought of preparing some Assorted Vegetable Pakora / fritters with them. Let us prepare them together and enjoy with our evening tea or coffee.

INGREDIENTS :

Carrot : 1
Long / French Beans : 5-6 
Cabbage : 1/4th of one small sized
Onion : 1
Green Chilli : 3-4 
Parsley / Coriander Leaves : 2 
Rice Flour : 1/2 small tea cup
Gram Flour : 1 tbsp
Red Chilli Powder : 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder : 1/2 tsp
Salt : As required
Sugar : 1tsp [optional]
Oil : 100-150ml [to deep fry]

METHOD :

Peel and wash the carrots, onions. Wash the French beans, green chillies, cabbage and the coriander leaves discarding the roots. Mince all of them in batches. I do it in a hand mincer.

Add the gram flour, rice flour, salt, sugar, turmeric powder, chilli powder to the washed and minced vegetables. Mix well. We need not add any amount of water, the vegetables would release water.

Heat the oil in a wok up to the smoking point, lower the heat to the least. Fry the pakoras in batches until brown on both the sides. Place them onto tissue papers.

After sometime, transfer them onto  individual plates and serve with a pickle or chutney or sauce of your choice.