Vegetable Pakora

Pakora VegetablesI’ve been meaning to try making a Pakora recipe for quite some time, but seeing that fried appetizers always call for a bit more work than the average recipe (and come with a much smaller margin for error) it took me some time to work up the ambition to give them a try.

It was also a matter of occasion and audience. To make a more-ambitious-than-usual recipe happen, I need time to do it with the necessary ingredients on hand. It’s also helpful to have someone to make it for. I can, and do, often enjoy cooking for myself, but that little extra motivation of social cooking is sometimes what I need to talk myself into those more ambitious recipes.

Ordinarily, my parents are a terrible audience for so-called “ethnic” food. They tend to be wary of dishes that stray too far from the ingredients and seasonings they grew up with. Lo and behold, though, my mother’s research into natural health and homeopathic treatments has led to the revelation that *shock* some of these “exotic” spices have unexpected health benefits. Batter in vegetablesHaving discovered that turmeric, and more recently ginger, are potentially beneficial to some of her specific ailments, my mother had taken sometimes to eating these spices dry on her finger, just to get a little in her system, not knowing what else to put it in. This method was ultimately far from pleasant. My challenge then became to show my mother that there are tasty recipes containing at least one, if not both, of these spices, while at the same time not sending her running from the dinner table at the sight and smell of a pungent, spice-rich curry. To keep my parents’ skepticism from rising as they saw and scented peculiar goings-on in the kitchen, I had to assure them that I was using no ingredients beyond what they might consider using in their own cooking… except for the ginger and turmeric, of course. Luckily, my mother had previous experience with besan in her search for flours low on the glycemic index.

Pakora FryingPAKORA BATTER

1 cup besan (i.e. chickpea or gram flour)
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 tablespoons corn starch (optional)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
salt, to taste
1/2 cup water

PAKORA VEGETABLES

10oz spinach
1 lb. cauliflower, chopped
diced onion
scallions
1/3 to 1/2 cup cottage cheese, optional

oil, for frying

Combine all the dry ingredients for the batter in a medium bowl. Chop the vegetables, if desired. Whisk the water into the dry batter ingredients until smooth. Stir batter into the vegetables until well-coated. Heat oil in a deep fryer or in a skillet. Drop small balls of the vegetable mixture into the hot oil to fry to a golden brown. Serve with raita or chutney.

Vegetable Pakora with RaitaThe vegetables in this recipe, of course, can be changed. These were simply what I had on hand, but this recipe is open to a lot of variation in content. I don’t have a deep fryer and so I always do a shallow fry (i.e. inch or so of oil) in a non-stick skillet. That method worked out pretty well for these pakora, but the batch turned out very large and I was a little impatient so I make the pakora a bit larger, probably, than they should have been. Next time, I’ll make smaller fritters so they get fried through a little better. I also had to add some extra besan because my vegetables had been frozen and released some liquid while defrosting. If using frozen vegetables, make sure your vegetables are thoroughly thawed and dry, or else extra flour may be in order.

All in all, though, these fritters were a hit with my parents, and I quite enjoyed them myself. Definitely a recipe I will make again, and hopefully improve upon in the future.

Summer Hummus

As the heat of summer rolls in, I find myself searching for recipes that provide full flavor and hearty enjoyment without the need to be cooked ahead of time or heated up before eating. At the suggestion of one of my co-workers (with whom I often conspire to bring in a Friday snack), I went back to one of my old-favorite, but long-neglected recipes, basic hummus.

TahiniWhy has my hummus recipe been so long-neglected? Well the unfortunate thing about hummus is that while most of the ingredients are cheap and easy to come by, one key ingredient is both expensive and not exactly “garden variety”–sesame tahini. It sounds exotic, but sesame tahini is fundamentally sesame seed butter, i.e. ground and pureed sesame seeds just like peanut butter is ground and pureed peanuts. While most large grocery stores, at least in cities the size of Pittsburgh, will stock tahini, chances are it will be expensive. $6 or $7 dollars for a jar that’s around the same size or smaller than the average peanut butter jar.

In order to make hummus with any degree of regularity, I would have to find some inexpensive tahini. I turned to Amazon, as I do for many shopping dilemmas. From bulk spices to facial moisturizing cream, I have found that many items are, in fact, cheaper to buy in bulk on Amazon than in the store. Some items, of course, are assuredly not cheaper (don’t try to buy hair gel online!), but oftentimes I do find a great deal, and so I thought such might be the case with tahini. I scoured all the tahini offerings for the best deal, and found Al Wadi Tahina for about $14 for two 32 oz jars (i.e. pretty darn big jars; each at least twice the size of an average tahini jar).

Armed with my bulk tahini, I was ready to revisit my old recipe. I’m going to post a version of my recipe that is built around using one can of chickpeas. This recipe makes a nice modest amount, such as a bowlful to serve at a party amongst other hors d’oeuvres. Usually, however, I make double this recipe so I can have a stock that will last several days.

SARAH’S BASIC HUMMUS

1 can (15 oz) of chickpeas
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1-2 teaspoons minced garlic
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons sesame tahini
paprika and/or red pepper, to taste
a dash or two of cumin
black pepper, to taste

Drain the chickpeas, but reserve the liquid. The chickpea liquid that the beans are canned with is very important for getting the right consistency without the hummus becoming too bland.

HummuaAssemble the drained chickpeas, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, tahini and spices in the bowl of a food processor. Add small amounts at a time of the chickpea liquid to help the contents process smoothly. Add only enough to get the hummus to your desired consistency. Adding the whole of the leftover liquid will result in a hummus that is much too runny, so take your time and contribute small bits until you get the consistency you want. Some people like a thicker hummus than others; the choice is yours.

Chill the hummus a couple hours before serving. Serve with warm pitas or corn chips as a dip, or use with bread or tortillas to make a sandwich.

I also like to add Parmesan cheese when I make a hummus/tortilla sandwich. Also, this recipe can be made with an immersion blender, but it requires a bit more effort and perhaps a bit more liquid, so the food processor, if available and convenient, is definitely the recommended form of pureeing the ingredients.

Another great thing about hummus is its versatility. You can make many different flavors without changing in the recipe. Here are some I’ve tried so far:

SUN-DRIED TOMATO HUMMUS: Add sun- or oven-dried tomatoes to the food processor. Add enough to turn the hummus pink-ish in color.

LEMON HUMMUS: Increase the lemony flavor of the hummus without adding more liquid by adding the zest of half a lemon to the food processor

WASABI GINGER HUMMUS: Add a tablespoon (or more to taste) or Wasabi powder and two teaspoons (or more to taste) of ginger powder while mixing.

CILANTRO LIME: Substitute lime juice for lemon juice in the above recipe. Add the zest of half a lime if available. After the hummus is processed to creamy, add a small bunch of fresh cilantro and process the hummus on pulse until cilantro is chopped and integrated, but not pureed. You don’t want green hummus

PEANUT BUTTER HUMMUS: No tahini in sight? Down on sesame? Looking for a new twist on an old favorite? Substitute peanut butter (or almond butter or cashew butter) for the tahini. It will definitely be different from traditional hummus, but will keep you in the same ballpark of taste and consistency.