Holy Lota, this is not for you so please stay away. Thanks
Is there a cooking expert here especially that of pakora? Yesterday I was feeling like eating some but lately, I'm trying to avoid eating roadside dhaba food so decided to make some today. After watching the recipe, I imagined myself eating those yummy hot & fresh crispy crunchy salty spicy pakoras. But in real, they turned out as soft as cotton balls that I did not feel like putting another in my mouth. I tried adding few more spices which were not in the recipe like carom seeds, zeera, coriander powder (original recipe had whole coriander seeds), added some more gram floor to stiffen the material. But I have not yet made more pakoras after the changes.
My hunch is that probably I added more baking soda than was required. It said a pinch for 3 cups flour but I think mine were a few pinches for 1 cup flour.
I hate the taste also. It's not only soft but also does not taste like pakoras. I don't know what they taste like but def not crispy crunchy spicy pakoras. I got headache after eating one they're so tasteless.
So please is there a cooking expert here who could tell what I did wrong?
Holy, this not for you so please stay away
Is meetha soda really the culprit? What can I do to fix the remaining material? If not then why are they so soft? First I thought probably the inside of pakoras were not fried well hence soft. But upon touch, even the outer skin is too soft. My today's experiment was a fail. It's a turn off not only eating but touching so soft pakoras. I have never had so tasteless ugly looking pakoras. They even look too reddish instead of brownish. I didn't put anything so red Then where are they getting red color from? I'm confused.
Im uploading pics of the soft cotton ball red pakoras as well as the material. Please help. I wish this was the same old GS when there used to be so many cooking experts here. I hope someone here could share their experiences knowledge on kitchen pakoras.
Holy, please stay away. Thanks.
P.S: "Our ptcl WiFi not allowing me to upload a single image of 1.70MB. So images later when our WiFi starts to work again 'magically' as complaints with ptcl result with no outcome."
I am no expert but .. I can give you a few tips for crispiness and flavor
make the batter thinner, the thicker it is, the harder it is for them to be crispy
add a tablespoon or two (depending how much you are making) of plain yogurt
make sure the oil is very hot before you attempt to fry. always fry just one pakora first to check for spices level, especially salt. and adjust if needed, then make the rest
cut the veggies more finely, whether its potatoes, or onion, whatever the ingredients, chop finely, not chunky
for spices, try keeping it simple. salt, red chili powder/green chilies, zeera powder, and dhania should do it. dried methi can add a very nice and aromatic flavor too, if used in moderation, this is optional though.
every once in a while, I get the itch to make pakore and that's all I have to eat with chutney while I watch my dramas ( an explanation for my love handles ) haha
Beat the beasn with hand or fork vigorously as much as if you put a drop of it in a glass of water it floats (in the beginning - it will drop down)! Then cook pakoras on high flames first and then low!
This technique results in very low amount of oil being used! And you really do not need any soda!
Beat besan with water and spices before adding any vegetables. The full glass of water is a test - if your besan is ready for frying or not. In the beginning a drop of the mixture drowns but when you have done it enough - it will float on the water!
So I've started having the exact same problem using this site as I was having as a new user few months ago. From the feel of it, it seems like some hacker intruding my phone through GS account. The problem starts only after logging in to my GS account. It seems the intruder forcefully keeps logging me out so I have to log in 15-20 times in a row repeatedly in order to make one post. This problem restarted 2-3 days ago. It's a terrible experience. I can't post in pakora thread anymore.
So I just got up & gathered up courage to put a tiny piece of yesterday's fried pakora in my mouth again in an attempt to figure out what exactly was wrong with it & because to be honest I was again badly craving crispy aromatic pakoras.
The first tiny bit of it in my mouth broke the secret. It stank of meetha soda. The smell was so overpowering that I hardly felt the nice smells of any other ingredients like mint / coriander leaves, onion etc etc. I did feel them after focusing alot but over all, the new the soda smell is over powering. So I guess that's where the problem is. Meetha soda's larger quantity than was needed messed it all. And I couldn't figure it out yesterday because the fried pakora smell was stuck to my head.
Pakoras should not be dense balls of batter + veg - you want to make them with your hand and drop them in the oil so they are "flat/thin" vs "round/dense"... kinda hard to explain... but the pakoras that are crispy and delicious are almost always thinner/flatter and spread out. Also, no soda. No yogurt. Adjust besan to veggie quantity and you'll have perfectly crunchy pakoras, i promise. Your veggies shouldn't be floating in besan, you need just enough besan/water to coat and keep it all together for frying. Your mirch masala sounds fine. It's a bit of technique and quantity adjustment... that's all.