Auckland Museum blog

Indian pakoras

These fried, crispy savouries are most often served as appetizers or snacks. See recipe below.

These popular, mouth-watering snacks originated in India.  The fried, crispy savouries are most often served as appetizers or snacks.  My earliest memories of food are about pakoras. As with most Indian family celebrations, everything revolves around the food, from planning to preparing to cooking (remember the samosa production line in Bend it Like Beckham?).

Our family shared many special occasions with my Aunty Amaro’s family in the small Waikato town of Ngaruawahia.  Every festivity I can remember  whilst growing up (dinners, weddings, birthday parties, Diwalli, Christmas and New Years days) – featured the pakora.

Arriving at my aunt’s house, the delicious aroma of pakoras being freshly prepared wafted from the kitchen. Kids were promptly propped up at the table and served drinks while the adults enjoyed copious cups of cha (tea). There were always enough pakoras to fill a rather large roasting dish so they were freely consumed by all, and astonishingly, we seemed to still have room for the Indian sweets that followed like burfi, ladoo and besan that my mum was good at making.

Food often provides that important connection with “home”. My mum and aunt went to extraordinary lengths to replicate dishes and sauces from India and ‘made do’ with the available ingredients from IGA, 4 Square and then later the local supermarket.

In India the usual accompaniment for pakoras is tamarind sauce but it wasn’t readily available in New Zealand during the ’70s.   Our neighbour gave my dad a “handed down family recipe”, which he used to make a great homemade (spicy) tomato sauce and it became the replacement for tamarind sauce (imli) in our wider family.  To this day…even though tamarind pulp may be found in many shops to make the sauce …it’s kiwi tomato sauce I reach for first when I’ve got a plate of pakoras in front of me!

Back to the present day…depending on where you live there are many pakora variations such as macchi pakora (fish), paneer pakora (cheese), gobi pakora (cauliflower) and even bread pakoras.  The most popular in our family is the vegetable pakora.  I share with you my own kiwi-style recipe for vegetable pakoras, which I cooked this week for my workmates at the Museum to celebrate World on Your Plate.

Vegetable Pakoras

1 large onion
2 large potatoes
1 bunch silverbeet
1 cup frozen peas
700 grams chickpea flour (also known as chana flour or gram flour)
1 level tsp baking powder
2 litres Canola or Olive Oil

Spices
4 tsp salt
1 tsp garam masala
2.5 tsp ground coriander (or you can use hara dhanya- Green coriander)
2.5 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp chilli powder
1 tsp curry powder

Finely slice the onions and potatoes.  Shred the silverbeet.  Place all the vegetables in a large bowl and add flour and baking powder.  Use enough warm water to make a very thick batter.
Add spices and mix well.
Heat oil in deep pot or fryer.  When oil is hot drop large spoonfuls of the pakora batter into the oil.   Don’t overload the pot or they will stick together as they cook. Deep fry for a few minutes, then turn over to cook evenly.
Fry until a deep golden brown.  Remove with a slotted spoon let cool on paper towels to drain excess oil.
Serve while hot with tamarind sauce, yoghurt or tomato sauce.  Pakoras can be kept in the warming drawer until ready to eat.  If reheating from cold best to use the oven rather than microwave.
Serves about 8-10 people.

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