On rainy weekends, fritters (bhajjis, pakoras – call them what you want!) make an ideal pairing for evening tea. I wanted something crunchy, but also something quick. As you would have read, I avoid deep frying and prefer to eat healthy. I have made dips using dill leaves before and know that dill has an strong inherent flavour. If overused, it can overwhelm the dish. To use an analogy, its almost like what fennel imparts to a broth. While frying, the aroma was strong, but the crispiness that the fritters had was mind-blowing. Pakodas is an Indian term used to describe such type of fritters. I never knew that dill would taste so good when combined with chickpea flour and other spices. I opted to shallow fry in a small pan and after frying, I used an absorbent paper to remove any oil that was left. The golden brown colours of the pakoda combined with the delicious taste will leave you wanting for more 🙂

Recipe Details :
Makes: 8 pieces
Time: 20 mins
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients :

• 1/2 cup dill leaves, chopped
• 1/3 cup besan/chickpea flour
• 3 tbsp rice flour
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 3/4 tsp cumin powder
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 2 green chillies, finely chopped
• 2 medium onions, roughly chopped
• 1/3 cup water
• Salt to taste
• A pinch of asafoetida (optional)
• 5 tbsp oil, for frying

Method:

• Take the besan and rice flour in a bowl. Add turmeric powder, garam masala powder, cumin powder, asafoetida and sesame seeds to this bowl and mix well.
• Once the spices are mixed well, add the chopped onions, green chillies and dill leaves.
• Now add the water in the measure of 1 tbsp each time and keep mixing till you get a thick batter.

• Take oil in a shallow pan and drop two small balls of the batter as shown in the pic above. The pan should be on low flame and with a spoon, slowly turn the batter for the other side to fry evenly.

• Once the fritters look golden brown, remove them on an oil-absorbent paper. They will look as tempting as it is seen in the above pic – it is best served hot! It did taste amazing with my evening tea. As accompaniments, either ketchup or coriander chutney can be paired with it else it tastes as good on its own too 🙂

Tips:

• You can deep fry them as well. I just preferred to shallow fry. Use a low-med flame while frying.
• Do not add too much water to the batter. It needs to be thick.