Ramazan food diaries: Masala stuffed chilli pakora

It’s that time of the year again, when folk come together around their dining tables for sehri and iftari amid prayers and blessings and charitable deeds and 'fry-ups' make their way back into our lives!

Among the most precious is the pakora. Pakoras have undeniably become a celebrated Ramazan tradition. They routinely appear on every table, in all households, in various forms throughout Ramazan and don't we love it.

We all appreciate the basic pakora; with the onions and the potato and chillies, but pakoras really can be made with so many or even a single ingredient; like the aaloo pakora and the spinach pakora, which by the way is a joy to bite into.

Today, along with the basic pakora, we will fry some ‘masala’ stuffed chilli pakora to get us started for Ramazan.

Ingredients:
¾ cup gram flour
1 medium potato
1 medium sized onion thinly sliced
2 green chillies
Handful of fresh coriander

Dry spices:
Salt to taste
Chilli powder
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon roughly ground coriander powder

Optional:
Chaat masala

Chilli stuffing:
1 ¼ teaspoons chaat masala
2 teaspoons coriander powder (dhania powder)
Lemon juice
A pinch of red chilli powder

Method:
Slit the chillies lengthwise and deseed them (if you prefer)
Mix the chilli stuffing together to form a paste and fill in the green chilies using a teaspoon or butter knife.
Mix all the dry ingredients together and start adding water to the gram flour just before you are ready to fry the pakoras.
Add a few tablespoons of water at a time and mix until the mixture resembles a light paste. I shouldn’t be too firm or gummy, but not runny either.
Fry on a medium to low heat until crisp and golden.
Serve hot with your favorite chutney. We love dhania and imli chutney with ours.And Voila! Have a great first iftari all.