Bread Pakoda

It is a common tea time snack in India. Bread slices are stuffed with potato peas mix and then fried. I prefer shallow frying.

Ingredients:

• 6 slices of Bread (preferably white bread)
• Oil for shallow frying

For Filling:

• 1 big potato
• ¼ cup green peas
• ½ tsp mustard seeds
• 1 small onion finely chopped
• 1 tbsp cilantro leaves finely chopped
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 1 green chili finely chopped
• 1 tsp chat masala or amchur
• ½ tsp red chili powder
• ½ tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• Salt to taste

For Batter:

• 1 cup besan (gram flour)
• ½ tsp ajwain
• ½ tsp turmeric powder
• ½ tsp red chili powder
• Pinch of asafetida
• ¼ tsp baking powder
• Salt to taste

Method:

• Boil and skin potato. Cut it into small pieces.
• Heat two tablespoons of oil in a frying pan.
• Add mustard seeds in the oil when it is hot. After they stop spluttering, add chopped onion in the frying pan and fry till it becomes golden brown.
• Add ground ginger and chopped green chili to the fried onion and fry for few seconds.
• Add turmeric powder, red chili powder and salt. Mix properly.
• Add now chopped potato and green peas and fry for some time. Remove from the heat.
• Mix in chat masala, chopped cilantro leaves and lemon juice. Stuffing is ready. Keep it aside.
• Put the gram flour in a large mixing bowl with the ingredients required for the batter. Add warm water, a little at a time; use a whisk to blend all together. The resulting batter should be like smooth and of medium consistency (thinner than the pancake batter). Batter is ready.
• Heat oil in a frying pan for shallow frying.
• Cut the sides of the bread. Put one slice on a flat surface. Cover this slice with the potato stuffing. Put now another slice on potato mix and press a little so that the potato mix sticks to both the slices.
• Dip the stuffed slices in the batter properly to cover entirely with the batter (do not leaves the stuffed slices long in the batter otherwise pakoda will absorb more water and will turn out soggy).
• Shallow fry it on medium heat until crispy brown from one side. Now with the help of a tong turn the bread pakoda and fry from other side too.
• Take out from the oil on a paper towel once it is done. Cut bread pakoda now in to two triangles.
• Fry other pakodas also in the same way.
• Serve hot with green chutney or ketchup.

Note: In the shops thick batter of besan is used, stuffed slices are cut into triangles before frying and pakodas are deep fried.

Do You Know?

• White bread is made from flour containing only the central core of the grain (endosperm).
• Brown bread is made with endosperm and 10% bran. It can also refer to white bread with added coloring (often caramel coloring) to make it 'brown'; commonly labeled in America as ‘Wheat’ bread.
• Whole meal bread contains the whole of the wheat grain (endosperm and bran). It is also referred to as 'whole grain' or 'whole wheat' bread, especially in North America.
• Whole grain bread can refer to the same as 'whole meal bread', or to white bread with added whole grains to increase its fiber content (i.e. as in "60% whole grain bread").