Pakora
Pakora is a fritter originating from the Indian subcontinent. They are sold by street vendors and served in restaurants across South Asia. They often consist of vegetables such as potatoes and onions, which are coated in seasoned gram flour batter and deep-fried.
Other spellings include pikora, pakoda, and pakodi, and regional names include bhaji, bhajiya, bora, ponako, and chop.
Etymology
The word pakoṛā is derived from Sanskrit पक्ववट, pakvavaṭa, a compound of pakva and vaṭa or its derivative vaṭaka, 'a round cake made of pulse fried in oil or ghee'. The word Bhajji is derived from the Sanskrit word Bharjita meaning fried.Some divergence of transliteration may be noted in the third consonant in the word. The sound is a hard 'da' in the Telugu language and the 'ra' sound would be an incorrect pronunciation. The sound is the retroflex flap, which is written in Hindi with the letter ड़, and in Urdu with the letter ڑ.
However, in the International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, the Hindi letter ड़ is transliterated as <ṛ>, popular or non-standard transliterations of Hindi use
History
An early variation of pakora appears in Sanskrit literature and Tamil Sangam literature but the recipe is not clearly provided as they only mention it as 'a round cake made of pulse fried in oil' and 'crispy fried vegetables' which were served as part of the meals. Early known recipes come from Manasollasa cookbook which mentions "Parika" and the method of preparing it with vegetables and gram flour. Lokopakara cookbook also mentions unique pakora recipe where gram flour is pressed into fish-shaped moulds and fried in mustard oil.Preparation
Pakoras are made by coating ingredients, usually vegetables, in a spiced batter, and then deep frying them.Common varieties of pakora use onion, masoor dal, suji, chicken, arbi root and leaves, eggplant, potato, chili pepper, spinach, paneer, cauliflower, mint, plantain or baby corn.
The batter is most commonly made with gram flour or a mixture of gram flour and rice flour but variants can use other flours, such as buckwheat flour. The spices used in the batter are up to the cook and may be chosen due to local tradition or availability; often these include fresh and dried spices such as chilli, fenugreek, ginger, cardamom, turmeric and coriander.