Thool pakodas - crisp onion fritters

This is a recipe straight out of S.Meenakshi Ammal cook book. I find that in the given recipe the salt is on the higher scale, otherwise it is the best recipe to follow if you want crisp, melt in the mouth thool pakodas. They are so light, that you have to keep reminding yourself to stop picking just one more from the plate.

Ingredients:

Red onions 175 grams (2 large onions) chopped finely

Gram flour 2 cups/ 200grams

Rice flour 1/4th of a cup/30 grams

Ginger 2" piece chopped

Green chillies 10 pieces chopped

Cashew nuts 15 pieces broken

Curry leaves few chopped

Coriander leaves a small bunch chopped

Ghee (in solid form)/Dalda 1 tablespoon

Soda bi carbonate 1/8 teaspoon (optional)

Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying

Method:

Take the chopped onions, curry and coriander leaves with the salt in a bowl. Press with your hands applying enough pressure that you get the onions oozing water. Add the chillies, ginger and the ghee. Knead further, almost for around 10 minutes.

Seive the gram flour, rice flour and the bi-carbonate of soda together.

Add the flour mix to the prepared onions. Knead to a crumbly dough, stiff in texture. Add very little water as possible, only if needed. Normally the water that the onions have given out will suffice.

Heat oil in a heavy pan. When the oil reaches smoking hot, reduce the fire to medium.

Take a big portion of the dough and in a sprinkling motion drop small portions in the hot oil, as much as will fill the oil. You may pinch out small portions and deep fry too.

Fry until the pakodas turn brown. Remove with a slotted ladle on to absorbent tissues.

Repeat till entire dough is fried.

Carefully lift the small pieces of onions that may have dropped in the oil and would have been fried well. These taste very good too.

Serve them hot as tea-time snack.

These pakodas are being sent to WYF Tea time snack event being conducted @ Simple Indian Food blog by EC.