This is a modern day tasty parsi recipe, much like an Indian sweet and sour. You can swap the chicken for prawns if you like, tofu, paneer and peas or a combination of your chosen vegetable.
Add extra chilli if you like your curries a bit spicier, either extra chilli powder or chopped red chillies added to the onion mixture. Serve with rice or Indian breads.
Serves 2-3
Pakora’s are essentially fritters deep fried in oil, they can be made with one vegetable or a mixture so don’t be afraid to experiment not only with the vegetable but the spices involved in the batter. This is a small batch of batter, perfect for a starter for two, it can easily be doubled, I’ve used large oyster mushrooms here but you could use any mushroom, sliced king oyster, portabella and even whole button mushrooms.
Hot with the chilli and tangy from the tamarind, this is a great quick and easy way to serve up 1 aubergine, perfect for two as part of an Indian feast. As the aubergine brown in the oil it really picks up the flavour of the fennel and nigella seeds, feel free to only use one spice if that’s all you have and if you can’t find any tamarind paste then you can always substitute with lemon or lime juice
These are adapted from a beautiful book called ‘Tasting India’ by Christine Manfield. Traditionally the mixture is kneaded, slapped and pounded against the sides of a bowl to soften and therefore tenderize it before shaping into patties, the food processor here does all that work for such a small amount of paste.
We love a curry but they are just not the same without the onion and garlic however with this recipe you can still appreciate other flavours typically associated with curries such as ginger, cumin and turmeric. You can amend the chilli content to suit your preference, add more or less, the tamarind sets a tart tone and the fish sauce adds a salty umami element, you can get vegetarian alternatives if you wanted to make this curry vegan.
This recipe uses a selection of four different dried peas, you can of course just use one but use one that will stay whole like the Red foxes or the curry will just be one big mush. You can of course use regular frozen peas if you like just add them at the same time you would of been adding the cooked dried peas. This is an excellent vegetarian curry full of minerals, vitamins, antioxidants and protein.
An extremely nutritious one pot dish packed with flavour.
