Indian spiced courgette fritters (pakoras)
One of my favourite recipe books is a very old and slightly crusty ‘Curry Club’ book called 250 Favourite Curries and Accompaniments that my Mum bought me years ago. I was searching high and low for it earlier as I’m currently suffering from a glut of courgettes, and knew that I’d seen a recipe for spicy fritters in there. But no, it was nowhere to be seen (it’s since turned up, obviously the ‘where the f*ck has that gone?’ gremlin has finished with it now).
Anyhoo, I had a rough idea what do so, along with the help of the BBC Good Food website, which had a similar recipe for courgette fritters (not quite right, the courgettes were sliced), pretty much worked out how to do them. And here they are (with apologies to the people of Northern India, who will no doubt be shaking their heads at my terrible and not very authentic version of one of their best-loved spicy snacks.
You will need:
Several courgettes (of varying sizes and comically rude shapes, if they’re anything like mine)
1 red onion, halved and finely sliced
1 chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
Large pinch salt
2 tsp curry powder (or you can make your own mix of the usual suspects: cumin, coriander, turmeric, chilli, etc)
Chopped fresh coriander (big handful should do it)
150g self raising flour (or, to be more authentic, use half gram flour)*
Grate all the courgettes and place them in a sieve over a bowl. Sprinkle with salt and leave for an hour or two.
You’ll be amazed at how much excess water they give up. Discard the water and place the grated courgette into a bowl.
Add in the onion, chilli, salt, curry powder and coriander, break in the egg, then sprinkle over the flour. Stir it all together as much as you can.
Now slowly add cold water, about a tablespoon at a time, until you’ve got a really thick paste (you’ll probably need around 100ml or so, but judge it by eye).
Leave this to one side while you heat up a wok or large saucepan with a good couple of inches of oil (groundnut is fine). Once the oil is hot (for god’s sake be careful here) – you can test this by popping in a little bit of the batter and seeing if it sizzles – just drop in tablespoons of the batter and fry:
When the first side is a deep golden brown, flip them over in the oil and cook the other side:
Drain on kitchen paper and serve with a nice yoghurt and mint dip, or maybe some mango chutney. Noms.
*Gram flour is made from ground chickpeas and also happens to be gluten free. I didn’t have any, but I’m going to use it next time as I suspect it may give an even crisper result.
I used gram flour as I am gluten free recipe was simple to follow and end result was delicious. Having left courgette to drain water off I did wrap in muslin to remove further excess water.. These pakoras are good enough to serve at dinner party
Hi Jill,
I’m so glad you liked the recipe! This is a big favourite of mine too. Thanks for taking the time to let me know xx
Just found this via someone on twitter. I have the (in fact several) Pat Chapman book but can’t find a courgette specific recipe in it, so will be making yours, tonight. He recommends deep frying, what would you suggest is best for your recipe?
Hi Jerry
I shallow fried them, and they came out really nice. Just make sure the oil is nice and hot x
These look delicious! This is my first visit to your blog – it’s fab! I shall be back 🙂 Lucie x
Hi Lucie and welcome! Lovely of you to stop by. Am off to read your blog right now 🙂 xx
Drooooool. They turned out lovely, the grated version do look much nicer.
Yeah, I think so. Wonder if they’d work with grated potato, like a spicy rosti??
Yes, gram flour makes them really crispy and gorgeous! We have a similar recipe which is scribbled on a piece of paper – in fact I wonder if it’s the same one, but with some variations? I love hand-me-down recipes.
Literally just bought some gram flour from Waitrose, Rach, so will try and give it a go again soon x
Will def try these, I have started trying to make a lot of indian food from scratch, it’s so much nicer than shop-bought!
Me too, Nic. I found a big Tesco near us that has loads of really cheap spices in big bags. Love a bit of experimenting, me x
Oooh! They look Loverly! 😛
I tried the onion ghaji thingys with Tesco gram flour and they were delish – not spicy enough though, so next time I need to spice with heavier hand!
Ah I think I went the other way Jen. Even the hubby was crying!!
Eh triple quadruple nom!! Haven’t had indian in ages…must make some this weekend!!!
They were nice actually Rach – worth a try x