Herbed Cornmeal Pakora

With a texture similar to hush puppy or cornmeal muffin batter, these shallow-fried pakoras are made from stone-ground corn, either white or yellow.

Preparation time (after assembling ingredients): 5 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients
• Stone-ground cornmeal - ½ cup (75 g)
• Unbleached white flour, Chapati or whole wheat pastry flour - ½ cup (65 g)
• Baking powder - 1 ¼ teaspoons (6 ml)
• Salt - ½ teaspoon (2 ml)
• Sugar - ½ teaspoon (2 ml)
• A generous crushed red chilies - ¼ teaspoon (1 ml)
• Chopped fresh dill or 1 ½ teaspoons (7 ml) dried dill - 2 teaspoons (10 ml)
• Milk - ½ cup (120 ml)
• Melted ghee or vegetable oil - 2 table spoons (30 ml)
• Ghee or vegetable oil for shallow-frying

Preparation
1. Blend the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, crushed red chilies and dill in a mixing bowl. Whisk together the milk and ghee or oil in a small bowl, then pour into the cornmeal mixture and stir just until blended.
2. Heat ½ inch (1.5 cm) of ghee or oil in a large frying pan until it is hot but not smoking. Scoop up roughly 1 table spoon (15 ml) amounts of the batter and carefully lower into the hot oil. Fry until golden brown on both sides (3-4 minutes per side), and serve immediately.

Serves
4 Persons

By Yamuna Devi Dasi