During Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasa Puja celebration, expert cook Sunanda Prabhu (ACBSP), told us a story about how he had prepared cauliflower pakoras for Srila Prabhupada. He had cooked them at Srila Prabhupada’s request one morning as Srila Prabhupada traveled on the Radha Damodar bus from New York to Gita Nagari, Pennsylvania. Srila Prabhupada had a chest cold and therefore wanted something hot for breakfast. Actually, he had asked for pakoras made from green chilies. But because Sunanda Prabhu couldn’t get green chilies, he made cauliflower pakoras and he used the recipe from The Hare Krsna Cookbook (published1973). Sunanda Prabhu said that he made nearly twenty pakoras and that, amazingly, Srila Prabhupada had eaten all of them!
Several senior devotees and experienced cooks, listening to Sunanda’s story on Monday, unanimously spoke out saying that the pakora recipe from The Hare Krsna Cookbook of 1973 is superb and that it has never been surpassed.
I have included the entire recipe below as it appears in the original cookbook so that you can prepare and offer these legendary pakoras to Krsna and then distribute them as prasadam.
Warning:
Cooking, offering and distributing these special pakoras may bring a surge of guests to your home, temple or to wherever you may be.
Pakora Recipe
Batter:
1 cup chickpea flour
1 t. ground cumin seed
1 t. turmeric
1 ½ t. ground coriander
½ each—allspice & cinnamon
¾ t. salt
½ t. crushed chilies
¾ t. baking powder
A little less than 1 cup water
Ghee for frying
Sift chickpea flour. Add all spices, salt and baking powder. Mix with hands until blended. Add water a little at a time to avoid lumps. Heat ghee for deep frying.
Plain pakora:
Pour a small amount (about 1 T.) into hot ghee. It will puff up into a small ball. Turn over and brown. Tap with a spoon—if it sounds hollow, it’s done. Remove with a skimmer and drain on paper towel. Fry several at a time.
Filled pakora:
Filling: thin-sliced eggplant wedges or strips, small cauliflower flowerets, green pepper strips, asparagus tips, parsley sprigs, thin rounds of zucchini or cucumber, carrot rounds or strips. Pieces should be no bigger that 2” long and they should be thin. Dip vegetables into batter and deep fry in ghee until golden. Remove and drain. The little-fried batter drips can be removed and saved for salad or peas and peanuts.
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“Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu approved of all the methods employed in cooking and offering food to Krsna. Indeed, He was so pleased that He said, ‘Frankly, I will personally take the lotus feet of anyone who can offer Krsna such nice food and place those lotus feet on My head birth after birth.‘” (Cc Madhya 3.66)
Vaisesika Das
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