A Bong's Kitchen

It was not until I came over to Delhi fours years ago after my marriage that I got introduced to this mouth-watering snack. Prior to that, I had never seen or tasted a bread pakoda. Back in Bengal and precisely in Siliguri, our street food mostly comprised of bora, piaji, alur chop, vegetable chop, beguni and dal but among others. Here in Delhi, along with the samosas, bread pakodas are probably the most popular fried snack and are ubiquitous at almost all the street food vendors. They may contain different types of stuffings but normally they have fillings of spicy mashed potatoes, green peas, and paneer slices, before they get deep-fried. They are then served with mint-coriander chutney which makes the combination a superhit! Since I have a weakness for fried stuffs since my childhood, so I instantly took a liking for these Bread Pakodas ever since the first time I ate them. Every now and then, I make these at home too, especially during the monsoons or during the winter season as a tea-time snack.

Ingredients :

Bread - 5-6 pieces, cut diagonally into 2 halves
Paneer slices

For the Filling -
Potatoes - boiled, peeled and mashed - 1 cup
Green peas - boiled and roughly mashed - 3 tbsp
Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Curry Leaves - 5-6
Chopped Onion - 1 tbsp
Ginger-garlic-green chilli paste - 1 tbsp
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
Amchur powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt
Finely chopped coriander leaves
Refined Oil

For the Batter -
Gram flour or besan - 1 cup
red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
salt
Water - 1/2 cup

Method :

Heat some oil in a frying pan and temper it with mustard seeds, chopped green chillies, curry leaves and grated ginger. When they begin to crackle, add the chopped onions and saute them till they are golden brown. Then add the boiled and mashed potatoes and the green peas, turmeric powder, ginger-garlic-green chilli paste, the chopped coriander leaves and salt, mix nicely. Cook over medium heat for a few minutes and then remove from the fire.
Prepare a smooth besan batter mixing the ingredients - besan, red chilli powder, salt and water. Now taking a diagonally cut bread piece, whose borders have been cut off, spread a portion of the prepared alu stuffing mixture on the bread piece, place a thin slice of paneer on it too and then place the other half of the bread over it. Likewise we can prepare a few more bread slices filled with stuffing. They will then be dipped into the gram flour batter and then will be deep fried in refined oil till they become crisp and their colour changes to golden brown on both sides. Take them out onto paper towels so that the excess oil is soaked up. These bread pakodas can then be savoured with tea and mint-coriander chutney or khatti-meethi chutney (prepared with imli and jaggery).