How to make
Pakora is a type of breading from the Indian cuisine based on chickpea flour. When eggplants are prepared this way, they become extremely crunchy and delicious.
You can buy ready-made chickpea flour or grind chickpeas at home. As a last resort, it could be successfully replaced with rice flour, but from whole grain rice.
The first thing you need to do is wash and cut the eggplant into thin slices. If you want, peel it or not - whatever you like.
Put them in a bowl of salted water for 30 minutes, by pressing them on top with a plate, since the circles will float to the surface.
When they have released their bitter dark juice, strain, wash and dry them.
However, while you are waiting for the eggplant, make the sauce with which you will serve it.
For it, chop the green spices very finely and if possible only the leaves and do the same with the hot chili. Mix with strained yogurt, lemon juice and as much salt as you like. Sometimes I add half a tomato to the sauce and if I don't have thick strained yogurt, I mix plain yogurt with sour cream or fresh cream.
Put the finished sauce in the refrigerator.
For a delicious breading, grind the chickpeas with the cumin seeds until a fine powder is obtained. Add the curry powder, hot pepper and baking powder and mix the dry mixture well.
Pour the water along with the lemon juice and beat the mixture into a smooth paste. If it is too thin, add a little flour or more water, if it is the opposite. When I make this recipe, I have the feeling that at first the breading looks too thin, but after a few minutes while frying it thickens on its own, perhaps due to the swelling of the grain particles of the flour.
All you have to do is fry the eggplant slices in hot oil, by first dipping them in the breadcrumbs to cover them generously and fully. When they aquire a golden color, take them out and place them onto kitchen paper, so that it can absorb the excess fat. Do not fry them on low heat, so that they don't absorb much of the oil.
They become incredibly crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. It is good to serve them immediately while they're still crunchy, because when they cool the crust softens slightly.
Serve the Pakora eggplants with the wonderful sauce that goes amazing with them.
* The dish can also be prepared in a vegan version, by using soy yogurt.
Enjoy your meal!
