Potato Bajji Recipe | Easy Aloo Pakora Recipe
Potato Bajji Recipe or Aloo Pakora Recipe is one of the famous street foods in South India made with potatoes and besan flour. Usually, they are consumed as tea time snack during monsoon season.
As mentioned above the term pakora is mainly used in North India and Bajji in South India. Using the same batter one can make many variants like bread pakora, Mirchi bajji etc. But again Potato has become one of the favourite veggies of children.
In South India, Mirchi Bajji and Aloo Bajji are famous during monsoon season as they are soft, crunchy and spicy. Few like to have our recipe sandwiched between pieces of bread. Based on our taste buds one can add chat masala or garam masala to increase spiciness.
Tips to make a perfect Potato Bajji Recipe:
Choose the Right Potatoes
Use starchy or all-purpose potatoes, as they give a better texture when fried. Avoid using waxy potatoes, which tend to be firmer and less fluffy inside the pakoras.
Slice Potatoes Evenly
Slice the potatoes thinly and evenly, around 2-3 mm thick, for quick and uniform cooking. Uneven slices can lead to some pieces being undercooked or overcooked.
Soak and Pat Dry
After cutting, soak the potato slices in cold water for a few minutes to remove excess starch. This makes potato bajji crispy. Pat them dry before you dip them in the batter so they don’t splatter the oil.
Gram Flour/Besan and Rice Flour
The pakoras are a crunchier mix if gram flour with a little rice flour added. Rice flour makes lightness to the batter so that the pakoras can crunch.
Season the Batter Correctly
Add spice or red chili powder, turmeric, carom seeds (ajwain) and pinch of asafoetida (hing) to give flavors to the batter. Ajwain seeds also support digestion and make the aroma peculiar.
Add a pinch of baking soda for lighter pakoras
Adding an infinitesimal pinch of baking soda to the batter helps your pakoras puff up very slightly and adds a little lightness to them; be careful not to put too much in, otherwise the potato bajji will begin to absorb too much oil.
Keep batter consistency right
The batter must not be too thin nor too thick to coat the slices of potatoes. Thick but not runny is appropriate; the potatoes get adequately coated, and they result in crispier pakoras.
Use hot oil for frying
The oil should be brought to a temperature of around 350°F (175°C). If not, pakoras soak too much oil; over heated and burnt at the outer layer with the interior raw.
Do Not Overcrowd the Pan
Cook in small batches to avoid pakoras sticking together and even frying. Overcrowding depresses the temperature of the oil and the pakoras are soggy.
Drain Excess Oil
Take out the fried pakoras from the hot oil by using a slotted spoon and drain them on some paper towel or wire mesh to get rid of the excess oil. This doesn’t make potato bajji recipe oily and gets to retain crispiness better.
Serve them fresh and hot
To taste best, aloo pakora recipe are to be had fresh and crispy – directly after frying. Enjoy them with either green chutney or tamarind chutney or ketchup.
Potato Bajji Recipe | Aloo Pakora Recipe | Aloo Bajji
Aloo Pakora Recipe or Potato Bajji is one of the famous street foods in South India.
Ingredients
- Potatoes – 250 grams
- Salt – 1½ tbsp.
- Water – required quantity
- Chana dal powder/ besan flour – 1 cup
- Rice flour – 2 tbsp.
- Red chilli powder – ½ tbsp.
- Turmeric powder – ½ tbsp.
- Thymol seeds/ Vamu/ Ajwain – ½ tbsp.
- Ginger garlic paste – ½ tbsp.
- Oil – required to deep fry
Instructions
- Peel the skin of potatoes and cut them into thin slices.
Tip: Not thin wafers as potato chips but maintain mild thickness so that they don’t break when coated with batter.
- In a small bowl, add water and drop 1 tbsp. salt.
- Add these slices into salt water so that it locks starch and keeps potatoes being getting coloured.
- In another bowl, add besan flour, rice flour, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, salt, ginger garlic paste and crushed thymol seeds.
- Add required quantity of water and mix well so that you get thick consistency batter.
Note: Maintain thick consistency so that batter sticks to potato slices.
Tip: If batter becomes thin, add little rice flour but make sure ratio of besan flour is more than that of rice flour.
- After 10-15 minutes, remove aloo slices from salt water and dry them in a clean cloth.
- Add these slices in batter.
- On another side, heat oil and check whether oil is ready to fry by dropping a small lump of batter.
- If batter floats on oil, then oil is ready to deep fry.
- Add aloo slices in a batch and deep fry.
Tip: Do not put oil till the brim of the pan, as there is a chance to catch fire or overflow after dropping aloo pakora.
- Cook them till they turn to golden brown by flipping them.
- Serve Aloo Pakora Recipe or Potato Bajji Recipe hot with tomato ketchup.
Recipe Video
How to Make Aloo Pakora Recipe or Potato Bajji:
- Remove the skin of the potatoes and slice them into thin layers so that they can be cooked easily while deep frying.
- In a bowl add ½ tbsp. salt and drop sliced potatoes so that they don’t turn colour.
- In another bowl add 1 cup of besan flour, rice flour, red chilli powder and turmeric powder.
Tip: Adding rice flour will make the Aloo Pakora recipe a bit crispy.
- Continue adding ½ tbsp. salt, Thymol seeds, ginger garlic paste and mix all ingredients.
Tip: Crush Thymol seeds on hand before adding them.
- Add an adequate quantity of water and make a thick batter.
- Remove potato slices from salt water and dry them on a clean white cloth.
- In a frying pan, add oil and heat to an optimum level so that Aloo pakora recipe doesn’t get burnt.
Tip: Drop a small quantity of batter in the oil, if it floats then the oil is ready to fry.
- Drop potato slices in chana batter and coat batter properly to potato slices and dip each slice in oil.
- Once they turn a golden brown colour, flip to the other side and fry till they are fried.
- Serve Potato Bajji recipe hot with tomato ketchup.
