Monsoons are here. Cloudy days, chill winds ...... This is the time to lie curled up in bed by the window under a nice blanket with a book in hand and a plate of some thing crisp to munch; or sit with a friend on the portico watching the rain soak the trees and the lawn with a plate of crispy brown pakodas and a cup of steaming hot ginger tea.
Talking of crispy brown pakodas, my mind suddenly leaps back to kothimbir wadis - corriander cakes - a Maharashtrian savoury that I had almost forgotten. Of course in the past it was always bought out from the nearby shops. So I decided it was now time to learn to make it myself. There were many variations of the recipe on the internet. This was the simplest and quickest variation I chose to try.
Ingredients:
1 cup finely chopped corriander
1 cup besan / chickpea flour
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Salt - to taste
Red chilli powder - 1/4 tsp
Jeera (cumin) powder - a pinch
(The red chilli powder, jeera powder can be substituted by roasted cumin seeds - green chilli-ginger-garlic paste).
Procedure:
Mix the besan with just enough water to a fine paste. Add the turmeric, salt, red chilli powder and jeera powder to it. Mix well. Then add the chopped corriander to this mix.
Pour this mix into a greased vessel and microwave it or steam it in a pressure cooker so that the mix is cooked. Cut the mix into diamond shaped or squared shaped pieces. These can be eaten as they are, shallow fried or deep fried. Eat with green chutney or tomato sauce.
