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September 21, 2007

Baked Cashew Onion Pakodas



Pakoda: as with other things, means different things to different people. I was really shocked during one of my first visits to the capital when someone passed off bajjis as pakodas. I still don't know what the real pakodas are called in Hindi (or if they even something like this here!)


I am not sure if this is really a konkani dish, but Amma makes it and the recipe is found in Rasachandrika, the book that I consider the be all and end all of Chitrapur Saraswat cuisine. So, to me, this will always be an amchi dish.


Before the Rasachandrika was printed in English, we had a Marathi version at home. I hardly know any Marathi. Today I can understand a lot more than I did when I was a child. I wanted to surprise Amma one evening and so before she returned from work I went home and decided to make pakodas. (Before the term was invented, I was a latchkey kid!) I opened the Rasachandrika and came to the pakoda page. Since I studied in a part Hindi medium school, and was learning both Hindi and Sanskrit as compulsary subjects (yes, subjects and not languages) and so I had no problem reading the devnagari script. I figured out the entire recipe except for this one thing. It said "10 olya mirchya". Now, I didn't associate "olya" with the amchi "valle" which means wet (and in this case green) chillies, I took it to be some measure. Even as a 10 year old with limited spice tolreance, I knew that the recipe that had 1 cup of gram flour can't have 10 measures of chillies, however small the measure may be. So I conveniently replaced it with chilli powder. That evening, Amma was pleasantly surprised. Then I told her the book had a printing error. And she also had a good laugh. Since then, I have never forgotten what "olya" means in Marathi. So when I say "Mala marathi samjhat nahi" (I don't understand Marathi) I may not be telling the entire truth.




I made these pakodas last week. But since I knew I was going to be doing a lot of frying for Ganpati, I went the Nupur way. I baked my pakodas in the oven. And I know that I'll be making these again for sure.


1/2 cup Gram Flour (Besan)
1/2 cup Rice Flour
1/2 cup Cashews, chopped
1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder
1 tsp Chilli Paste
1/2 tsp Ginger Paste
1/3 cup Onion, chopped
1/4 cup Coriander Leaves
1/2 tbsp Oil, heated
Salt to taste
Oil for greasing the baking sheet


Mix all the ingredients except oil. Add the hot oil to the mixture and add enough water to make a thick dough. Grease a baking sheet with the oil. Make small balls of the dough and flatten on the sheet. Bake at 400 F for 10 minutes and then turn each pakoda and bake for another ten minutes.




These turned out like crunchy savoury biscuits and we polished these goodies off with our wine. And so that dear Asha can do the same, I am sending this to the RCI Karnataka event.

35 comments:

Sreelu said...

no kidding baked pakoda's what a cool thing !!, you are one smarty pants as a kid I say :)

Siri said...

(Baked + Onions + Cashew + Pakodas) --> No Oil --> Healthy --> Awesome Idea Raaga.. hehe..:)

Laavanya said...

Great recipe there Raaga.. .they look very good and a definite must-try.

Raaga said...

@Sreelu: Back then I fried the pakodas... it is only last weel that I tried to bake them :-) Thanks anyway :-)

@Siri: Well, once in a while, I can also try and make my food healthy :-) so we all benefit :-)

@Laavanya: Try it, you'll be unable to stop with just one :-)

Mansi said...

beautiful concept! I'll add spinach to this and make them for sure this weekend...will let u know how it goes!:)

FH said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
FH said...

I saw just the title first and kept my fingers crossed to see my link in the end!! YAY! Thanks:D
Raaga, I have more than 200 entries,I am still greedy,shame on me!:P
Looks mouthwatering, I would love to try this in Winter,waiting for cooler weather so I can fry outside on the deck.I know this is for baking but..! I bought a new grill with gas stove attached, love it cook outside!:))

Chef Jeena said...

Hi Raaga Thanks for stopping by my blog :) 4 1/2 onces is 1/2 a cup approx 125g I think. Do let me know how they go I'd love to hear from you. Aslo if you want the chocolate layer more chocolaty you can adda little more cocoa it's up to you, your the chef! :)

Raaga I must say lovely pakodas they look great! Healthy cooked in the oven too fantastic! Can replace the cashew nuts with a vegetable maybe?

musical said...

Lovely idea! Cashew must have given it a lovely taste!

Anonymous said...

Baked pakodas... sounds tempting.
will try it soon....

musical said...

Oh Raaga, and about pakodas vs. bhajiyas or bajjis, that was really cute, i know that situation :).In Punjabi atleast pakodas is a generic name for both of them, and certain combos have to be pakodas, like say onion or spinach, really crispy! Stuff like cauliflower can be used to make both and veggies like eggplants, potatoes, mirchis etc only for the softer bhajjis. One just specifies karare (this term means kara+crispy) or polle (soft). In several Punju dialects bhajiya or bhujiya would refer to stir fries! Like aloo bhujiya, meaning aloo chopped fine and stir fried with jeera and coriander leaves.

bee said...

wow. baked pakodas. great stuff. you can make them slightly fried in your appey pan. have you tried that? let me know if you do, 'cos i haven't and want someone to try it before i do. :-D

Rajitha said...

raaga..thanks girl..now i can make my bajjis and eat it too..without guilt..perfect!

Jyothi said...

looks perfect raaga! what a lovely entry to great event. Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Raaga,
You have a lovely blog - what a collection of recipes! I love the idea of baked pakodas and they do look crunchy in the pictures. Will let you know when I try this. Thanks for the recipe.

Mamatha

Suganya said...

Masal vadai and pakora in one :) Nice.

Roopa said...

wow the pakodas look great! hats off to try such a no oil pakodas :)

Sig said...

Healthy pakodas... and with wine.. what a treat... :) sweetie, how many entries are you posting a day? Everytime I come here, I feel like I missed a party :D

Raaga said...

@Mansi: Look forward to hearing from you.

@Ashakka: I have stuff sitting in my drafts :-) I only post one per day, so some may not make it to RCI... but I'll send you as much as I can :-)
The fried version is so yummy!!


@Jeena: Thanks :-)

Where I come from, cashews are local produce... so they kind of go into special foods :-) You could use a vegetable.

@Musical: The cashew makes it special :-) And thanks for the detailed explanation... will come in handy I am sure. :)

Raaga said...

@Bee: Nupur tried making koftas that way I think... so pakodas should work the same way, no?? If you insist, I shall try and let you know :-)


@Rajitha: Yeah... that's the bit I love :-)

Raaga said...

@Jyothi, Mamatha, Suganya and Roopa: Thanks :-)

@Sig: restricted to one post per day sweetheart... thing is... my two days are split over one of yours... so you think it is more than one a day :-)

Sia said...

i must say u were really adventourous at 10 raaga:) pakodas look rich and crunchy and tasty and more over there is no deep frying :D lovely...

Unknown said...

Pakodas, all baked and healthy.... I just love them :)

Bong Mom said...

You made Pakodis when you were 10 !!! You are a genius.
The baking is a great idea. I have never baked stuff made of "besan" before, this should be great hit at home :)

Bindiya said...

baking pakodas,wow, just what i need, very healthy great idea raaga

marriedtoadesi.com said...

Just Awesome, I'm going to give this a try.

Kanchana

Raaga said...

@Madhu: Thanks :-)

@Sia: I expected them to be a big flop... but I thought if I don't tey, I'll never know. They were nice and crunchy alright!

@Cinnamon: Makes for easy eating... and easy making too... no slaving over the stove.

@Bindiya: Thanks

@Sandeepa: I even tried fruit buns when I was 9 :-) I had a very supportive environment :-))

@Kanch: Do let me know if you try them.

Mahimaa's kitchen said...

hi, i tried the pakodas today. i have a question. i did not put cashews. pakodas did not turn out brown and crispy. what mistake i might have made? how much water should we add? or is it because of less oil? please let me know. but the taste was very good.

Raaga said...

@CC: Did you bake on both sides at 400 for ten minutes? And the water is just enough to bring the dough together... not like bajji dough, much drier and thicker. Absence of cashews shouldn't have made that much of a difference.

AA_Mom said...

Hi Raaga,
Thumbs up for the onion kaju pakoda dish, I tried it y'day and it was liked by all.

Really relished it, Thanks for sharing this recipe with us.

As we are planning on moving back to India from the US, I used to think I will miss my oven, as I use it quite frequently. But looking at your recipes, it looks to me that baking can be done easily in India.

Anonymous said...

WTF they are called PAKORAS not PAGODAS!!!!!!!!!!!! And bhujia or bhajis are what they are called in some parts of Pakistan!

Deepa said...

This gets my vote for best Raaga recipe. Very innovative - is it your own? Incredible. Have to try it out. --Deepa

S said...

Hi Arundhati,
I came across your blog when I was googling for baked pakoda recipes. I think I recognize you from your photo - Did you grow up in IIT-M, and your mom was a teacher at Vana Vani (Mrs. Chithra Raghavan)? I guess there's no way you'll remember me - My name is Sharanya Eswaran. My dad was a prof at IIT too (and I think our moms knew each other). I have been in a couple annual day dances that you choreographed when I was in 3rd or 4th std :) It was a pleasant surprise finding you this way and I love your recipes! Do convey my regards to your mom.

Best regards,
Sharanya

Bhupinder Chawla said...

Raaga,

It is a great recipe. We had rain and snow in the morning here and I was in a mood to eat pakodas but wanted to avoid fried stuff. So just googled - Baked Pakodas and reached your blog.

Wonderful - we added spinach and boiled potatoes with other indian spices - garam masala, ajwain and latter dipped in bread crumbs mixture to make them crispy before baking. Took a little over 25 minutes in baking overall.

Great going - we had it with tea. Everyone loved them at home while watching the snow first time this season in Atlanta.

Cheers!

SS blogs here said...

Hey Raaga.. I made your pakodas recently. Made a few changes for whatever I had in the refrigerator. Very nice how little oil your recipe uses. Loved the coriander flavour too!! I added the pakodas to kadhi and posted it on my blog http://ss-blogs-here.blogspot.com/2010/06/punjabi-kadhi-pakoda.html

Thanks for sharing these recipes here! Cheers!