"Pakodas - The snack for all seasons" is a beautiful celebration and a thoroughly researched book on this ubiquitous Indian snack.
Author Sangeeta Khanna has done her master's in Botany and is a trained microbiologist. She works as a nutrition coach, designs menus for top notch luxury hotels and wellness retreats and often showcases regional menus, especially the food of Benaras, her hometown. But beyond everything else she is known for relentlessly propagating healthy food, desi and videshi - she talks about ancient and rare to find Indian vegetables with as much as ease and expertise as she talks about handcrafted pastas or homemade sourdough bread.
At yesterday's book launch Sangeeta dispelled many myths associated with pakodas. "When you talk about pakodas one usually imagines deep fried, even 'artery-clogging' food," she said. But this is far from the truth, she added lamenting that people happily eat cookies daily that are laden with fat, but abstain from pakodas.
- Firstly, pakodas maybe deep-fried, shallow-fried and even steamed!
- Secondly, even in the deep-fried variety, there is no fat in the batter; and when dropped in hot oil the outer surface immediately gets sealed. Thus oil only clings to the surface and doesn't seep in. When you drain the pakodas on paper even the surface oil drains out, leaving a plateful of pakodas with far less fat than an average cookie.
The session included a lot more eye-opening information, demonstration of a variety of pakodas (recipes below) and finally a lavish high tea that included an even wider variety of pakodas from different regions.
The book is not a run-of-the-mill cook book. It includes anecdotes, explains recipes with logic, nutritional information and even cultural stories of pakodas made for special occasions and festivals. It is divided into three sections: Vegetarian (including flowers, leaves, fruits, seeds), Non-vegetarian and an array of Chutneys (that are also superfoods, explains Sangeeta).
If you'd like a copy, it is available on Amazon.
200 ml Mustard/Peanut Oil
3-4 pieces Paste of Garlic cloves
Wash the leaves gently in water and drain.
1 Fresh Coconut, halved and sliced into ¼ cm- long thick slices
400 ml Mustard/Peanut/Coconut oil
1 tsp Coriander seeds, crushed
2-3 Large pods of tamarind soaked in ½ cup water for the extract