Snacks & Street Food
Pakoda
पकौडा
Pakoda is the standing order at every Nepali chiya pasal when the rain sets in — ragged clusters of onion and potato bound in gram flour and fried until they shatter. The Nepali version stays coarser and more onion-heavy than most, seasoned with ajwain and finished with a dusting of chaat masala the moment it leaves the oil. It is sold by weight, wrapped in newspaper, and never eaten without tea.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 25 min
- Total
- 45 min
- Serves
- 4
- Difficulty
- Easy
At the stove
Method
Put the sliced onion and potato in a bowl with the salt and rub it in with your fingers. Leave for 10 minutes so the onion releases its own moisture.
Add the green chillies, ajwain, chilli powder, turmeric, asafoetida and coriander and mix well.
Scatter over the gram flour and rice flour and toss with your hands until every strand is dusted.
Add water a tablespoon at a time, only as much as needed to bring the mixture together. It should be a thick, clinging mass, not a runny batter — the drier it is, the crisper the result.
Heat the oil to about 175 C. Drop in a small scrap of the mixture; it should rise briskly and turn gold in under a minute.
Drop in loose, irregular clumps straight from your fingers. Do not compact them — the ragged edges are what crisp up.
Fry in batches for 4 to 5 minutes, turning occasionally, until deep gold and no longer bubbling hard.
Drain on paper, dust with chaat masala while still hot, and serve immediately with mint chutney or tomato achar and a glass of masala chiya.
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