Bread Pakoda

Bread Pakoda in Marathi

Yield: 16 bite sized Pakodas
Time: 40 minutes (Potato Sabzi + Pakoda)

Ingredients:
8 bread slices (leftover bread slices can be use)
1 1/2 cup dry Potato sabzi (it will need around 3 medium potatoes)
1 cup Chickpea flour
2 tsp Rice flour
1 cup water (to make batter)
1/4 tsp Turmeric powder
1/2 tsp Cumin Powder
pinch of Baking soda
salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

Method:
1) To make Potato Sabzi, boil potato. Peel them while they are hot. Make sabzi from peeled hot potatoes. Hot potatoes can get easily mashed without having lumps. Use few extra green chilies to give little more heat as when we deep fry Pakodas, heat from the sabzi gets reduced.
2) In a medium bowl, mix 1 cup chickpea flour and 2 tbsp rice flour. Add 1 cup water to it, whisk and make smooth batter without any lumps. This batter should not be too runny or thick in consistency. Now add turmeric powder, baking soda, and salt to taste. Mix.
3) Cut off the edges from each bread slice (Note 1). Take 1 bread slice, spread 2 tbsp potato sabzi evenly over it. Then place another bread slice and make a sandwich. Cut it into bite size pieces or just into 2 triangles. (Note 2)
4) On each cut piece, sprinkle 2 to 3 drops of water on both sides of bread and press lightly (Note 3)
5) Heat oil for deep frying. Once oil become hot, dip one piece of stuffed bread into the batter and leave in hot oil. Deep fry over medium heat until color turns to golden.
Serve hot with Mint chutney, Tamarind chutney or Tomato Ketchup. Also, try these pakodas with Schezwan sauce for extra spicy flavor.

Note:
1) In the remaining batter, add cumin powder, red chili powder and Chat masala or Amchoor powder. Mix nicely. dip bread edges in this batter one by one and deep fry them until golden brown in color.
2) Street vendors generally make bread pakodas in big triangular shapes. I prefer to cup bread slices in four pieces making it bite size.
3) If you use bread without moisture, bread will soak the batter. This will cause the pakodas to be little bit uncooked. To fry the pakodas evenly, sprinkle little water on the bread pieces before dipping them into the batter. This will prevent soaking of batter and your pakodas will be more crunchy.
4) If you want to make plain bread pakodas, skip potato sabzi and dip bread pieces in the batter and deep fry.