Vegetable Pakora

Sift the chickpea flour into a large bowl and add the ground cumin, ground coriander, turmeric, chilli powder, garam masala, and salt. Stir the dry ingredients together. Add the cold water gradually, whisking as you go, until you have a smooth, thick batter — it should coat the back of a spoon thickly and fall in a slow, heavy ribbon when lifted. Start with 150ml and add more a tablespoon at a time if needed; the batter should be thick enough to cling to the vegetables rather than running straight off them. A batter that is too thin produces pale, greasy pakoras; too thick and the coating overwhelms the vegetables. Taste the raw batter — it should be well seasoned and boldly spiced.

Add the sliced onion, potato matchsticks, torn spinach, chopped green chilli, and fresh coriander to the batter. Mix everything together thoroughly with your hands or a spoon until every piece of vegetable is well coated and the mixture comes together into a rough, cohesive mass. The vegetables should be evenly distributed throughout the batter with no dry patches. The mixture will look quite rough and shaggy — this is correct. Unlike a smooth fritter batter, pakora batter is meant to be thick and clingy, holding the vegetables together in irregular, craggy clusters that create maximum surface area for crispiness.

Pour enough neutral oil into a deep, heavy-based saucepan to come at least 8cm up the sides. Heat over medium-high heat to 175°C. To test without a thermometer, drop a small blob of batter into the oil — it should sizzle immediately, rise to the surface within 2–3 seconds, and turn golden within about a minute. If it sinks and sits on the bottom, the oil is too cool; if it browns in under 30 seconds, the oil is too hot. Maintaining the right temperature throughout frying is the single most important factor in crispy pakoras — too cool and they absorb oil and turn soggy; too hot and the outside burns before the inside cooks through.

Using two spoons or your hands, carefully lower heaped tablespoon-sized portions of the vegetable batter mixture into the hot oil — do not overcrowd the pan, fry in batches of 5–6 at a time. Fry for 3–4 minutes, turning once or twice, until deeply golden and crisp all over. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on a plate lined with kitchen paper. Allow the oil to return to temperature between batches. Serve immediately while hot — pakoras lose their crunch quickly as they cool. Pile onto a warm plate and serve at once with mint chutney and tamarind sauce for dipping.