Tomato Fritters (टोमॅटोची भजी)

As soon as Monsoons arrive, we start craving for some spicy and crunchy food items to munch on and Fritters also known as Bhaji, Bhajiya, Pakora, etc is the most preferred snack. Different regions from India have unique types of fritters. Tomato Fritters is a popular street food snack from Surat region of Gujarat. These bhajiyas are easy to prepare and incredibly delicious. A juicy red tomato paired with fresh coriander & Mint chutney with a golden brown outer coating is something that no one can ever resist.

Servings: Approx.15 pieces

Approx. Time:  30 minutes

Ingredients:

Basic Ingredients:

3 to 4 medium sized Tomatoes

For Chutney

2 cups chopped fresh Coriander leaves
½ cup fresh Mint leaves
3 tbspns roasted Peanuts (without skin)
5-6 Green Chillies
1 inch Ginger piece
8-10 Garlic cloves (optional)
1 tbspn Lemon juice
½ tspn Black Salt
Salt to taste

Ingredients for Batter

2 cups Gram flour (Besan)
3 tbspns Rice flour
½ tspn Asafetida (Hing)
½ tspn Turmeric Powder (Haldi)
1 tspn Carom Seeds (Ajwain / Owa)
2 tspn Salt
1 tspn red Chilli flakes
½ cup fresh Coriander leaves
¼ tspn Baking Soda
½ tspn Lemon juice
1-2 tbspn hot Oil
Water
 
Vegetable Oil for frying

To serve with
Chickpea Chutney (Besan Chutney)

Method:

Combine all the Green Chutney ingredients i.e. fresh coriander leaves, mint leaves, roasted peanuts, green chillies, ginger, garlic cloves, lemon juice, black salt and regular salt in a mixer jar and grind it into a coarse chutney. Avoid adding water while grinding as the chutney needs to be dry and thick.

Slice the Tomatoes into medium roundels of approx. one centimeter each. Pat the slices dry with paper towels. Take a teaspoon of green chutney and apply it evenly over the tomato slice. Repeat the process for all slices and keep it aside.

To make batter, combine all the batter ingredients i.e. Chickpea flour, rice flour, Asafetida, turmeric powder, carom seeds, salt, red chilli flakes, coriander leaves in a deep mixing bowl. Gradually start adding water to the mixture and whisk it nicely. Prepare a batter of smooth consistency. Just before frying, add eating Soda (or fruit salt) and lemon juice to the mixture and whisk. Adding lemon juice does not make fritters oily.

Heat the Oil in a deep wok or frying pan. Drop a small portion of the batter to check if the oil is hot. If the oil is hot enough, the dough rises after few seconds. Now add one to two tablespoons of hot oil to the Besan batter. Dip each piece of chutney coated tomato in the batter and gently place it in hot oil. The chutney side should be on the top. Deep fry the fritters on a medium flame till it gets a golden brown colour on both the sides. Once done, drain it on a kitchen paper towel to absorb the excess oil. Repeat the process and fry all the fritters.  Serve hot with Besan Chutney.

Notes:

·      In the green Chutney, you may replace roasted peanuts with fried Besan Sev or Bhujia

·   For making the batter, you can also mix small quantity of rice flour and/or semolina and/or Corn flour with the gram flour. But fritters taste great when only Gram flour is used.

·     Jain version can be made by substituting Ginger & Garlic with Asafoetida powder (Hing)

·   You may also add chopped Curry leaves or mint leaves or Kasuri Methi (Dry methi) to change the flavor.

Stepwise Pictures:

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