Thursday, January 10, 2008

Pumpkin Seed Pakora

A new ingredient in my pantry these days - Pumpkin Seeds!! Had picked them up at the New Jersey Edison Sabzi Mandi, but could not gather the courage to try making it. Finally did so with my mom's assistance. It's not difficult to make, just was not too sure how it would turn out. It did taste good. You can have it as a side-dish simply as a pakora. Or put it in a simple gravy made from onion-ginger-garlic-tomato paste sauted and cooked in a tablespoon of oil.


Ingredients (Makes about 20)

Pumpkin Seeds 1 cup
Besan 2 tbsp
Salt 1 tsp
Tumeric powder 1/2 tsp
Ginger paste 1 tbsp
Cumin-Chilli Powder 1/2 tsp

Step 1

Soak pumpkin seeds overnight. In the morning, remove the skin of the seeds. Grind the remaining portion with as little water as possible. 1/2 cup of water will most probably do.

Step 2

Add besan, salt, turmeric powder, ginger paste and cumin-chilli powder to the above batter and mix well. It will form a batter as shown here.


Step 3

Heat pan. Add a tablespoon of oil for every round of making pakoras on the pan. Take small portions of the batter in your hand and put in the pan. Let it stand so that one side stiffens and gets cooked. Once firm, turn the pakora over carefully so that the other side can cook. Use Medium to Medium-High heat throughout.


Enjoy them hot and crisp!!

9 comments:

Shella said...

Wow that is some innovative recipe. It looks really good.

Jayashree said...

There you go....you've actually cooked up a wonderful snack using those seeds and all I do is throw them away and use the pumpkin. I know what to do next time with those seeds.

sra said...

This is really different. I would imagine there's a lot of texture in this dish rather than the taste of the pumpkin seed. Is that right?

Finla said...

The seed i knew but to make something with it nops.
Looks really good

Sagari said...

very new recipe looks yummy

Anonymous said...

Never thought anything could be made from pumpkin seeds...bravo, this seems delish and innovative as well

Pragyan said...

Hi Shella: Innovative indeed!! I felt the same way when I first had this dish :)

Hi Jayashree: Do try it :) Thanks for visiting.

Hi Sra: Yes, there is. Actually I made it first time leaving the shell on, it was a little different. The taste is also good. It almost felt like poppy seed pakora..will post that also some day. :)

Hi Happy cook: Glad I could introduce you to something new :) I am always looking for new ingredients I can add to my cooking..always want something new :)

Hi Sagari: Hope you try it and it tastes yummy too :)

Hi Bhags: Thank you, Ma'am! Keep visiting my web-abode :)

Kribha said...

Very unique recipe. I'll save it try it soon. Looks so delicious. I've used pumpkin seeds only as a garnish. Nice job in using that as a main ingredient.

Pragyan said...

Thanks, Kribha! Did you try it? Thanks to SIL for introducing me to it and to my mom for the enthu which helped me in trying it out finally! :)