Sunday, August 16, 2015

KANKROLER PUR BHAJA / STUFFED TEASEL GOURD / KANTOLA FRITTERS / KANTOLA PAKODAS BENGALI STYLE


This is a Bengali recipe of stuffed kantola fritters or pakodas. Few days ago I came to know this recipe from a dear friend Tanushree Bhowmik and I decided to give it a try. These are actually supposed to be fried in mustard oil but I had to substitute it with normal cooking oil as we don't get mustard oil in Brazil. I am sure the mustard oil must be giving a better flavour and colour to the pakodas....nevertheless we still enjoyed them.

Ingredients:
Kantola / teasel gourd ... 6 (or as needed)
Gram flour / besan ......... 1 cup
Rice flour ....................... 2 tbsps
Poppy seeds ... 2 tbsps
Green chillies . 1
Mustard seeds .. 1 tsp
Dessicated coconut .. 1 tbsp
Cream or yogurt ..... 1 tbsp
Sugar ............... 1/4 tsp
Turmeric powder ... 1/4 tsp
Salt .............. to taste
Baking powder .. a pinch
Carom seeds / ajwain .. 1/2 tsp
Oil ............ to fry



Method:
1. Wash the teasel gourds and scrape the outer skin.
2. Cut them into half length wise.
3. Steam them for 10 -12 minutes. Let them cool.
4. Scoop out the middle seed portion with a spoon. Do not discard it as it will be used in the stuffing.
5. Grind the poppy seeds, mustard seeds, green chilli and dessicated coconut to a smooth paste using a little water.
6. Heat a little oil in a small pan and saute the ground paste,scooped out portion of the gourd adding the cream or yogurt and a little salt.
7. Stuff the steamed gourd halves with this mixture. Set aside.
8. In a bowl mix the gram flour, rice flour, turmeric powder, baking powder, carom seeds and salt. Make a thick batter adding water carefully as needed.
9. Heat oil for deep frying. Coat the gourds with the prepared batter and fry them to a golden brown colour.
These can be served as a snack on its own or with dal.

Recipe courtesy - Tanushree Bhowmik

If you have never come across this vegetable here is a picture to show you how it looks.


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14 comments:

  1. this is a lovely dish...These Brazilian kankrols looks different than Indian once

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    Replies
    1. Oh do they look different.. must see how the Indian ones look like . Thanks for liking the recipe Amrita ..

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  2. Thanks for the picture - I was wondering what teasel gourds were. (I know teasels as a kind of burr - not very tasty!) Well, I dont' get them here, but I imagine I could use the same method with another vegetable - some kind of squash, perhaps?

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    Replies
    1. Lol ..Anne :)
      Yes you can try it with any other vegetable too.

      Delete
  3. These look great unfortunately gourd is not freely available in this wee corner of Europe, shame really as I would love to give this a try.

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    Replies
    1. Oh.. maybe you can try with small potatoes Brian

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  4. Looks just perfect. .love this recipe with dal chawal

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  5. Super easy fritter, Will try it soon..

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  6. This is something new for me and I've neither heard of this vegetable nor the dish ever 😊
    Thanks for introducing us with this tasty looking dish 😊

    ReplyDelete

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