Food for sharing

I find cooking therapeutic and enjoy cooking for others. Food was such an important part of my childhood and is still a major part of my life. We had 'dinner parties' weekly whether at our house or my grandparents. Although there wasn't a formal invitation it was an opportunity for us all to get together and share lovely food. My mum and my grandmother called the rest of us around to their homes whenever they were making something new or if they were cooking a family favourite including pakoras!

Although we used to eat pakoras as a teatime snack, they were one of the few things I learned to make properly before I went to university. I used to make pakoras and share them with my housemates. So Friday night, I made my potato and onion pakoras and as I was seeing a friend on Saturday I made extra for him.

• 5 medium potatoes peeled and cut in half and then sliced
• 3 onions sliced into half moon shapes
• 1 cup gram flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1-2 teaspoons dried fenugreek leaves (methi)
• 1-2 birds eye chilli chopped finely
• Salt to taste
• Water to combine
• Oil for frying

1. Combine all the dry ingredients.
2. Add a splash of water at a time to the dry ingredients and mix together thoroughly. The gram flour should coat the potatoes and onions.
3. Heat the oil in a wok or deep fat fryer.
4. When the oil is hot, add small amounts of the mixture to the oil and cook until golden brown.

Pakoras taste utterly delicious when they are first cooked and in my family we all love eating them with tomato sauce or mint chutney. If you are fortunate enough to have leftovers you can eat them in a tortilla wrap with salad. For me a toasted cob with tomato sauce is always a winner!

Why do I crave fried food?

I don't know what it is about fried food, but why is it always delicious and why is one bite just never enough? I think I eat pretty healthily as my diet includes fruit, veg, pulses, beans and some dairy but no matter how flavoursome a meal is, on the weekends I always crave fried food.

Today, it was homemade onion rings in batter. I made a quick batter with plain flour, water, seasoning, chilli flakes and a hint of ginger. I dipped onion rings in the batter and deep fried them until golden brown. I had them with some salad and tomato sauce. Simple but utterly scrumptious!
 
Last week it was mini coloured papad squares (poppadoms) which you can buy dried from any Asian deli.

I think my craving stems from my childhood when on Sundays the whole family (uncles and aunts included) would have a late afternoon meal at my grandmother's house. My grandmother was a brilliant cook, she was experimental and loved making new meals with big flavours. And my grandmother had a sweet tooth which means she made the tastiest sweet and savoury food.

So for a period, it could have been for a few months but it felt like years, she used to make us all pakoras with mint chutney. I can still remember what they tasted like and she used to save all the scraps into a little bowl for me which I would then devour, after obviously eating platefuls of the pakoras with chutney and tomato sauce. My grandmother was extremely generous so when I say platefuls, yes I do mean platefuls. A Punjabi house never runs out of food and so there was always enough food for the family and even my grandparents' friends who used to pop by!