Air fryer bajji ( pakora)

I posted another recipe for pakora in my blog which is made traditionally by deep frying in oil .

This recipe just goes over how to do this in the air fryer with much less oil ! 

Ingredients for the batter:

Besan flour (chickpea flour) - 1/2 cup

Rice flour - 1/2 cup

Red chili powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt- 1/4 tsp

Asafoetida- a pinch

Baking soda- a pinch

Water

Vegetable - of choice sliced in to slices ( 2 inches ) 

I used plantain for this recipe 

Instructions 

1. Mix all the batter ingredients in a mixing bowl

2. Add water ( take a cup of water) to it slowly some at a time and mix the batter. You want the batter to be a little on the thick side and not runny . You should be able to coat the vegetables in it. For the air fryer batter i do make it a little thicker so it doesn’t drip. Take the cut vegetables and coat with a thin layer of batter 

3. Place aluminum foil on the air fryer pan and spritz with oil generously . Place the coated vegetables on the foil .

4. Cook in the air fryer at 350 F for about 8 minutes ( you can pause once and spritz with oil ). At this point the pakora / bajji is half cooked and the batter is not drippy anymore . So the foil can now be removed and the pakora placed directly on the fryer basket.

4. Cook for 8 more minutes until golden brown at 350 F. Spritz the bajji / Pakora with oil and flip them over halfway so that each side is uniformly cooked / browned.

5. Air fryer bajji is now ready to serve.

Here it is shown with tamarind sauce but ketchup or 

chutney can be used as accompaniments as well.  Enjoy!

Air fryer masal vada

I shared a recipe for medhu vadai previously which required more prep ( i.e. making a batter etc.). Masal vadai can be made much more easily!When you have a hankering for this just soak the bengal gram (chana dal) and you can use it in a few hours. It is a high protein, crunchy, tasty snack.It is typically deep fried but I used this recipe for air-fryer instructions and my mom's recipe to make the batter for the vada.

Ingredients:

Channa Dal 1/2 cup ( soak in water for 2 hours)

Onion - 1/2 chopped finely

fennel- 1 tbsp

cilantro- chopped 1/4 cup

curry leaf- 4 or 5

dried red chili - 1 ground into a powder

salt to taste

oil- 1 tbsp

Instructions:

Pre-heat air fryer to 390F

1. Take the soaked dal and grind into a coarse paste in the blender. (Leave a hand full of whole dal out to mix in later to give a bit of crunch to the vada)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2.  Now add a little oil on a sauce pan on medium heat. Saute the onions until translucent and then saute fennel 
3. Now add in the onion and fennel mixture, salt, cilantro, curry leaf to the ground dal and mix well. Taste the mixture to adjust the salt. Now add in ground red chili powder to taste.
   
   
   
4. Shape the mixture into little balls and flatten them. You can apply some oil on your hands to prevent the vada from sticking to your hand.

   

5. Spritz with oil and place in the air fryer basket and cook for 4 min at 390 F. Flip it over and spritz with some oil and cook for another 4 minutes.  Healthy and tasty masal vadai is ready to serve.

Patnam bakoda (fritters)- air fryer recipe

Patnam bakoda ( also called madras bakoda , medhu bakoda) is a traditionally deep fried savory fritter. It was my grandpa’s favorite snack and now my husband’s favorite snack as well. It is easy to make and takes under 10 minutes of prep work. I used my mom’s recipe but referred to this recipe for the air fryer instructions and modified it a little bit. With the air fryer much less oil was used and it turned out pretty tasty as well!

Ingredients

Pottukadalai  ( roasted dehusked split bengal gram ) flour- 1/2 cup 

Rice flour- 1/2 cup 

Besan (gram flour split brown dehusked chickpea flour) - 1/4 cup 

Baking soda - 1/4 tsp 

Butter / ghee melted - 3 tbsp 

Chopped onion - 1/2 cup 

Ginger chopped - small pieces - 1/2 tbsp

Green chillies - 1 deseeded and cut into small pieces 

Curry leaf  - chopped - 6 to 8 leaves 

Salt to taste 

Vegetable or canola oil in an oil spritzer ( this is a must for the air fryer !)

Instructions 

Preheat the air fryer to 360F ( 180 C)

1. In a large mixing bowl add the ghee/ butter and whisk in the baking soda 
2. Now add the different flours and mix well and then add in the rest of the ingredients and form a thick dough .The ghee itself is used to bind all of these ingredients but if needed sprinkle a little bit of water at a time ( I used perhaps 2 tbsp)
   
3. Roll these into small balls ( size of a small plum) and place on a plate and spritz with some vegetable oil to coat it 
   
   
4. Place these balls of dough in the air fryer pan and spritz a little bit more oil on it 
   
5. Fry the dough for a total of 10 minutes at 360F. Mid way through at 5 minutes pause the fryer and open the fry basket and turn over the pakora and spritz the other side with oil . This is to ensure both sides brown evenly. Then resume the fryer for the rest of the 10 minutes 
6. Patnam bakoda is ready to serve . It goes well with coconut chutney