Choosing pattinam pakoda for the alphabet ‘P’ was not hard at all. In the olden days, the major cities were called ‘pattinam’ by the town people and I have heard this word many times growing up. My grandparents are from a small village near Mayiladuthurai and I spent every summer when growing up in the village. Everyone coming from Chennai / Madras was referred to as Pattinam people. I remember that one of my father’s aunt was married to a person from Chennai and she left the village to live in Chennai. Everyone still refers to her as ‘Patnathu athai’ (City Aunt) and I still do not know her real name. Pakodas as such are very famous street food and this recipe for the pattinam pakoda is something I have never eaten. I am not sure if this still exists in Chennai, but have read that this was quite famous in Chennai years ago.
How is this pakoda different?
This pattinam pakoda is a little different from the other pakodas that I have eaten. Pakodas / Pakoras are crumbly and shapeless in general. The dough is usually very crumbly and we just drop the crumbled pieces in oil and fry. In this case, though, the dough is made tight and kneaded together. We also make proper balls out of the dough and deep fry. So this is sort of in between bondas and pakoras. There are many different recipes online with many different proportions of the different flours. I found this to work very well and the flavors were very different from the normal pakodas. Pakodas are made predominantly out of besan/chickpea flour like this onion pakora, but this particular one uses Roasted gram flour / dalia flour / pottukadalai maavu as the major ingredient. This is the one that lends to its unique flavor. This proportion worked great for me and was very easy to use.
My other recipes from this series
A - AthirasamB - Badam BurfiC - Chettinad Masala CheeyamD - Dosai Milagai Podi E - Ellu UrundaiF - Fruit KesariG - Godhumai Rava Pidi KozhukattaiH - Homemade Rice flourI - Inji MarappaJ - Jevvarisi Thengai Paal Payasam K - Kancheepuram IdliL - Lemon PickleM - Manapparai MurukkuN - NokkalO - Oothappam Preparation time – 10 minutesCooking time – 20 minutesDifficulty level – easy
Ingredients to make Pattinam Pakoda – Makes 25 small pakodas
Pottukadalai maavu / Roasted gram flour / Dalia flour – 1 cup Rice flour – ½ cup Green chilies – 3 (chopped finely) Ginger – ½ inch piece (grated finely) Fennel seeds / Sombu – ½ teaspoon (slightly crushed) Cumin seeds / Jeeragam – ½ teaspoon (slightly crushed) Curry leaves – few Onion – 1 (finely chopped) Salt – to taste Ghee / Nei – 2 tsp Baking soda – a pinch Oil – to deep fry
Procedure to make Pattinam Pakoda
Measure about a cup of pottukadalai / dalia into the mixer jar and grind it smoothly. I took a little less than a cup of dalia and it yielded me 1 cup of flour.
Chop the onions finely and add a little salt to it. Mix it up well and let it sit aside for few minutes. This helps the onions let out its moisture.
In a wide bowl, add the 2 teaspoon nei / ghee and the baking soda. Using your fingertips, rub in the soda with the ghee vigorously. The mixture will become white and frothy.
To this add the flour and mix. Now add the onions and the rest of the ingredients (except oil) and mix well.
Add water, little by little, and make it into a tight dough. Divide the dough into equal parts and make it into small balls.
In the meantime, heat the oil on medium heat for deep frying the pakodas. Drop the shaped balls into hot oil and fry until they are golden brown. Make sure that the oil is not too hot as it will make the outside of the pakodas cook quickly and the inside will still be raw.
Serve pattinam pakoda hot with coconut chutney!
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