Romanesco Pakora with Tamarind Chutney & Raita
Purplesque has been making me drool. Her blog entries on homemade Indian food always leave me hungry and throughly impressed. In the kitchen, as far as Indian food is concerned, I've never ventured further than curry. So sad, right? Purple really inspired me to expand my Indian cooking repertoire, so off to the local Indian grocery store I went with stars in my eyes and ingredients in my mind that I could hardly pronounce.
I had Good Friday off from work, so I stopped by Samosa House/Bharat Bazaar for lunch. It's half Indian deli and half Indian grocery store, so I killed two birds with one stone by ordering yummy potato samosas for lunch and stocking up on some Indian ingredients/spices. Since I had a giant head of romanesco (heirloom cauliflower), pakoras came to mind instantly.
I breaded my florets in a batter made out of chana besan (chick pea flour), rice flour, ginger, cumin, serrano chiles and ground coriander. I served it with raita (mint and coriander yogurt sauce) and a tamarind chutney. I love the way the spices really infuse everything from the batter to the dipping sauces. Now I'm obsessed with Indian food... there's definitely more to come.
Comments
*drooling*
This looks/sounds delicious! Like you, I haven't explored Indian food very far beyond curry and dal . . . but now I'm inspired to go deeper. I recently received as a gift a cookbook by a group of Louisiana residents of South Asian decent . . . recipes from the merging of two cultures with great food . . . neither Indian nor Louisianan . . . but I haven’t made any of the recipes yet. I might just try something from the book this weekend!