kimchi kale pakora

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[RECIPE] Kimchi Kale Pakora (video)

Makes: ~12 pakore

Ingredients:

• 80g curly kale, dried well and roughly chopped

• 200g kimchi with juice, roughly chopped after squeezing and saving the juice

• 3/4 cup besan aka gram flour (chickpea flour can be used as a 1:1 substitute)

• 4 tbsp cornstarch

• Optional: 1/4 tsp ajwain (carom seeds), crushed in the palm of your hands

• Chaat masala (I’ll add my recipe below if you want to make it from scratch, and if not I like the MDH brand one)

• Frying oil

• To serve: 1 cup greek yogurt mixed with 1/4 cup tamarind date chutney, or any sweet tangy chutney of your choice

Instructions:

• In a large bowl, whisk together the besan, cornstarch, and ajwain. Set aside

• Roughly chop your kale and add to the bowl. Then squeeze out all the juice from the kimchi in a separate small bowl, roughly chop into small pieces, and add to the large bowl with the kale.

• Using your hands, coat everything together very well and let it sit for 10 minutes so more moisture can be released before you add additional. In the meantime, add about 2-3 inches of frying oil to a pot and place on medium heat for it to reach 350 F. Also set up your station: wire rack on baking sheet (or paper towels lined on a large plate), a spider strainer, and the chaat masala.

• To the bowl, start adding the kimchi juice as you mix and coat everything together. The tricky thing with pakora is that recipes don’t work very well as the batter will be different each time so you have to trust your intuition. You may need less kimchi juice or more, but I like to stop as soon as I have enough of a coating where its binding together but not too tightly.

• Test your frying oil temp by carefully dropping in a small amount of the pakora batter. If it doesn’t float up after a few seconds, its not hot enough. Either using your hands or two spoons, grab some pakora batter and place into the oil and fry for a few minutes until golden. Don’t overcrowd the pot as you don’t want your frying temperature to get too low that they become oily / soggy. Work in batches and always keep an eye on your temp.

• After every pakora that comes out, hit them with a sprinkle of chaat masala right away!

• Serve with chutney, masala chai, and to reheat them if freezing ahead of time: place in a convection oven or air fryer at 350 F for 10 min or until heated all the way through! Enjoy on a rainy or snowy day :)

Bonus Chaat Masala Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp cumin seeds

• 1 tbsp coriander seeds

• 1/2 tbsp ajwain (carom seeds)

• 1/2 tbsp black peppercorns

• 2-3 tbsp amchur (dried mango powder)

• 1 tbsp dried mint

• 1/2 tbsp black salt

• 1/2 tsp kosher salt

• 1/4 tsp ginger powder

• 1/8 tsp hing (asafoetida)

Instructions:

• Toast the first four whole spice one by one for a few minutes - be careful not to burn them! Transfer to a bowl to cool.

• To a spice or coffee grinder, add the toasted whole spices along with the rest of the ground spices, and pulse until you have a fine powder.

• Taste and adjust for salt. If you want it more tangy add more dried mango powder, if you want it to have more of a kick, add 1/2 tsp kashmiri red chili powder.