Why It Works
- Seasoning the potato mixture with turmeric, red chile powder, and carom makes for a more flavorful filling.
- Coating the potato filling in a chickpea (“gram”) flour batter before frying creates a crisp exterior.
Bread pakoras are a great meal or snack for sharing. Growing up, my mum made them for picnics or train journeys. As a child, I loved to eat the fried sandwiches with ketchup, and today my kids like to eat them with mayonnaise. With soft bread and a crisp chickpea flour batter encasing turmeric and chile-spiced potatoes, bread pakoras are a beloved snack—they’re a popular street food and also frequently made at home. While they’re delicious piping hot, they’re also equally good at room temperature, which makes them great for lunch boxes or outdoor meals.
Serious Eats / Kanika and Jatin Sharma
Like many others, including my mother, I don’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t know what a pakora was. Potato pakoras and onion pakoras are two of the most common ones you’ll find at restaurants and street stalls, where they are often sold with other deep-fried snacks like vadas or samosas. Though the spices used vary from one vendor to another, they generally include salt, turmeric, chile powder, and occasionally chaat masala and garam masala. Some places will make a one-sided bread pakora by spreading the potato filling over one slice of bread, dipping it, and frying as is. Because only one slice of bread is used, it’s a tad lighter than the usual sandwich.
Some vendors will cut the sandwich up into smaller pieces or shapes before frying. A lot of it comes down to personal preference and the tools someone may have at a given time. Frying a whole sandwich requires larger bowls and pans for dipping and frying, and cutting them into smaller pieces makes the process easier. Though bread pakoras are typically triangular, you may come across square-shaped ones from time to time.
Serious Eats / Kanika and Jatin Sharma
For ease and convenience, I like to make the filling a couple of days in advance, then fill and fry pakoras when the craving strikes. I live in the U.K. and prefer to use maris piper potatoes, but if you can’t find them, you can use russet potatoes instead. Ground turmeric gives the potatoes their bright yellow hue, while Kashmiri chile powder and a hot green chile bring the heat. Chaat masala, an Indian street snack spice blend, lends the potatoes a funky, savory kick. You can make your own or look for it online or in South Asian grocery stores. Though I like to serve bread pakoras with a nice chile or coriander chutney, along with a cup of chai, you can also eat them like I did as a child: with ketchup or mayonnaise.
