Gram flour

[notasize10yetbutoneday]

I've been given a packet of gram flour. What can I do with it? I was thinking maybe pakoras, does anyone have a recipe please?

TIA!

I love pakoras!

They are quite straight forward.

Depends how many you would like to make but I would suggest you make the batter with two cups of gram flour, chilli powder or fresh chopped green chilli to taste (I would use a couple of teaspoons chilli but I like quite spicey food), a teaspoon of tumeric, and a teaspoon of salt. You could add some finely chopped coriander as well if you have it.

Add water and mix to get a batter (maybe a bit thicker than double cream, thick enought that it coats the veg).

And then you just need to coat your veg in the batter and fry it in about an inch and a half of veg oil.

I use sliced onions, thin slices of potato, cauliflower florets, red pepper, sliced courgettes and spinach leaves (you need to do them individually and they are a phaff but they do taste good). But you can use what ever you have to hand.

ooh, loads of things.

Actually I was going to go and get some today because I have a recipe for green peppers stir fried with gram flour, and I also have way too many green peppers!

Here's a pakora recipe, anyway

Did you know cut up white sliced bread makes a very delicious and decadent pakora?

I've made sweet potato felafel from the Leon cook book quite a few times - it's fairly easy and not fried.

Makes around 18 falafel - enough for four
2 medium sweet potatoes (orange inside), around 700g in total
1½ tsp ground cumin
2 small cloves of garlic, chopped
1½ tsp ground coriander
2 big handfuls of fresh coriander, chopped (about 30g)
Juice of half a lemon
120g gram flour
A splash of olive oil
A sprinkling of sesame seeds
Salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 220C/425F and roast the sweet potatoes whole until just tender (45 minutes to 1 hour). Turn off oven, leave the potatoes to cool, then peel.
Put the sweet potatoes, cumin, garlic, ground and fresh coriander, lemon juice and gram flour into a large bowl. Season well, and mash until smooth with no large chunks. Stick in the fridge to firm up for an hour, or the freezer for 20-30 minutes. When you take it out, your mix should be sticky rather than really wet. You can add a tablespoon or so more of gram flour if necessary (the water content of sweet potatoes varies enormously).
Reheat the oven to 200C/400F. Using a couple of soup spoons (put a well-heaped spoonful of mix in one spoon and use the concave side of the other to shape the sides) or a falafel scoop if you have one, make the mixture into falafelly looking things and put them on an oiled tray. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top and bake in the oven for around 15 minutes, until the bases are golden brown.

hope it works.

meltedmarsbars - bread?! Do you do anything to the bread first?

punjabi pakoras are my favourite.

We also make batata vada a lot - mashed potato with green chilli and LOTS of garlic, formed into balls, dipped into gram flour batter and fried.

You can also make a type of dosa with it (savory pancakes).

What is gram flour?
Can I make pakoras with normal wheat flour? (limited flour selection in this country)

I loved the vegetable pakoras we had in Kerala, I have been yearning for them ever since, yet not ever had an opportunity to make them.

...nor had the cooking skills I might add.

Gram flour is made from ground chickpeas and is sometimes called besan. It has a different taste from wheat flour so although I'm sure the recipe would work, it wouldn't taste the same.

Have you an Indian community in the country you live. If you can find an Indian grocers they are bound to stock gram flour.

gram flour or besan flour is made from ground chickepeas. It has a distinct flavour, so pakoras made with wheat flour wouldnt be the same. Plus wheatflour would be a bit heavier.

Maybe make a light batter, a bit runnier than usual batter and add a spoonful of baking powder?

I actually add a bit of s/r flour to my pakoras as it makes the batter crisp up more.

x posted!

x posts chops!

I dont have an indian community here at all! We have a thai community though, and ONE international food shop. I might go and have a look. Failing the gram flour, can I use rice flour? There are some lighter gluten free flours to be found in the normal grocery shops.

Wow so many replies, thank you! Pakoras it is, I can't wait to try them this weekend. I've printed those recipes. Natasha i've also printed your recipe for future use as we had falafel this week which was not a success (I think I made the mix too wet) so I will give yours a try soon.

Rice flour may work, but again it's a different taste so it won't be the same.

You could try a health food store or a middle eastern shop, they may stock it.

definitely trying natasha's falafel, I've been looking for a good falafel recipe for years.

(There used to be an amazing vegetarian restaurant in York called the Rubicon which served amazing falafel and I went on far too many dates with a vegetarian boy I didn't even fancy, just to keep getting the falafel!)

Chopstheduck you cut the white sliced bread into neat squares.

Tip from my Delhi friend, they used to eat this as students!

Natasha, thanks for that - I love that falafel, and have all the ingredients. Now all I need is an oven.

Gram flour is available at Morrisons, 84p a bag. I bought some to make onion bhajas for my coeliac son

I'd make bhajis they're so easy and unbelieveably tasty. Whenever I make them I have to make twice as many as I need as I always eat half as I'm making them.

Can't remember the exact recipe (though it's on the side of the packet if your gram flour is the common one in and orange and yellow paper packet. It's something like

2 onions extremely finely sliced (so in strips)
Some turmeric
Some chilli powder
Sprinkle on a fair amount (couple of big handfuls) of gram flour
Enough water to make it into a pastey glupey mess.

Tablespoon full of the gloop at a time into hot oil to fry, take out when crispy.