Beguni - Baingan Pakora - Bengali eggplant fritters

Monsoon is in full swing and what better can we eat other than fried stuff. Bengalis prepare fritters from almost all veggies and fishes. But Beguni / Baingan Pakoras / Eggplant fritters are traditionally the best Bengali snacks during rainy season. I being health conscious don’t make deep fried stuff much at home. But this Sunday it was constantly raining and my family demanded some fried stuff so intensely that I had to oblige and here is the recipe I followed:-

 

Preparation Time: - 10 min

Cooking Time: - 20 min (depends upon the size of your kadai/frying pan)

Servings: - 3~4 persons (varies from person to person)

Ingredients:-

1. 1 medium eggplant ( brinjal / begun)
   
2. 100 gram Besan / gram flower
3. 1 tbsp rice flower
4. 1 tsp poppy seed ( when preparing the recipe for blog I was short of that but generally I love to include the same )
5. 1 tsp Black Jeera / Nigella seeds ( Sometimes I use whole cumin seeds also – tastes as well as black jeera)
6. ¼ tsp baking powder (optional)
7. 2 tsp Kashmiri red chili powder – I prefer this as it is less spicy but you can use normal red chili powder also. Even you can increase the amount here according to your taste
8. ½ tsp Turmeric powder
9. Salt to taste
10. Mustard oil sufficient for frying – I did not mention the exact amount as I used a smaller kadai and hence more oil was consumed.
11. Sufficient amount of water.

Preparation:-

1.  Cut the eggplant into round shapes with even thickness.

2. In a large mixing bowl, mix besan, rice flour, poppy seeds, turmeric powder, Kashmiri red chilli powder, Nigella seeds, baking powder and salt. You can even add a pinch of sugar here to satisfy the Bengali sweet tooth.

3.   Add water gradually few tablespoons at a time so that no lumps are formed. Whisk vigorously to make a smooth batter.

4.   Take a deep frying pan and heat enough oil to deep fry. I used an iron kadai this time as some of my friends suggested that iron kadai is useful for deep fried stuff. 

5.   Dip the eggplant slices in the batter such that the batter is coated uniformly on both sides. Hold the pieces few pieces above the batter to drop the excess coating.

6.    Gently immerse them in hot oil and fry on one side for 2 minutes. Then flip it over for the other side to be fried. This will take less time – about a minute as the pieces are already hot. Fry till they are crisp and done.

7.    I used a small kadai and I fried one at a time but you can use bigger vessel and can fry more than one pieces. Always remember to have sufficient space between them so that the frying is uniform.

8.    With a slotted spoon, pick up the Baingan/Eggplant pakoras and drain oil with the help of tissue paper.

9.     Fry all the Begunis  pakodas in batches similarly.

Serve this snacks crispy hot with little bit of black salt, some muri (puffed rice) sprinkled with little mustard oil and green chilli. Of course masala / ginger tea is required to complete the experience.

You can also eat this as a side dish with Khichudi/ Khichdi in lunch. 

As always please feel free to comment, criticize and seek if any help is required. I am all ears.