Dust. Eat. Try.

Perhaps piggy-backing on the previous post of needing to eat well/fuel up to do things, I leave you with Aaliyah’s legendary lyrics:

“And if at first you don’t succeed (first you don’t succeed)
Then dust yourself off and try again
You can dust it off and try again, try again”

But, I’m adding my two cents, and advise taking on an extra step between dusting and trying:

1. Dust yourself off
2. Eat pakora
3. Try Again

If you have an air fryer, doing #2 is a little easier before moving on to step #3.

I use my air fryer to bust out non-oily, lighter pakora quickly. I coat whatever veggies I have on hand, like carrots, kale, cabbage, zucchini, onion, broccolini, peppers, or what have you, and chop or slice these to coat.

I don’t chop or slice it too thinly as I like a textured pakora where I don’t feel as if I’m just eating cooked chickpea flour.

Also note, that traditional pakora recipes call for chickpea flour and, though in lesser amounts, rice flour to constitute the batter. I only use besan, or chickpea flour though because seldom do I keep rice flour at home. You’ll be OK without the rice flour. The authentic recipe police will NOT get you.

I make my pakora batter out of about 1 cup chickpea flour; to that, add 1 teaspoon EACH of the following: salt, Kashmiri red chili, coriander powder, and cumin powder. Then 1/2 teaspoon EACH: chaat masala and carom seeds (ajwain), ¼ teaspoon EACH turmeric powder, and asafoetida (hing), and chopped cilantro. Then, add about ½ cup to 3/4 cups water to this to make a wet batter. You don’t want it too wet, or else the batter will not cling to the chopped vegetables and wet batter is a no-no for your air fryer.

Cook pakora in a basket-lined air fryer at 350 F for 12 to 15 minutes.

Eat pakora. Try again at success and whatever that looks like/means to you.