Courgette and Onion Pakoda — My take on my Indian friend's rei

My take on #Courgette and #Onion #pakoda 🇮🇳

Crispy gram flour fritters

Ingredients and method:

Salt and drain:

4 medium-sized grated #courgettes 🇮🇹

Finely chop the following ingredients in a food processor:

2 #onions 🇫🇮
1 yellow #chilli 🇫🇮
1 red #chilli 🇫🇮
2 #garlic cloves 🇫🇮
A thumb-sized piece of fresh #ginger 🇨🇳
Fresh chives or coriander 🇫🇮

Add the chopped ingredients to a large bowl with the grated and well-drained courgettes, then mix in:

1 tsp garam masala 🇮🇳
2 tsp cumin seeds, because I love cumin seeds 🇫🇮
1 dl #GreekYoghurt 🇬🇷
2 to 3 dl besan, aka gram flour 🇬🇧
1 dl #breadcrumbs 🇫🇮
1 tsp #bakingpowder 🇩🇪

Mix everything together until you have a thick mixture that holds its shape.

Form into bite-sized portions and fry in hot oil until crisp and golden. I used sunflower oil 🇩🇪 with a splash of #EVOO 🇬🇷.

Eat them warm. I dipped mine into a rather unsophisticated but very satisfactory mixture of sriracha 🇺🇸 and ketchup 🇫🇮.

The national flags 🇫🇮 🇬🇷 🇩🇪 🇮🇳 🇨🇳 🇮🇹 etc. are simply a practical illustration of just how dependent our households, kitchens and economies are on international trade.

I feel rather sorry for Britain and the British Brexiters, although I am sure they will eventually find a way through the maze of trade agreements.

And now for a rather QI-style fact that my Indian friends find difficult to believe:

Finland is one of the world's major producers of caraway. The crop thrives particularly well at northern latitudes, where Finland's long summer days provide many hours of sunlight.

So, despite my enthusiasm for cumin seeds in these pakodas, Finland's remarkable contribution to the spice cupboard is actually caraway, not cumin.

Google it if you don't believe me.