Bread Pakora Recipe (Stuffed Bread Pakoda)

The much-loved snack, Bread Pakora, are savory, deep fried bread fritters from the North Indian cuisine, especially Punjabi cuisine. Also spelled as Bread Pakoda, these are made with a spiced batter of gram flour or besan, spices and salt. These are either stuffed with a mashed potato stuffing or made without any stuffing. Here, I share the delicious Delhi style way of making this fantastic snack with a spiced and tangy potato stuffing.

About Stuffed Bread Pakora

Bread Pakora is a popular North Indian street food snack made by dipping bread slices, often stuffed with spiced mashed potatoes, in a seasoned gram flour batter and deep-frying until crispy and golden.

Crunchy on the outside and soft inside, this delicious tea-time treat is served hot with a spicy or sweet chutney and a cup of chai.

In English, bread fritter is what the actual translation of the Hindi term Bread Pakora is. There are many ways these savory, and not sweet fritters are made.

So, while the North Indian version is Bread Pakoda, the South Indian version is the Bread Bajji where the bread slices are dipped and coated in gram flour batter and deep fried.

Here, I share the Stuffed Bread Pakoda recipe – Punjabi style version with a savory, spiced potato stuffing. These mashed potato stuffed bread pakoda taste too good. The recipe has some preparation to be done.

I have fond memories of relishing piping hot Bread Pakoda on street-side carts in Mumbai. Another food memory is that associated with my mother-in-law frying batches and batches of these pakoras for weekend breakfasts.

Bread Pakora that is sold as a street food on roadside stalls/carts and the ones served in restaurants across India have a spicy, tangy potato stuffing.

So, while making at home, you can choose to vary the basic potato stuffing by including some add ons like steamed green peas, cheese or Paneer (Indian cottage cheese). You can vary the spices or herbs as well, to suit your family’s tastebuds.

About My Recipe

Here are some of the musts that you should know before going ahead with this recipe of Bread Pakoda at home:

1. Batter: Since carom seeds (ajwain) impart a nice aroma and also aid digestion, I always add them and a few spices to the batter. Other ingredients that you can include in the batter are chopped/grated ginger and asafoetida (hing). These also help in digestion.
2. Stuffing: My recipe of Bread Pakora has warm, aromatic spices, typical of the Punjabi food cuisine. It also makes for tangy, spiced pakoras. Moreover, you save time as you don’t have to spend any time in sautéing or frying anything. You can simply mix the spice powders with the mashed potatoes for the stuffing to be ready.
3. Bread: This recipe can be made with your choice of bread. However, for best flavor, use White Bread. I have prepared these with homemade Whole Wheat Bread or Brown Bread, and it tastes just as good.

At home, we love to have Bread Pakoda in breakfast or evening tea-time, and it is a favorite. So, it is often made for these meals.

You can enjoy these bread fritters with a sweet tangy dipping sauce or a spicy chutney. Accompany with hot Ginger Tea or Indian Masala Chai, and it is all the more incredible. These are also great as a starter snack for parties and get-togethers.

If you love Indian snacks made with bread, do try these easy and tasty recipes:

• Bread Roll – Deep-fried bread rolls stuffed with savory mashed potatoes.
• Cheese Bread Pakora – A crispy bread pakora variation filled with melted cheese.
• Bread Patties – Mashed potato stuffed bread slices, gram flour coated and shallow-fried.
• Paneer Bread Roll – Baked bread rolls with a spiced paneer stuffing.
• Besan Bread Toast – Quick and savory gram flour toast, pan-fried till golden.

How to make Bread Pakora

Before you begin making this delicious snack of bread pakora, you have to prepare the mashed potato stuffing. The potatoes can be cooked in a pan, pressure cooker or Instant Pot.

Cook Potatoes

1. Boil or steam 2 medium-sized or 1 large potato in a 2 litre stovetop pressure cooker or steamer or in the IP, adding required amount of water, until they are fork tender. When the potatoes become warm, then peel and grate them. Set aside. You can also mash them.

1. Cooking potatoes in a stove-top pressure cooker
   Rinse and place 2 medium-sized potatoes in a 2-litre pressure cooker. Add enough water just about covering them. Pressure cook on a medium heat for 3 to 4 whistles or 7 to 9 minutes. Drain the water. Let the potatoes become warm. Peel, grate or mash.
2. Cooking potatoes in a pan
   Rinse, peel and then dice potatoes. Add the chopped potatoes in a pan. Add water just enough to cover them. You can add a bit of salt. Cover and cook potatoes till they are softened. Later drain all the water very well. When the potatoes become warm then peel and grate them. You can even mash them.
3. Cooking in the Instant Pot
   Rinse and place the potatoes in the inner pan of the Instant Pot. Add enough water just about covering the potatoes. Pressure cook on high for 8 to 10 minutes. Give a quick pressure release (QPR) after 5 to 7 minutes. Check to see if the potatoes are cooked. If underdone, then pressure cook for some more minutes. Remove the potatoes with pasta tongs. Let them become warm or cool at room temperature. Then peel and mash.

2. Add the following ingredients to the grated or mashed potatoes:

• 1 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves
• 2 tablespoons chopped mint leaves
• 1 to 2 green chillies (finely chopped)
• ¼ teaspoon red chilli powder (or cayenne pepper)
• ¼ teaspoon garam masala powder
• ½ teaspoon dry mango powder (amchur powder) and
• salt as per taste to the grated potatoes.

Substitute ½ teaspoon lemon juice for dry mango powder.

3. Mix the spices and herbs very well with the mashed potatoes. Check the seasonings and adjust accordingly to your taste preferences. Set aside.

Make Batter

4. In a mixing bowl, take the following ingredients:

• 1 cup besan (gram flour)
• ½ teaspoon carom seeds (ajwain)
• ¼ teaspoon red chilli powder or cayenne pepper
• 1 to 2 pinches turmeric powder
• ¼ teaspoon garam masala powder
• 1 pinch asafoetida (hing)
• 1 to 2 pinches baking soda
• salt as required

Adding baking soda is completely optional but it helps in giving a light and fluffy texture to the batter.

5. First add ½ cup water and mix very well. Batter consistency should not be very thick nor too thin. If it is too thick, then add more water.

Overall you can add ½ to ⅔ cup of water depending on the quality and texture of the gram flour.

6. To the batter, add 1 to 2 teaspoons of hot oil when you keep the oil for deep frying on the stove-top. Stir and mix well.

Pro tip: Adding 1 to 2 teaspoons hot oil to the besan batter helps in making the pakoda crisp and reduces the oil absorption.

Whisk briskly non-stop for 1 to 2 minutes to incorporate some air into the batter. Keep the ready batter aside.

Assemble

7. On the chopping board, slice the bread into triangle or rectangle slices.

8. Take around 2 to 3 tablespoons of the mashed potato mixture and spread it on the bread evenly.

9. Cover this potato stuffed slice with another slice. You now have a triangular bread sandwich. Just slightly press the sandwich.

Make Bread Pakora

10. Heat the oil for deep frying in a kadai or wok. Check if the oil is ready by adding a drop of the batter. If the batter starts sizzling and comes gradually on the surface of the oil, the oil is ready.

In case it does not come up on the surface, then the oil needs to get more hot – so increase the heat slightly. If it comes very quickly on top, the oil is too hot – so reduce the heat a bit.

11. Take the entire potato stuffed sandwich in your hand and dip it in the gram flour batter.

 12. Coat the stuffed bread sandwich evenly with the gram flour batter. Be gentle with the sandwich. Take care not to keep the stuffed bread sandwich a long time in the besan batter as the bread will become too soggy and fall apart.

You can hold the batter bowl in your left hand and then bring it near the pan or kadai containing the hot oil. Take the bread and gently coat it with gram flour batter.

Slid off the extra batter on the edges of the bowl and then move the batter coated bread from the bowl to the pan or kadai having the hot oil. Place bread gently into the hot oil.

13. Gently slid the besan batter coated bread sandwich in the oil. Be careful while placing bread in hot oil. Place gently.

Add two to three pieces of bread pakora depending on the size of the kadai, but do not overcrowd the kadai or pan. Begin to deep fry on a medium to medium-high heat.

14. When one side is light golden, gently turn over and fry the second side. Be careful when turning over as these are heavy. So turn over gently and carefully.

15. Gently flip a couple of times more and fry on a medium to medium-high heat till they are crisp and golden brown.

16. Remove the crisp and golden fried pakora with a slotted spoon draining the extra oil.

17. Place the fried bread pakoda on kitchen paper towels so that excess oil is absorbed. In the same way, fry the remaining bread pakoda and place them on kitchen paper towels to remove excess oil.

18. Serve Bread Pakora hot or warm with a side of tomato ketchup or coriander chutney, mint chutney or tamarind chutney.

Serving Suggestions

• Spiced Chutneys: Bread pakora pairs nicely with fresh, flavorful, herby Coriander Chutney or Mint Chutney.
• Sweet Chutney: It also tastes delish with sweet dipping sauces like tomato ketchup or sweet Tamarind Chutney.
• Dry Chutney: You can also serve these tasty aloo bread pakoda with a Dry Garlic Chutney.
• Chai: Pair them with a ginger chai or masala chai for a truly Indian evening chai experience.

Expert Tips

1. Potatoes: Use potatoes which have a high starch content like Idaho or Russet potatoes. Avoid using potatoes which are new or have a gluey gummy texture.
2. Gram flour: Flour made from husked, split chana dal or Bengal gram called gram flour (besan) is usually added in most Indian pakora recipes. However, chickpea flour made from white chickpeas (kabuli chana) can also be used. Use a good quality gram flour and it should be in its shelf period.
3. Spices and herbs: You can make a number of variations by adding different combinations of spices and herbs both in the besan batter and the potato stuffing. Fresh herbs like mint leaves, coriander leaves, ginger, garlic and spices like green chilies, cumin powder or coriander powder, red chili powder, black pepper powder, curry powder or garam masala powder can be added.
4. Consistency of batter: Make a medium consistency batter. If the batter is thick, then the outer texture will be dense and not fluffy or soft. A thin batter will make the pakoda soggy by absorbing too much oil.
5. Oily pakoda: To avoid oily pakoda, fry on medium heat. Do not fry on low heat as then the pakoda will absorb more oil. Frying on a high heat will cook and brown the pakoda from outside, leaving the insides raw and uncooked.
6. Scaling: You can easily halve or double the recipe according to your needs.
7. Make ahead: If you plan to make these pakoras for morning breakfasts or evening snacks, then you can make the potato stuffing some hours or a day ahead and refrigerate it.

How to check oil temperature?

Mostly for any kind of deep frying, the temperature of the oil is 180 degrees to 190 degrees Celsius (360 degrees to 375 degrees Fahrenheit). If you have a deep fry thermometer or candy thermometer, you can easily measure these temperatures with them.

But what if you do not own a thermometer? You can still check the temperature by following any of the two methods listed below.

1. Drop tiny droplets of batter in oil. If the batter droplets sizzle, and rise to the top gradually, the oil is ready. If droplets are stuck at the bottom of the pan or comes up slowly on the surface the oil is not hot enough. If the batter droplets come up briskly, quickly on the oil surface and get browed rapidly, the oil is very hot.
2. Place a small bread cube in the hot oil. If the bread cube turns golden in a time span of about 1 minute, the temperature is perfect for frying. If it gets burnt or turns very dark, the oil is extremely hot and needs to cool slightly. You will have to let the oil heat up more, if the cube is pale colored.

FAQs

Bread Pakora recipe from the archives was first published on September 2010.