Munthiri Pakoda/Cashew Pakoda

Cashew pakodas, this pakoda is quite a famous snacks in South India, especially in my native. Whenever my grandma visits us she never failed to get a kg of this pakoda and onion pakoda from a famous snack stall in Pondicherry, obviously this cashew pakoda is something very close to my heart.Actually i make this pakodas very rarely at home as i dont like deepfrying. But since few days the Paris weather is too nasty and my kids started bugging me for some crispy fritters for their snacks. As am the host of this month's  South vs North Challenge an event owned by Divya Pramil i prepared this crunch munchy cashew pakodas to challenge our opposite Northern team as the theme of this month is Evening Snacks.The concept of this event is to exchange an Indian recipe between two teams. One team is Southern team (food bloggers  born and brought in South India) and the another one team is Northern team (food bloggers born and brought in North India). Every first of a month, a blogger from each team will challenge a recipe from their origin and the opposite team have to cook the recipe challenged by the other team.

Usually we make pakodas with onions or any other vegetables, but this pakoda goes for cashew nuts, the addition of cashew nuts and mint leaves makes this pakoda more flavourful and nutty when compared to the other varieties of pakodas.Mint leaves grounded coarsely with fennel seeds and garlic cloves plays the major role for making this deep fried snacks. You doesnt need any other vegetables to add in this pakoda and seriously this pakoda is one of easiest deep fried snacks you can make quickly during anytime of the day. If you have sudden guests and you dont have any vegetables at home, just prepare this pakodas and serve along with a cup of coffee, am sure your guests will definitely appreciate you after munching this nutty pakodas.

1cup Gram flour

1/2cup Rice flour

1/4cup Corn flour 

1/2cup Broken cashew nuts

1tsp Fennel seeds

5nos Garlic cloves

20nos Mint leaves

Few curry leaves

3nos Green chillies (chopped)

1/4tsp Baking soda

Salt

Oil for deepfrying +2tbsp Hot oil

Take the fennel seeds and garlic cloves in a mixie jar, grind as coarse paste.

Add the mint leaves and grind as bit coarse paste.

Heat oil for deepfrying.

Take the gram flour,rice flour,corn flour, grounded paste,cashew nuts curry leaves,green chillies,baking soda, salt.

Add the  hot oil, mix well with your fingers.

Slowly sprinkle the water and turn everything as thick batter , take care not to add more water.

Once the oil is hot, take a handful of this pakoda batter, sprinkle the batter in hot oil, put the flame  in medium flame.

Remove the pakodas once they turns golden brown, drain the excess of oil with paper towel.

Store the pakodas in an air tightened box and munch it.

Notes:

Adding hot oil is very important, this gives the crispy inside.

Keep the flame in high while dropping the pakoda batter, then put the flame in medium and fry, this helps to fry the cashews properly.

Batter should be thick, just sprinkle water.

You can also add more cashews or chopped onions if you want.