Pakori with Tea : Mood elevators for the flu season

Nothing upsets a mom more than when her child is sick. During flu seasons, pre-schoolers are bound to get  flu at least once. During one such cold and wet winter day in California, where I had to juggle between replying to clients and catering to a sick child, I made this Indian snack for the family.  There was a hidden motive to get my little one to eat something too and typically, salty treats work. 

Ingredients for Pakori (serves 3)

Red onions  (one-fourth) – sliced

Fresh Baby spinach – 1 cup (chopped)

Besan/powdered split peas – 1 cup

Baking powder – 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Green chillies 1-2 (did not add this to the kid’s portion)

Safflower Oil – to fry

While heating the oil in a wok, I mixed the above ingredients with a tablespoon of water until the mixture became sticky like a paste and deep- fried small chunks like fritters.  When the pakoris turned a golden brown color, they were taken out of the oil with a wooden slotted spoon.

Tea/Chai

The tea is a daily Indian beverage and although I am not much of a tea drinker, I find it soothing on gloomy winter days. I find the caffeine in tea just enough to lighten up my spirits  without making me as jittery as too much coffee does. The tea or chai is a perfect beverage for rainy evenings.  Traditional tea making in India involves a lot of utensils – so, when I learnt from a friend about using coffee-maker to make tea, I found this American way of making tea, quite amusing.

 For each cup of tea, I heated half a cup of whole milk in the microwave for about 30 seconds on HIGH. Meanwhile, I added 3 cups of water in the coffee-maker, and instead of powdered coffee in the filter, I added one tablespoon of orange peroke tea and one tablespoon of Darjeeling tea leaf.  While the former (orange peroke) provides a perfect color and viscosity to the tea, the latter (Darjeeling tea) imparts the world-famous flavor of Indian Chai. When the tea had brewed, I added it to the half cup of milk along with sugar to taste and stirred.

The combination of pakori with tea always brightens me up.  The pakori was well received by the little one and the parents happily sipped their tea. Even the thought of this combo makes by smile as I  am writing this blog from  30,000 ft in the air (on a flight) and remembering home .  The cabin crew asks, “What would you like to drink ma’am?” I smile and say “ Tea please” . J