Deep Fried Vegetables in Batter/ Burmese Style Bhaji/ Abkyaw soun

Nowadays I am hell bent on improving my bread baking skills. I have even joined the public library to get books on baking and to learn the finer points of bread baking. I also looked at books on International cooking along with the ones on bread baking. I am not an avid reader of Indian cookbooks and rarely follow their recipes, as their spices quantities will not match our taste, either too much or too little most of time it will be first scenario. 

When I saw this book “The Asian Vegan Kitchen” by Hema Parekh, I was curious to turn the pages. The book is about cooking from Asian countries, other than Indian, all other Asian cuisines mainly contains meat or sea food in their dishes with a few vegetable dishes. There are also a few recipes about Burmese cuisine also in this book. As I am hosting this month’s AWED: Burma, I needed some Burmese recipes for event I found it interesting. The recipe on Deep fried veggies in batter got my attention along with a few others. Today I made this for my evening tea.

They taste really good. It is similar to our vegetable bhaji. However I found that adding ginger garlic paste to bhaji batter is a new idea to me. Rest of ingredients are similar ones such as besan (chick pea flour), Rice flour, red chili powder, coriander leaves etc. Only change I made in the recipe was I didn’t use toasted chickpea flour and increased ¼ cup of water. Hema says “these fritters are common in the streets of Mandalay and Rangoon. Locals rarely make at home and buy from the local street vendors and shops where they can get fresh and hot.” They usually serve this one along soup and salad. It is not spicy, if you wish you can increase the  red chili powder.Next time i will increase the  amount of chili powder.

If you like Japanese tempura or Indian bhaji try this at least once, I bet you will become fan of this dish. Here goes easy breezy recipe.

What you need

For batter/Pemonb asut ambit


Chick pea flour/Besan: 3/4cup
Rice flour: 3/4 cup
Baking powder: a pinch (optional, I didn’t used)
Turmeric: ¼ teaspoon
Chili powder: 3/4 teaspoon ( Increase if you need Spicier)
Ginger: 1 inch piece
Garlic: 2 cloves
Fresh coriander leaves: 2 tablespoon (finely chopped)
Olive oil: 1 teaspoon
Salt: 3/4 teaspoon
Water:1 cup

Vegetables 

Egg plant: 1/2 of one( cut into rounds)
Green bell pepper: 1 no (cut into 4 inch strips)
Onion: ½ of one onion (cut into rounds)

How I made

Heat oil in a thick bottomed pan .

Wash and peel the skin of egg plant, onion and cut into thin rounds and keep aside. Cut green bell pepper into 4 inch strips and keep aside.

In a medium bowl, all the ingredients for the batter and slowly add the water to form a thick batter. Not too loose. When you are dipping the vegetables it should covered with the batter.

Once the oil becomes hot about 360 degree Fahrenheit. Dip the vegetables in the batter and slowly add to hot oil few at a time.

When it cooks for about 3 minute on one slide flip the other side and cook another 2 minutes or until they become golden yellow color and crispy. Remove them using slotted spoon and drain the excess oil using a kitchen towel.

Repeat the above process until all the batter and vegetables are used up.

Enjoy with sweet chutney or hot and sour tamarind chutney. I didn’t use any chutney. We had it without any chutney.

Preparation time: 40 minutes
Yield: 4 serving
Verdict: Tasty
Will you make it again: Yes I will

This Deep fried vegetables in Batter/Burmese style Bhaji is going to AWED : Burma  hosted by me originally started by DK.


Swathi