Pakora

Pakora is vegetable pieces dipped in a spiced gram-flour batter and deep-fried until the coating turns crisp and irregular. It's India's fritter, and it's genuinely built around whatever's on hand — onion, potato, spinach, cauliflower and eggplant are all common, and a household will often mix several vegetables into one batch rather than sticking to just one.

What it really is

A thick batter of gram flour, water and spices — cumin, chilli, turmeric, a pinch of ajwain — coats sliced or chopped vegetables, and each piece drops into hot oil to fry until the batter turns deep golden and genuinely crisp, its surface uneven and craggy rather than smooth. Unlike a tempura's light, lacy coating, pakora batter is thicker and more heavily spiced, meant to carry real flavour on its own rather than just crisping around the vegetable.

The batter is meant to be thick and heavily spiced, not a light, neutral coating. A pakora batter thinned down to a tempura-style lightness loses the point — the batter itself is meant to taste of something, seasoned enough to stand on its own, not just there to hold the vegetable together and crisp up.

How it's served

• Hot, straight from the fryer, with mint or tamarind chutney.
• With tea, especially during monsoon season — a well-known pairing.
• As a starter or snack, sold from street stalls or made at home.

How to write it on the menu

• It's naturally vegan and vegetarian.
• No major allergens are inherent to the base recipe.
• Say which vegetables are used, since the mix varies by kitchen and season.