Paneer Pakoda ~ Cottage Cheese Fritters

Simple but tasty, easy to made, my all time favourite snack......

Ingredients:

• Paneer (Cottage cheese)- 150 gm 
• Green paste- 2 tsp
• Red chili powder- ½ tsp + ½ tsp
• Cumin powder- ½ tsp
• Turmeric powder- ½ tsp
• Carom seeds (Ajwain), crushed- ½ tsp
• Asafetida (Hing)- ¼ tsp (optional)
• Soda bicarbonate (baking soda)- a pinch
• Salt- to taste
• Gram flour (besan)- ¾ cup
• Water- ½ cup
• Oil- as required 

Green paste: Grind all ingredients (garlic-5 cloves, 1 inch of ginger piece, 3 to 4 green chilies, a handful of fresh coriander, some mint leaves, salt) into smooth paste.

Method:

• Cut cottage cheese into approx half inch sized cubes. (I like to keep this small bite size. Thus paneer marinate well. Pakoda requires less oil to fry and less time to fry.) 
• Marinate paneer cubes with  ½ tsp chili powder, cumin powder, green paste and salt to taste for 1 to 2 hours.
• Heat a sufficient oil in a wok/kadhai. 
• Meanwhile, combine gram flour, ½ tsp red chili powder, turmeric powder, hing, carom seeds, baking soda and salt in one bowl. Add water gradually and whisk well to make a batter of a coating consistency. 
• Add 1 tsp hot oil/mohan in the batter and mix well.
•  Dip each paneer cube into the batter and deep fry on low to medium heat till golden brown. 
• Serve hot with a mint chutney and tamarind chutney.