Cilantro (Coriander Leaves) Fritters - Dhoney paatar bora

If you know anyone from the northern part of Kolkata you will know about their insatiable appetite for 'teley bhaaja' (deep fried stuff). They will eat anything and everything deep fried. I remember my father putting in requests for deep fried green chillies dipped in gram flour (besan) batter. If it rained then piyaji (onion pakora) was a must with evening tea, with or without moori (puffed rice).  When my parents visited us in Rochester,NY last year we had called some friends over. My Ma made her nature doney paatar bora and and those disappeared in just 2 minutes.

When my friends came over last week I wanted to make some too. It was a last minute decision and as it was already way past midnight in Kolkata I could not even call her to ask for the recipe. So my made my own version and it was pretty close. I could tell my friends loved the cilantro pakoras as these disappeared pretty fast too.  This is what mine looked like. I made the batter using: 

• 1/2 cup of flour
• 2tbs cup of cornflour
• 1 cups of coriander leaves - chopped
• 4-5 green chillies (chopped)
• 2 onion (thinly sliced) 
• Salt  to taste
• 1 tsp of chaat masala and water. 

The batter should be a little thick. I used 2 tablespoons to drop dollops of the batter into hot oil, pressed down a bit and fried till these turned a nice golden brown.

Serve hot with mint chutney or ketchup.