This particular snack is pretty easy to make and looks absolutely stunning. You just need a few ingredients to make it. If you have made bread pakodas before, then its similar to that but has its own sweet and sour twist…;) This is again one of my mom’s recipes and I have seen her preparing this in large quantities once during Christmas.
We used to have a lot of our family friends visiting us on Christmas day to wish and of course have the Christmas Cake and other goodies. And it used to go on through the day with guests coming in from morning. So there used to be a lot of planning and pre-preparation that mom used to do to make sure she doesn’t have to spend the day sweating in the kitchen. I remember helping her assembling the bread and chutneys for the khatta meetha cake one such Christmas. And since we all liked it, she has made it for us after that also.
Few things to keep in mind
- Filling: I have used tomato ketchup and green chutney as the contrast of red and green to the white looks really appealing. However, you can use any other spicy or tangy spreads for this.
- Preparation: It is better not to make the sandwich and leave it for long before frying. Reason being that the bread will start absorbing the liquid in the spreads and become soggy.
Recipe
Ingredient List
- Bread Slices – 5
- Green Chutney (Recipe: https://foodtokwithsherin.wordpress.com/2020/03/07/mint-and-coriander-chutney-green-chutney/)
- Tomato Ketchup
- Gram Flour or Besan – ½ cup
- Salt – ¼- ½ tsp (as per taste)
- Chilli Powder – ¼ tsp
- Asafoetida (Heeng) – a pinch
- Water – enough to make a thick paste
- Oil for frying
Step by Step Process
- To prepare the batter for coating the bread, mix together the gram flour (besan), salt, chilli powder and asafoetida. Add just enough water to make it into a thick paste. The consistency should be such that this batter can coat the bread properly.
- Next prepare the sandwich with the bread slices. Take two bread slices and spread tomato ketchup on both sides and press them together to make a sandwich. Spread the green chutney on the top of this and on the third bread slice and press them together to make a three-slice sandwich.
- Repeat the above process again – once with tomato ketchup and once with the green chutney. And place the last piece of bread on top.
- Heat oil in a pan. While the oil is heating, apply the gram flour paste on all sides of the bread properly. Slowly put the coated bread into the hot oil and let it cook on one side.
- Use a spoon to pour the hot oil on the sides and top of the bread to partially cook the gram flour coating.
- Using two spoons, slowly turn the bread to cook on all sides. Be very careful while doing this to avoid the oil spilling on you.
- Once done, remove from heat onto a tissue paper to drain the excess oil.
- Let it cool before cutting it into pieces. Once cut, this looks like a layered cake. This can be served with ketchup and chutney or enjoyed just plain.
- Check out https://foodtokwithsherin.wordpress.com/2020/03/07/mint-and-coriander-chutney-green-chutney/ for an easy recipe of green chutney.
