Pagila / Kantola / Spine Gourd / Teasel Gourd ~ Crispies ....... A deep fried crispy fingers you can enjoy anytime of the day .......
You either love or hate Monsoon .... but Me .... I simply love Rains ...... for many reasons ..... in childhood it was to play in rains and leave those paper boats, while in college days it was for those zzzzooom rides on my scooty / bike and now its to prepare all those seasonal dishes ....... but above all I love those fried snacks like bajos, pakodas, samosas, corns, fritters, soups, crispies …. Ohhhh ….. my list is endless .... with a good book in hand …... So here are some “Pagila / Kantola / Spine Gourd / Teasel Gourd ~ Crispies” ..... Go ahead and Enjoy them ….. there is enough for all ..... Yumz ......
Wash 3-4 large sized pagila / kantola well, taking care to see that you remove all the dirt that sticks to the rough skin of the pagila.
Slice off the stem side edge of the pagila. Cut it vertically first to slices and then again to cut them vertically into even strips.
Put the cut strips into a large steel bowl. Add 1 tblsp of chilly powder, 2 tblsp of besan / gram flour,1 tblsp of rice flour, ½ tsp hing powder, ½ tsp haldi powder, salt to taste and mix well. Now add in ½ cup of water and mix well. Keep sprinkling water and mixing all ingredients till you get the texture of evenly coated strips with besan batter. The batter should not be runny. It should just coat the strips.
Heat plenty of oil in a thick bottomed kadai for deep frying, when smoking hot lower the heat and wait for a few minutes till the smoke passes off. Now add in the strip one by one into the hot oil. Do not overcrowd the kadai, there should be enough place left for proper frying of the pagilas, you should be able to stir them properly. So cook them in batches of 3-4 depending upon the size of your kadai and the oil added.
Allow the pagilas to cook for 3 minutes and then stir them gently and evenly. Let cook till crispy and evenly browned. Keep stirring often till you get the desired texture.
Now remove the fried pagila through a slotted spatula draining off excess oil into the kadai and put them in an absorbent paper for the excess oil to drain off.
Repeat the process with the remaining prepared besan coated pagilas in similar way. Keep the heat / temperature of the oil constant at the same degree. This is to ensure proper and even cooking lest the pagila’s will go limp after some time.
Put all the crispily fried pagila’s int the absorbent paper. Serve these hot with Dal-Chawal or any other dish during lunch / dinner. You can enjoy this just as it is like a snack with tea / coffe / juice etc. too. They taste wonderful as a tiffin snack too.
** You can also check in on pagila bajo / spine gourd fritters that taste wonderful too ….
For the Recipe of Spine Gourd Fritters, Please follow the link given below ……
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Thanks.