Bamboo shoot fritters/ Kanile pakora

Cooking with bamboo shoots may be new for many here. For people from coastal Karnataka, North east India, China, Japan it is very well known and bamboo shoot is one of most loved vegetables. It is well known for its nutritional richness and health benefits though raw bamboo shoot contains poisonous content. Hence it can be very harmful if not followed the procedure properly Ideally cooking in 100 deg celcius is recommended before using in any dish. Bamboo shoot is liked for its crunchy texture and the unique flavor. It goes well in stir fry, sambhar, Kanile soup…

Generally June, July is the season of bamboo shoots that is when it rains. But we can harvest bamboo shoots/ bamboo sprouts throughout the years if you have a bush of hybrid bamboo grown as show plant. Please make sure to identify the edible  variety of bamboo if using it.

Now let us check the recipe for this unique snacks, bamboo shoot pakoda or bamboo sprout fritter or kanile pakora.

Preparation time: 45 minutes

Cooking time: 20-30 minutes
Serves - 4

Ingredients:

Finely chopped bamboo shoot (pre-processed*) – 1 cup

Chopped onions - 2 medium

Finely chopped curry leaves/ coriander leaves (or both) – 2-3 tbsp

Green chillis (chopped) – 2 (optional)

Gram flour – ½ cup

Rice flour/ fine semolina – 2 tbsp

Salt – to taste (about 1 tsp)

Chilli powder – ½ tsp

Asafoetida – 2 pinches

Cumin seeds – 1 tsp

Crushed garlic – 6 cloves

Oil - for deep frying.

 

Method:

• If using raw bamboo shoot, then peel the outer shells & chop finely. Boil with water required water couple times draining the water completely after boiling. Check my post on cleaning and processing bambooshoots before using in the dish.
• Peel, wash and chop onions.
• Wash green leaves of choice and chop finely. Chop green chillis too if using.
• Take all the chopped vegetables, chopped & processed bamboo shoots in a large mixing bowl.
• Add all the spices like cumin, chilli powder, asafoetida/ hing, crushed and chopped garlics to the bowl. Add salt too.
• Now add the flours like gram flour and rice flour (or small semolina). Mix everything well with your fingers.
• In a thick bottomed frying pan, take enough oil to deep fry. Heat it in medium flame.
• Fry pakoras/ fritters in batches until it is light brown color and cooked well.
• You can make small balls/ or flat vadas as you wish or even you can even make it as onion pakoras.
• After frying spread the pakoras on tissue papers to remove excess oil.
• Serve hot pakoras with hot cup of coffee or tea.

Notes:

• Optionally, you can add ¼ cup of chopped cabbage which enhances the flavour of pakodas.
• Check the link to learn *pre-processing of bambooshoots if you are making for the first time. Boiling and discarding the boiled water is important if you are using fresh bamboo shoots. This is not required if using canned bamboo shoot. Follow the steps mentioned in it.
• Optionally you can add other green leaves in this recipe such as moringa/ drumstick leaves. I even add handful of vitamin leaves/ chakramuni soppu in it sometimes.