Bhajia - Potato, Onion and Cauliflower

So yeah theweathernetwork dot com did say it is going to be raining today. I have learned to pay little attention to weather channel (rarely accurate, dont they?) despite the fact that I do check it everyday. However, I don't need weather network to tell me it's going to rain today, it has been looking all gloomy and dark all morning. Took the umbrella with me for varous meetings. Yet I managed to leave it in the car while going into post office, dropping in few boxes - was quite shock to know 1 kg costs $15 and 5 kg = $22!! Anyway, I thought, heh, 5 minutes, how bad could it be?! It won't be pouring rain all of sudden, will it? It took me longer than 5 minutes. As I inched my way out the door, there were at least a dozen people standing under the awnings in the hope to protect themselves from nasty rain!! So, should I stand there too? Or should I just run?

Car was not too far and I was to pick up Vik from his meeting. So, I dashed!!! Hoping to put all my training to the test. Well, I never train under pouring rain so I skidded a little bit and by the time I got into the car, my jeans was soaked all the way to my knee. All in less than 1 minute time.

Vik quickly pointed out that he was hungry - at 4.30 pm!! Asked me what's for dinner and I told him that I have some chicken marinated overnight for Tandoori Chicken. He was just thrilled. Not because it is my 'special' dish or anything, but he has been disappointed on Tandoori Chicken from our favorite Indian Restaurant. It has always been very good until the past couple months, it becomes a hit and miss dish. Then Vik says 'Can you make some bhajia too? Piping hot bhajia sounds good in this rainy weather'

In normal circumstances, I'd have shove him out off the door. What?!!! I was half soaked, had to deal with a grumpy client not too long ago, and I already have a perfect dinner planned: Tandoori Chicken, Aloo Gobi curry, rice and naan. Have all these steps in my head - put chicken in oven, roast the vegetables, make the sauce, take quick hot shower. Then I am all done. But see, this is not at all..not at all...a normal request from Vik. Flashnews: Vik does not like fried food. He'd never ever order pakoras or bhajias in restaurants. There are some exceptions, but never pakoras, bhajias, samosas, etc. So in conclusion, he must be in serious cravings for it. I just could not say no. Also..I love fried food. :)

Oil issue aside. We both don't like heavily battered fritters - and most restaurants tend to have a thick coat of batter. So I went to work on fritters after popping in chicken to oven as well as cauliflower and potatoes.
I mix and match the ingredients. Just cauliflower. Potatoes, onions and jalapenos. Cauliflower, zucchini and jalapenos. The 'just cauliflower' ones is really for me. I like it that way. But at the end, I only ate about 3..

What:
- chickpea/ gram flour
- water (my ratio of flour: water is something like 1/2 cup flour to 1 1/2 cup water - very thin batter, basically it's just a thin coating for fritters)
- garam masala
- hot chillies powder
- salt and pepper
- cumin powder
- assorted vegetables:
- potatoes, slice thinly
- cauliflower, cut to bite size florets
- onions, slice
- jalapenos, slice
- zucchini, julienne

How:
- Heat oil in pot.
- Mix flour, water, garam masala, salt, pepper, hot chillies powder, cumin. Whisk.
- For cauliflowers, dip it to batter, give it a quick shake (to let excessive batter drips) and drop it carefully to hot oil.
- For the mix: Mix the vegetables in separate bowl. It can be done two ways: Either mix in the batter to vegetables. Spoon a spoonful of it and drop to hot oil. Or, I use slotted spoon, scoop dry vegetable mix, dip to batter, lift and let excess batter drips off through spoon. Then gently drop fritter to hot oil. Fry until golden.

We eat it with trio sauce of coriander chutney, sweet and hot sauce, and sambal ABC.