Kankada Chips/Kankrol Chips/Spiny Gourd Fritters
When I was a kid, I was never a big fan of Spiny gourd or Kankrol or Kankada. The vegetable was everyone’s favorite in the family except me.
The monsoon vegetable has spines on its surface and resembled to me like a green spiny mouse with a long tail. God!! The much innovative mind at kid times, kept me away from many vegetables. My virtual assumptions in my virtual world always made my mom a super villain as she forced me all these in those days. But as I grew up forced to eat all these, I never knew when these occupied special places in my heart.
This dish, was not my home daily affair, but it was almost everyday listed in the Bhubaneswar office’s daily lunch menu during rainy season.
To unveil the dish, it’s a Pakoda or fritter. And combination is a super hit as it’s a specialty of monsoon season.
The recipe of Kankada chips/Kankrol Chips/ Spiny Gourd fritter goes like this:
Ingredients:
- Spiny Gourd- 250 gms
- Chick pea flour/ Besan – 1 1/2 cup
- Green chilies – 1 piece
- Ginger – 1 cm long
- Garlic – 2-3 medium cloves
- Red chili powder – 1 pinch
- Salt – According to the taste
- Vegetable Oil – For deep frying
Steps of preparation:
- Clean the Spiny Gourd / Kankrol and pat dry.
- Cut into equal thin round slices.
- Crush the green chilies, Ginger and Garlic using a mortar-pestle or grind it in a mixer-grinder without adding water to it.
- In a bowl, add chickpea flour and cut slices of Spiny gourd/Kankrol and ground paste.
- Now add the red chili powder and salt according to the taste and keep the mix for 30 mins.
Kankada Chips – Preparation - Before making pakodas, if the mix is kept well in advance it’s flavorsome and tasty.
- In a wide bottomed pan or Kadhai, heat the vegetable oil.
- Now, put each marinated piece of Spiny gourd and deep fry till it’s golden brown.
Serve it with chutney or ketchup or it can be served as a side dish in a complete meal or vegetarian buffet. The crispiness of the fritter is a delight to the taste bud.
- Spiny Gourd- 250 gms
- Chick pea flour/ Besan – 1 1/2 cup
- Green chilies – 1 piece
- Ginger – 1 cm long
- Garlic – 2-3 medium cloves
- Red chili powder – 1 pinch
- Salt – According to the taste
- Vegetable Oil – For deep frying
- Clean the Spiny Gourd / Kankrol and pat dry.
- Cut into equal thin round slices.
- Crush the green chilies, Ginger and Garlic using a mortar-pestle or grind it in a mixer-grinder without adding water to it.
- In a bowl, add chickpea flour and cut slices of Spiny gourd/Kankrol and ground paste.
- Now add the red chili powder and salt according to the taste and keep the mix for 30 mins.
- Before making pakodas, if the mix is kept well in advance it’s flavorsome and tasty.
- In a wide bottomed pan or Kadhai, heat the vegetable oil.
- Now, put each marinated piece of Spiny gourd and deep fry till it’s golden brown.
does it taste bitter?
Spiny gourd is not bitter like bitter gourd. It has a neutral taste.