Pakodewala’s secret ingredient: Amma’s love

Nagpur: Mothers. They’ll go to any lengths for their kids. Munna Gupta’s amma was no different. About 30 years ago, when Gupta opened a shop selling moong pakodas, Chandravatidevi Gupta would toil over a heavy stone grinder every day, making a paste of several kilos of soaked lentils that would be fried to make the snack. Amma’s recipe was, as mothers’ recipes are wont to be, very good. It made Gupta’s shop in Sitabuldi so famous, he named it ‘Pakodewala.’ The shop also sells the usual sinful suspects such as samosa, kachori, bread pakoda and aloo bonda (the last one, also Chandravatidevi’s recipe), none of them using any onion or garlic. But it is the moong pakoda that is easily its biggest draw. “When the grinding became too much for amma,” Gupta says, “I decided to give her a break. I chanced upon an electric grinder that was used to make dosa batter. I tried using it for the moong dal and, fortunately, it worked,” he says, adding that it was only after this that he could scale up operations. Gupta goes through 20kg of split moong dal (the green one, with the husk still on) for the savoury fritters every day. Crisp on the outside, they have a spongy texture inside to soak up the mini pool of two chutneys, one with tamarind and green chilli for tang and spice, and another with yoghurt to balance the heat. “Many people ask us what we put in the pakoda to make them so crisp. They wonder if we add bread crumbs. But we don’t add anything to the moong dal paste, apart from salt,” Gupta says. The taste, he insists, is due to the ‘grace of god’ and blessings from his mother, who passed away in 2002. The dal, he says, is soaked for four hours. This is followed by the lengthy grinding process to get plenty of air into the batter so that it becomes very light. The paste-like batter is then scooped by hand and dropped into uniform chunks into the hot oil. The trained hands make the process look much easier, and safer, than it actually is. And here’s another secret: The pakodas are fried once until they are cooked halfway through, rested for some time and then fried on high heat for a second time. Side note: This trick is used to make a lot of deep fried dishes, such as french fries, crispier. “I used to make the pakodas with great speed but had to stop recently due to health reasons,” says the 55-year-old Gupta, who belongs to the third generation of his family selling eatables. His grandfather, who migrated here from Benaras, and father ran a sweets shop on Sitabuldi Main Road. It was Munna’s eldest brother Vijay, along with three other brothers and some cousins, who introduced savoury snacks to the menu. Gupta says rainy season is when demand for the pakodas becomes almost unmanageable. “Most Buldi shop owners buy snacks from our shop. Nitin Gadkariji loves our moong pakodas and aloo bondas. He eats here and takes a parcel for home, too,” Gupta beams. Somewhere, amma must be smiling, too.