Pakora

Smoked paneer crumbled with corn kernels, diced brown onion, curry leaves and a long green chilli, bound in a turmeric-spiced gram flour batter and deep-fried in spoonfuls. Crisp on the outside, soft in the centre, the kind of monsoon snack you eat hot off the spoon. Serve with tamarind chutney.

Pakora (or pakoda, depending on the region) is the broader Indian deep-fried vegetable-fritter family that includes onion bhaji, aloo pakora, palak pakora and a hundred regional variations. The defining feature is the besan (gram flour) batter, which provides a crisp, slightly nutty shell that holds together against the hot oil without absorbing it the way wheat-flour batters do.

Smoked paneer is the modern upgrade on the standard plain paneer. Sourced from Indian grocers or made at home (paneer hung over a smoking pan of wood chips for ten minutes), the smoke adds a savoury, almost bacon-leaning depth that the corn and curry leaves play against perfectly. Crumbled rather than diced so the paneer integrates into the batter rather than sitting in discrete cubes.

Kashmiri chilli powder (mild, deep red, used as much for colour as for heat) gives the pakora its distinctive red-orange tint without overwhelming the dish with chilli heat. Drop spoonfuls of batter into 180-degree oil; turn after ninety seconds; drain on paper. Tamarind chutney for the sweet-sour foil, green coriander chutney for the herbal hit. Chai on the side, a wet afternoon outside, the only acceptable accompaniments.