KARACHI: What is it about rain, or even cloudy weather for that matter, that everyone wants to have pakoras?

“Looks like it is going to really pour today,” my friend observes looking out her balcony. “Let me check if we have besan [chickpea flour] at home to make pakoras,” she says. And locating the big plastic jar of gram flour in a kitchen cabinet, she goes about checking what vegetables she can use in making the fritters.

Outside on the roads the aroma of fresh fried fritters beckons as it complements the scent of rain falling on the dry muddy ground. There are queues forming outside all the places making pakoras.

There is Mohammad Yamin Lahooti selling sizzling pakoras near the Sindh Secretariat. He has a choice on offer. There are the potato and green chilli fritters and the mix vegetable fritters. The potato and mix vegetable ones cost Rs100 per quarter kilogram, which is the ideal amount to buy for a person. And each long green chilli fritter is for Rs10.

Lahooti, who has been selling fritters at this very spot for the last 24 years, says he makes the green chilli fritters with extra care. “I make a cut in the green chillies to take out most of the seeds and fill in sweet and sour imli [tamarind] paste,” he says.

Lahooti also says that he doesn’t make his fritters from packaged chickpea flour, or besan. I only use lentils soaked in water before being crushed,” he gives away his secret. He sprinkles chaat masala on the fritters for extra taste.

During the rain, Lahooti covers his little makeshift roadside stall with a canvas cover.

“Or the rain will put out the fire under my wok and also fall into the sizzling oil,” he explains, smiling.

At Bohra Bazaar, meanwhile, the old Nimko shop, which has been there since 1947 and handed over from one generation to the next, also has a huge demand for their famous fritters.

Mohammad Shabbir of Nimko says that their mix vegetable fritters are the biggest sellers. The tray heaped with the fritters made from a mix of onions, spinach, potato and green chillies gets empty in no time and he is reaching for the intercom to ask his kitchen staff to hurry up with another batch.

The fritters at this place are light golden unlike the usual brown ones. “We only use besan to make our pakoras,” says Shabbir. “And since we are constantly selling from around 10.30am to Maghrib, the oil used for the deep frying also remains fresh. Fresh oil makes a lot of difference to the colour and taste of pakoras,” he says.

The recipe for fritters is simple though there can be several small variations made to it that can make all the difference. My grandmother’s secret ingredient was a beaten egg added to the batter. Similarly, some add extra baking soda to their batter to make their fritters more fluffy. Some also add a tablespoon or two of yogurt. Some add coriander leaves, some mint and some may add pomegranate seeds.

Then come the requests from family members to not add this or that or make just plain onion, potato or even tomato fritters. But whatever the request, “garma garam pakoray”, or sizzling hot fritters, in the rainy weather reign supreme.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2018