Vegetable Skin Pakoda's

When i tell my friends about our style of cooking i.e. Bengali style, we hardly throw any part of vegetables  except few unless absolutely necessary, they laugh at me saying that you guys do not need dustbins......... anyways this particular dish is a very good solution when you have weekend parties you have to prepare lot of dishes & sometimes you even have to think about people who are pure vegetarians...you need to serve veg as well as non veg appetizers, so while you are cooking the main course you can prepare this dish  & serve as veg appetizer.Whichever vegetable curry or salad you are making you can save the skin's i.e Potato, Cucumber, carrot, pumpkin, Lauki( Bottle Gourd), Torai(Ridge Gourd), etc the list is endless to make this dish.......so you can save some time for other items. This dish is always a hit in my weekend parties. Sometimes i save the skin's of all the vegetables over the week & make the pakoda's during the weekend as it compliments Sambar or any masala or plain dal very well or you can have them with tea........

Ingredients:-

• 1 cup of (mix Veg) vegetable Skin
  
• 5 tbs of Gram Flour
  
• 2 tbs of Rice flour
  
• 1tsp of Turmeric Powder
  
• 1tsp of Chilly powder (add more for extra spicy)
  
• 1tsp of Poppy seeds
  
• 1tsp of Carom seeds(Ajwain)( Optional)
  
• 1tsp of Sesame seeds
  
• 1 tbs of Oil
  
• Salt to taste
  

Method:-

1. Mix all the  above ingredients except for the veg skin's in a bowl with water to get a thick pourable batter .
   
2. Now add the veg skin's to it.
   
3. Let the batter stand for 15 to 20 min.
   
4. Heat oil in a heavy bottom wok, as soon as smoke starts coming out of  the oil  put the skin's  & fry till  it turns golden brown.
   
5. Put them on paper towel to soak all the extra oil & serve hot with ketchup or any chutney.
   

Suggestion:-

1. If you do not have rice flour you can substitute with sooji or grits.
   
2. If you are saving the veg skin's for the weekend put few drops of lemon juice  to prevent them from becoming black.
   
3. Store in air tight container or in cling wrap immediately.( take a small sheet of cling wrap, now put the veg skin's in the middle,, roll the sheet & twist both the ends tightly, will stay fresh for a week or so).