The first time I saw a White-tailed Nuthatch, it was eating spinach pakora. I was bird watching on Snow View Ridge above Nanital in Northern India. Even if you're not into birds, Snow View ridge is an interesting place to visit. It's easy to reach (if you're in Nanital, that is), as a cable car runs from the centre of Nanital town to the crest of the ridge. The trip is fun in itself, but the views from the top on a clear winter morning are spectacular. You can see a three-hundred kilometre stretch of the Himalaya in the distance (there's a couple of not-very-impressive photos in one of my India photos pages).
So how did the spinach pakora get up onto snow view ridge? Well, it didn't really travel far at all. It was created at a snack stall on the ridge and consumed close by, mostly at a collection of rustic tables under some pine trees (although some of it was consumed at a slightly higher elevation amongst the branches of the pine trees).
Ingredients
3 cups of gram flour
I cup of wheat flour
2 cups of yoghurt
Salt
Cold water
I tsp. ground ginger
Half tsp. chilli powder
Oil
A large bunch of tender spinach leaves, washed and drained
To make the batter, put the gram flour, youghurt, salt and spices in a bowl and mix together. Stir the mixture and add cold water gradually until it has the consistency of thick cream (or thin custard).
Heat the oil in a large deep frying pan or wok. It's ready when a small cube of bread browns in 30 seconds, so keep a few cubes handy for testing. When the oil is ready turn the heat down a little. Take three or four spinach leaves and place them one on top of the other. Hold the bunch by the stalks and dip it into the batter mix. Transfer the battered leaves quickly, but carefully, to the pan of oil. Don't pile the pakoras on top of each other. Lay them side by side. As they begin to cook they will flat to the top of the oil. Fry for 3 or 4 minutes on one side then turn them over and cook for another 2 or 3 minutes. They should be golden rather than brown when they are ready . When you lift one load of cooked pakoras out of the pan, place them on a layer of several sheets of absorbent paper. Cover with another layer of paper and repeat the process with the next lot of pakoras, and so on.