Pretty much any vegetables can be used for these – aubergine, courgettes, peppers, cauliflower, onion, mushroom etc. We used aubergines and zucchini and they were really quite delicious. They are good accompanied by the dhal.

The idea is to get everything into very thin rounds or sticks, no more than 2-3 mm (cauli into 1.5cm florets)

Ingredients
For the batter

4 tbsn gram flour (chick pea flour)
2 tsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp kholanji (nigella seeds/black onion seeds)
1tsp baking powder
75-100 ml water

Mix all batter ingredients together till smooth – how much water you use will determine the final consistency with a larger volume producing a thinner version and vice versa. How thin the batter is will determine how easily it slides off your veg pieces – again, a thinner one will stick less so the batter will be lighter.

Heat some vegetable oil in a wok/pan/karai and heat till a drop of the batter sizzles when dripped in. Now start coating your veg and adding to the pan, being careful to turn and do the other side till a pale golden brown and not to overcrowd the pan – it’s far better to do several batches rather then attempting it in one which will likely result in soggy veg/batter! And we don’t want that, do we?

You can season with some salt if you like – I also sprinkled a few dried red chili flakes and a pinch of garam masala.