Last Updated on February 6, 2014 by Babita
Yesterday I had this brilliant idea to make mozzarella cheese pakoras/bhajis. The weather outside was horrible with freezing rain, the kids had day off from school and I needed content for my blog. So you see it was a perfect day to show love to some deep-fried goodness. The fact that I had all the ingredients at home tempted me more towards this route.
However, after I started to make this I realized it was a huge mistake and the recipe turned out to be a disaster.
Before I start explaining my recipe failure, let me describe to you what a pakora is. Pakora or bhaji is a type of preparation where you would take any kind of vegetable or firm cheese, dip it in chickpea flour batter and deep-fry it. It is similar to fritters or tempura in texture but different in taste.
If you go to any restaurants in Mumbai (Bombay, India), most likely to you will come across cheese pakoras. I decided to improvise and use mozzarella cheese to make these pakoras. My head told me not to, but my heart told me to go for it. I told myself unless I risk it I wouldn’t know. So I quickly prepared the batter, added some salt and to make it different I added Italian seasoning instead of Indian.
I cut out the mozzarella slab into 2” strips and dipped them in the batter and dropped them in the oil. In the beginning all was well, my girls were hovering and drooling, the pakoras were cooking, but as the mozzarella cheese started to melt, it started to leak and spread out in the oil. It then started to stick down the frying pan and basically I ended up having burnt bits of mozzarella all over the pakoras. So naturally I was upset. I wanted to throw in the towel along with the cheese, the oil and everything around it.
My girls however stopped me and egged me to continue and finish frying up rest of the mozzarella cheese. TEE and S did not care how the mozzarella cheese pakoras looked; as long as they were edible they were fine with it. I for one was very upset because not only did I not have a perfect recipe, a perfect snack to photograph, I also did not have any content for my blog.
It was then that TEE (who has always been an old soul) asked me to write about the failure and not about the actual recipe. She told me “everything does not have to be perfect all the time. It is okay to mess up and just because you messed up you don’t have to give up. You don’t always have to write about perfect stuff”. Can you believe this coming from a 12 year old? It is like suddenly she was my mom and I was some misbehaving tween (well I was throwing around tantrums like a 12 year old).
Anyway I am glad she gave me such worldly advice and it is because of her that I wrote this post. As for the mozzarella cheese pakoras they were gobbled up within minutes. One thing is certain; I will never be making mozzarella cheese pakoras again.
What about you have you had any epic recipe failures like mine? Did that make you give up?
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I’ve never heard of a pakura but really, they sound amazing. I think your daughter has a great head on her shoulders!
Those look delicious. The taste is all that matters. I love it when we get the chance to learn from our kids and be reminded of what really matters.
What an incredibly smart girl you have there. Life is not perfect but it isn’t meant to be. Great job sharing your failures as well as your successes.
I just had an epic failure last week – tangerine cranberry scones. But I tried to do them both gluten free and low fat. They photographed beautifully. Then I took a bite. Straight into the trash, something I rarely do. But they were pretty much inedible and I couldn’t even think of a way to turn them into anything edible. Not sure if I will attempt it again.
They look yummy but I haven’t been able to tolerate much fried food for the past several years.
These look amazing! I absolutely love anything with mozzarella cheese, I’ll have to try these! Thanks for sharing
Awww that is so sweet! I love when my daughter imparts some of her wisdom on me – some of my most favorite mom moments. Thanks for sharing!
These look really good! I’m a sucker for cheese anything and I’m on a diet haha
It’s amazing the lessons we can learn from our kids! I have had many a failed recipes and have become a better cook because of them – you always have to look at them as learning experiences 🙂
Thanks for sharing #SITSBlogging
Tee is so smart! I was just saying today that my blog is more about me trying and failing than it is about my expertise in something. I loved that you shared the “failure” with us.
I hate when this happens! I have a bad habit of trying new recipes when I’m having some type of get-together. I have the whole picture in my mind of how it’s going to look and taste (and all the compliments I’ll get) and it never seems to happen quite the way I planned. Usually, it tastes good, but I hate that it looks like yuck! Oh well, live and learn. Love that your daughter wanted to post it! It IS nice to see that not everything always goes as planned for other people too!
I have had plenty of recipe flops. We usually just resort to cereal or try to make the most of it!
So true! I’m guilty of not sharing unless it is PERFECT.
Oh, I have many, many failures and I’m slowly learning to accept them along with the successes. Of course, it’s easier said then done, but it sounds like you’re doing a bang up job with raising your kids. So very wise. 🙂
I can relate! The most recent post on my other blog (The Make Your Own Zone) was about some recent disappointing results too. I try to chalk it up to experience and learn from the weird results I get sometimes.
This looks like a toddler friendly dish! and toddlers do not care about the looks!! lol Thanks for sharing this recipe! #SITSBlogging
Kid are a lot wiser than we give them credit for, that’s for sure.
Visiting from the SITSBlogging comment group, and I just had to giggle. I throw tantrums when things don’t turn out how I was hoping, and I always end up writing about my failures too. Plus I am with the kiddos, if it is edible I am eating it. 😉 Have a great day!
I think that sounds really good. Did they taste good? Taste is all that matters. Who cares what it looks like? : )
I have done this too. I actually tried to make vegetable kofta out of them… you have some decent edible pakoras.. I burnt everything. Lol. Yep we need to write about failures too… it’s called ‘experience’ and others will learn from us. 😀
What a wise 12-year-old! I think she was very right in telling you to blog about what went wrong. We’re all human and part of life is having things go wrong! And I honestly don’t think the look like a failure–I would definitely eat them. I’ve had many cooking failures over the years. Probably the most memorable one was when I was a child and my best friend and I were making chocolate chip cookies. We put in a 1/2 cup of salt instead of a 1/2 tsp. We were so confused at first as to why the batter was dry and tried to compensate by adding milk. Needless to say, we did not eat those cookies!
Stopping by from the SITS GIRLS comment love! What beautiful wisdom from your 12 year old!
There are these cookies that my mother in law makes that it has taken me 6yrs to make one batch that wasn’t complete mush… I tried to make the cookie after I got them right and messed them up again….. I will continue to make them and continue to be disappointed….. ugh
I love pakoras! these look fine too. I often have cooking fails – Just an opportunity to improve 🙂
Part of the fun of cooking is have a failed recipe or two. Just keep trying and enjoy snacking on the “fails”. Your daughters have the right idea
I think you did a great job. I’m glad your daughter encouraged you to write this post anyway. I sometimes write about my cooking failures as well. It helps me try to nail it the next time I try it.
Fried cheese! My kids wouldn’t care what it looked like either, they would be there!
What a sweet uplifting words your daughter has said to you. What a blessing to have a child like that 🙂
Thanks Arti… You know TEE always giving gyan..:)
Hey Babs, The Cheese pakoras are looking fine in the picture and am sure must be a fusion of Indian Italian cusine . “T’s” wordly advice… Well what can I say you have got a very smart kid. 🙂
They look excellent and if they taste good, I’m in. I might add some extra spice but I like this dish.
Eliz
Oh heck, it’s the taste that matters for sure! I remember we made a fettucine alfredo once and it turned green! I still don’t know what went wrong there but we ordered a pizza. lol
LOL Liz, I am imaging your green pasta..
wise little girl she is. It’s true i actually posted a quote to instagram that stated “Remind yourself that it’s okay not to be perfect” so go ahead mess up some of the best things come from not being perfect
They didn’t look so bad to me? I am glad they tasted good, even if they didn’t turn out the way you’d hoped. 🙂
My kitchen is always messy with recipes. This looks very yummy!
I completely admit I have never heard of pakoras, but they look delicious <3 x
I fail in cooking recipes all the time, & end up having to cook something totally different or order take out, so yes I do know how you feel
Cheese can make a bit of a melty mess, but I think it’s always worth it. They look yummy!
I mess up – a lot lol. Damn – those look yummy – totally love it. I don’t know how it should look like but just knowing of the mozorella cheese in it makes me drool over here as I look on the food photo.
No such thing as perfection, but you can be perfectly imperfect. That is what makes you, you! 🙂
At the end of the day it does not matter how they look or if they are perfect what counts is how they taste!
I love Mozzarella sticks , it’s fun and easy to make them too
As long as they taste great that’s all that matter right and they still looked pretty yummy to me. 🙂
I am on the verge of drooling! I love anything with cheese, and I’m definitely making this!
Oh wow, those look very tasty. I will have to make these.
Those look so good, I can understand exactly why they stood around waiting and asked you to continue when you wanted to walk away. I am glad it turn out in the end.
IT’s all about flavor for me, presentation doesn’t matter near as much, unless I’m entertaining….
The only thing that is really important is the way it tastes, so you did an awesome job!
Tee is very wise! Us bloggers tend to focus on the perfect, but showing our failures makes us more human. Not just some perfectionist behind the screen.
I agree Theresa. You have summed it up perfect. Like TEE said we don’t have to be perfect all the time.
As long as they tasted good that is all that matters i have messed up alot of ideas in the kitchen but the kids have still been happy with it so i really am not bothered about visual its more the taste 🙂
Well, I don’t know what they were suppose to look like, but they look pretty darn good to me. Don’t be so hard on yourself… I bet they tasted great.
ha, I think I would do much better if I didn’t focus on perfection all the time. TEE is so wise “everything does not have to be perfect all the time. I have a lot of recipes I don’t publish because I don’t have a perfect image. Maybe I should do more about the “failures”. lol
I have no clue what a pakoras is or what it’s supposed to look like, but I guess as long as they were edible, that’s what counts.