Piyaji aka pyazi is a Bengali delicacy which is prepared and sold in almost every nook and corner of Bengal by street vendors. This scrumptious and comforting recipe for pakoda is vastly popular in the subcontinents of eastern India. It has got the perfect bite of crispiness with the amazing flavour of onion. This deep-fried fritter is the amalgamation of thinly sliced onions, green chillies, gram flour and some seasonings which are mixed and then deep-fried in small portions. Pyaz pakora recipe is a perfect companion for evening snacks with a cup of tea and a bowl of muri aka puffed rice.
Bengal is the heaven of street food and myriad chop recipes, rolls, cutlets and pakodas which are prepared on the street corners, line hotels and restaurants. Tele bhaja, I mean deep fried stuffs are always a big forte of Bengali street food and peyaji recipes are one of them.
Table of Contents
About the recipe
Tips and Suggestions
How to make Piyaji (step wise photos)
Recipe Card
What is piyaji?
Piyaji is basically Bengali-style deep-fried crispy onion fritters. In Bengali, onion is referred to as piyaj. Hence, these delicious fritters are known as piyaji aka peyaji. Piyaji is regularly prepared and sold by street food vendors on the streets of Kolkata.
But you won’t find piyaji at regular sweet shops or vegetarian tele-bhaja shops. In sweet shops, you can get savoury items like singara, kachori, nimki, veg pakoda etc. The veg tele-bhaja shops sell aloor chop, veg chop, beguni etc.
Onion, garlic and even masoor dal are considered as non-veg food among Bengalis. These items are considered rajasik food which produces heat in our body and inflames our passion and incomprehension.
Whenever I talk about peyaji recipe, it always makes me feel nostalgic. I still remember how my dad used to bring hot and crispy onion fritters in kagojer thonga aka paper bags from our regular street food vendor for evening snacks and how we used to devour that with immense pleasure.
In fact, piyaji was one of the most popular snack recipes in our student life. We used to buy onion fritters with puffed rice for evening snacks.
But after leaving Bengal for a job, I used to crave Bengali street food badly. Even now, whenever I go to my hometown, I always visit street food stalls and have different types of pakoda, cutlet and chop recipes to satisfy my craving and to give a throwback to the memories of school & college days.
Piyaji is a very simple and easy-to-make recipe. It only requires a few handfuls of ingredients to get prepared. In fact, it is a perfect recipe for a novice. The best part of the recipe is that it gets prepared very quickly without investing much time.
Ingredients for Piyaji
Onion: The primary ingredient of the recipe which provides taste, texture and flavour.
Green chilli: It gives a heaty taste to the dish.
Gram flour & all-purpose flour: Other most important ingredients for the recipe which help to bind the onion slices for pakoda.
Rice flour: The addition of rice flour makes the pakoda crispier in texture.
Salt & Sugar: Both ingredients provide a basic sweet and salty taste to the pakodas.
Turmeric powder: The addition of turmeric powder is completely optional. You can skip it but it gives a nice colour to the piyaji.
Oil: Oil is used to deep fry the fritters.
Piyaji with step-by-step photos and instructions have been provided in the ‘Instructions’ section. I have included a few tips and tricks below to make the recipe easier for you. If you follow the steps carefully, you will get the perfect crispy onion fritters.
Tips to prepare perfect Piyaji
- Try to thin-slice the onions because if you slice them thick then they won’t be crispy in texture.
- First add salt, sugar to the sliced onion and mix it nicely with your hand and separate the layers of onion for better texture.
- Don’t add water during the time of adding flour. Leave the mixture for 10-15 minutes to let the onion release moisture.
- Don’t add too much flour to the pakoda mixture or else the pakoda will turn soft.
- You can adjust the amount of green chilli according to your choice.
- Use a small portion of rice flour with gram flour. It helps to make your pakoda crispy.
- Always deep fry the piyajis. Shallow frying makes the pakoda soft and soggy.
- Fry the pakodas on medium flame. Don’t fry them on low flame or else the batter will absorb more oil and pakodas will become soggy.
How to make Peyaji?
To prepare piyaji, first, peel the onions and wash them. Thinly slice the onions and transfer them to a mixing bowl. Add chopped green chillies, salt and sugar, one by one into the mixing bowl and mix them thoroughly with your hand so that the layers of onion slices get separated.
Then add gram flour, all-purpose flour, rice flour, turmeric powder into the mixing bowl and mix it nicely. Cover the bowl and keep it aside for 10-15 minutes. Then again mix the pakoda mixture nicely. The onions will release moisture and no external water needs to be added to the batter.
Now, put a pan on flame and allow it to become completely dry. Add enough oil to the pan to deep fry the pakodas. To check the temperature of the oil, drop a small portion of the batter into the oil. If it floats up immediately then the temperature of the oil is perfect to fry the pakodas.
Once the oil is hot, put the flame on medium and drop small and flat portions of the pakoda batter into the pan slowly with help of your hand. Don’t overcrowd the pan.
Fry them evenly over medium flame for 2-3 minutes from both sides till crispy and golden brown in colour. Flip the pakodas in between during the time of frying for a couple of times. Drain the excess oil and transfer the piyaji onto a plate lined with kitchen tissue. The kitchen tissue will absorb the excess oil from the pakodas.
Many recipe for pakoda has already been shared in my previous posts. You can check a few of them like
Capsicum Bajji
Cabbage Pakoda
Spinach pakoda
Aloo pakoda
..And Many more…
Ingredients:
1 cup = 250 ml
- 4 Onions, thinly sliced
- 2-3 green Chillies, chopped
- 3 tablespoons Besan aka gram Flour
- 3 tablespoons Maida aka all-purpose Flour
- 1½ tablespoons Rice flour
- ½ teaspoon Turmeric powder (Optional)
- ¾ teaspoon Sugar
- ¾ teaspoon Salt
- Oil to deep fry the fritters
Instructions:
- First, peel 4 onions and wash them. Thinly slice the onions and transfer them to a mixing bowl.
- Add 2-3 chopped green chillies, ¾ teaspoon salt and ¾ teaspoon sugar, one by one into the mixing bowl and mix them thoroughly with your hand so the layers of onion slices get separated.
- Add 3 tablespoons of gram flour, 3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour, 1½ tablespoons of rice flour, ½ teaspoon of turmeric powder into the mixing bowl and mix it nicely.
- Cover the bowl and keep it aside for 10-15 minutes. Then again mix the pakoda mixture nicely.
- Now, put a pan on flame and allow it to become completely dry. Add enough oil to the pan to deep fry the pakodas. To check the temperature of the oil, drop a small portion of the batter into the oil. If it floats up immediately then the temperature of the oil is perfect to fry the pakodas.
- Once the oil is hot, put the flame on medium and drop small and flat portions of the pakoda batter into the pan slowly with help of your hand. Don’t overcrowd the pan.
- Fry them evenly over medium flame for 2-3 minutes from both sides till crispy and golden brown in colour. Flip the pakodas in between, while frying for a couple of times.
- Drain the excess oil and transfer the piyaji onto a plate lined with kitchen tissue. The kitchen tissue will absorb the excess oil from the pakodas.
Serving Instruction
Transfer the peyaji recipe to a serving plate. Serve the hot pakoda immediately with a cup of tea and some puffed rice to enjoy your evening snacks.
Ingredients
1 cup = 250 ml
- 4 Onions, thinly sliced
- 2-3 green Chillies, chopped
- 3 tablespoons Besan aka gram Flour
- 3 tablespoons Maida aka all-purpose Flour
- 1½ tablespoons Rice flour
- ½ teaspoon Turmeric powder (Optional)
- ¾ teaspoon Sugar
- ¾ teaspoon Salt
- Oil to deep fry the fritters
Instructions
- First, peel 4 onions and wash them. Thinly slice the onions and transfer them to a mixing bowl.
- Add 2-3 chopped green chillies, ¾ teaspoon salt and ¾ teaspoon sugar, one by one into the mixing bowl and mix them thoroughly with your hand so the layers of onion slices get separated.
- Add 3 tablespoons of gram flour, 3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour, 1½ tablespoons of rice flour, ½ teaspoon of turmeric powder into the mixing bowl and mix it nicely.
- Cover the bowl and keep it aside for 10-15 minutes. Then again mix the pakoda mixture nicely.
- Now, put a pan on flame and allow it to become completely dry. Add enough oil to the pan to deep fry the pakodas. To check the temperature of the oil, drop a small portion of the batter into the oil. If it floats up immediately then the temperature of the oil is perfect to fry the pakodas.
- Once the oil is hot, put the flame on medium and drop small and flat portions of the pakoda batter into the pan slowly with help of your hand. Don’t overcrowd the pan.
- Fry them evenly over medium flame for 2-3 minutes from both sides till crispy and golden brown in colour. Flip the pakodas in between, while frying for a couple of times.
- Drain the excess oil and transfer the piyaji onto a plate lined with kitchen tissue. The kitchen tissue will absorb the excess oil from the pakodas.
