Methi na Gota

the monsoon fritter of Gujarat: fresh fenugreek leaves folded into a spiced gram-flour batter and dropped into hot oil as plump, soft-centred dumplings, eaten with fried green chillies and hot masala tea while the rain falls

Origin: Gujarat, Western India

From the journey of Fenugreek.

Gota are the plump, irregular gram-flour fritters of Gujarat, and methi na gota, made with fresh fenugreek leaf, are the ones eaten when it rains. They belong to the monsoon and to the winter festival of Uttarayan, the kite festival of mid-January, when they are made in enormous quantities and eaten from paper plates on rooftops; and they belong equally to any wet afternoon, fried in a hissing kadhai and carried straight to a table set with hot masala chai and fried green chillies dusted with salt. A gota is not a pakora. The batter is thicker and leavened, made of gram flour and a little coarse wheat or semolina, loosened with yoghurt and water and lifted with a pinch of soda, so that the fritters swell in the oil into soft, rounded dumplings rather than the thin, crisp, lacy fragments of a pakora. Inside they are moist, cakey, and studded with dark green fenugreek leaf; outside they are crisp and golden. The seasoning is unmistakably Gujarati and hinges on the sweet-and-hot balance that runs through the whole cuisine: crushed coriander and black pepper for pungency, a little sugar, lemon juice for sourness, and the clean bitterness of the fenugreek leaf running beneath everything. The batter is left to stand so the leaven can work, and the fritters are fried at a moderate heat so their centres cook through before their surfaces darken. They must be eaten within minutes of leaving the oil.

Ingredients

Batter

150 g fresh fenugreek leaves (methi), picked from their stalks and chopped
200 g gram flour (besan)
3 tbsp coarse semolina (rava) or coarse wheat flour
4 tbsp plain yoghurt
1 tbsp coriander seeds, coarsely crushed
1 tsp coarsely crushed black pepper
1 tbsp ginger and green chilli, finely grated to a paste
0.5 tsp ground turmeric
1 pinch asafoetida (hing)
1.5 tsp sugar
1.5 tsp fine salt
1 tbsp lemon juice
0.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tbsp hot oil, for the batter
100 ml water, approximately

To Fry

1 litre vegetable oil, for deep frying

To Serve

8 green chillies, slit, to fry alongside

Method

Wash and drain the fenugreek leaves thoroughly and chop them. In a large bowl combine the gram flour, semolina, crushed coriander seeds, black pepper, ginger-chilli paste, turmeric, asafoetida, sugar, and salt. Add the chopped leaves and rub through.
Add the yoghurt and enough water to make a thick, dropping batter, considerably stiffer than a pancake batter and just able to fall from a spoon. Beat it well with your hand or a whisk for 2 minutes to aerate it. Cover and rest for 20 minutes.
Heat the frying oil in a deep pan to about 170°C. Just before frying, stir the lemon juice and bicarbonate of soda into the batter along with the 2 tablespoons of hot oil taken from the frying pan; it will froth and lighten visibly.
Drop rough dessertspoonfuls of batter into the oil, a few at a time so as not to crowd the pan. Fry for 4 to 5 minutes, turning, until deep golden brown all over and cooked through to the centre.
Lift out with a slotted spoon and drain on paper. Fry the slit green chillies in the same oil for 30 seconds until blistered, and sprinkle them with salt.
Serve the gota immediately, piping hot, with the fried chillies, a fresh coriander chutney or sweet tamarind chutney, and glasses of hot masala tea.

Notes

The gota should taste sweet, hot, sour, and bitter at once; if any one of those is missing, adjust the sugar, chilli, lemon, or methi accordingly. Kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaf), about 5 tablespoons crumbled in, may replace the fresh leaf out of season. Some Gujarati households add a handful of chopped coriander leaf or a little grated bottle gourd to the batter. The bicarbonate may be replaced by a teaspoon of Eno fruit salt, which is what most modern Gujarati cooks use. Leftover gota can be revived briefly in a hot oven, though they will never be quite what they were.

The Gastrographer

Name: Methi na Gota
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 5
Cuisine: Western India
Ingredients: 150 g fresh fenugreek leaves (methi), picked from their stalks and chopped; 200 g gram flour (besan); 3 tbsp coarse semolina (rava) or coarse wheat flour; 4 tbsp plain yoghurt; 1 tbsp coriander seeds, coarsely crushed; 1 tsp coarsely crushed black pepper; 1 tbsp ginger and green chilli, finely grated to a paste; 0.5 tsp ground turmeric; 1 pinch asafoetida (hing); 1.5 tsp sugar; 1.5 tsp fine salt; 1 tbsp lemon juice; 0.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda; 2 tbsp hot oil, for the batter; 100 ml water, approximately; 1 litre vegetable oil, for deep frying; 8 green chillies, slit, to fry alongside

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control