Rice Pakora

This recipe for using leftover cooked rice comes from Milk Street Facebook Community member Pragya Chandra of Minneapolis, Minnesota. She combines the rice with aromatics, chickpea flour and a little water, then deep-fries the batter into lacy-surfaced fritters called pakora. If you’re hesitant to deep-fry, an alternative is to reduce the amount of chickpea flour to ⅔ cup, then pan-fry the batter by filling a large cast-iron skillet with about ½ inch of oil, heat over medium-high until shimmering and drop in ¼-cup portions; each will form a patty about 3 inches in diameter that requires 1½ to 2 minutes per side to brown and cook through. Chandra recommends serving the pakora with cilantro chutney and spicy ketchup. (To make a quick and easy curry-spiced ketchup, stir together ½ cup ketchup, 1 tablespoon curry powder, ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, 5 teaspoons lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste.)