Monsoons bring life to heated soul and body. When the first drop of rain touch the ground,after months of scorching heat, mother Earth breath a sigh of relief. Though in India Monsoon is often accompanied by unfavorable road conditions and chaos,but then who cares,because all we know is that it rejuvenate our life and nature. It is that time of the year when our body wants to get drenched in rain, our self (soul) need some poetry and songs to show its happiness and gratitude to nature and our taste buds crave for some hot,tangy,deep fired and spicy food. This season is for chats, samosas, pPani puri or puchkas, pakoras and many more regional savories.

  I belong to a city ,which is known as the king of street foods in India. The streets are flooded with eateries which offer cuisines of almost every region and country. You can go away from the city but the city's food life will haunt you for ever. Yes, I am terribly missing my city, the food and the rains are just making it worse for me. Almost every day I crave for Kolkata style fish fry, egg rolls, muglai parathas and chicken dumplings.

This year too I am enjoying my cozy cup of tea with some of my favorite Bengali Monsoon savories like beguni (brinjal fry soaked in basan), aloor chop (potato fry snacks)and piyaji (onion fry soaked in basan), but this time I am also exploring some other Asian snacks. One such snack,which is worth mentioning and preparing is called Tempura Fried Shrimps or shall I say shrimps fried in Tempura batter. This is a Japanese dish where they fry vegetables,shrimps and other sea food in a batter which they prepare with soft wheat flour and cold water,along with other few ingredients. I am sure you will enjoy this recipe and I promise that soon I will be back with some more interesting and delicious Asian snack recipes. So, hope you all have a wonderful time this Monsoon. Enjoy.

We have some fixed recipe preferences for every season,like in winter we prefer all kind of soups and bread , we welcome spring with varieties of sweets and savories,summers are for smoothies and fresh salads and monsoons call for all kind of fritters and croquets along with brewed coffee or tea. After months of scorching heat, we welcome clouds with plate full of begunies and pakoras. Thunderstorms and lightning drag us to the kitchen to prepare something really fast so that we can enjoy the drops of rain sitting by the window.

Ingredients :

• Kumro Patha (Pumpkin leafs) - 7 to 8 pcs
• Gram Flour ( Besan) - 1/2 Cup
• Mustard Paste - 1 Tbs
• Maida (flour) - 2 Tbs
• Cumin Powder - 1/2 Tbs
• Turmeric - 1/2 Tbs
• Red Chilli powder - 1/2 Tbs
• Salt - 1 Tbs