When this month’s Indian cooking challenge was announced and ever since I went thru it I was in quite a dilemma as to which one to choose. Arun made it quite easier and announced that he did not want moong dal kachoris. As the peas season is going to come to an end and I had quite a lot of them stored in the fridge I decided to go with peas kachoris. We all loved it very much when we had on a Sunday evening for snacks with lassi. Mmmmmm. Bliss.
MUTTER KI KACHORIS
For the dough:
All purpose flour – 2 cups
Ghee – ¼ cup
Salt – to taste
Water – to knead
Oil – for deep frying
For the filling:
Fresh peas - 1 to 1 ½ cups
Ajwain – ½ tsp
Fennel seeds – ½ tsp
Green chilli – 1
Ginger – ½ inch piece
Red chilli powder – 1 tsp
Coriander leaves – 2 tbsp
Salt – to taste
Oil – 2 tsp
Method:
For the dough : Add salt to the flour and mix it well. Then add ghee to the flour and crumble it well so that it mixes with the flour well. Add water little by little to the flour and knead into dough. The dough should be tight and keep it closed with a damp cloth at all times and let it rest for ½ - 1 hour.
For the filling: Grind peas, fennel seeds, green chilli and ginger coarsely in a mixer grinder. In a kadai heat oil and add ajwain to it. Now add the ground peas mixture, red chilli powder, coriander leaves, salt and cook for a 2 minutes or more till the raw smell disappears. Let it cool.
How to proceed:
Knead the dough once more. Make ping pong sized balls of them and flatten them with your hand to make a cup. If you don’t have the patience ot hard pressed for time like me then an easier way out would be to divide the dough into half and rolling them with a rolling pin on a clean counter top evenly and cutting them out with a cutter or with a katori.
Put around 1 to 1 ½ tsp of the filling into the cup and close it slowly around the edges to make into a ball again. Take the excess dough out and flatten them lightly against your palm.
Slip them slowly into the hot oil and deep fry till they float on top and the sizzling of the oil reduces. You can cook 2-3 kachoris at a time and not more. Drain on an absorbent paper. Serve hot with coriander and mint chutney or top them with thick fresh curd and sprinkle chat masala on top of them. Store in an air tight container for later use.
Tips : Take care not to over cook which leads to change in color and also pay attention to the oil temperature. It should not be smoking hot.