Khasta Kachori

I was never fond of kachoris while growing up and hadn't tried making them at home. However, after a request from a family member, I decided to make it at home. These kachoris turned out delicious. I saw a few videos on youtube and understood that the key to a pastry/khasta texture and bite is to fry the kachori on really low heat. 

Also, I have realized the kachoris taste delicious with stuffing like aloo sabji or choley instead of just chutney. So next time you make or buy kachoris, try it out with some stuffing.

Ingredients:

The cover

4 cups all purpose flour

3 tsp salt

8 tsp ghee

water to knead a soft dough

The filling

4 heaped tsp coriander seeds

3 heaped tsp fennel seeds

1 heaped tsp cumin seeds

2 tbsp oil

¼ tsp Asafoetida / Hing

1 inch ginger, grated

2-3 green chillies, finely chopped

1 tbsp kasoori methi, crushed between palms

1 tsp red chili powder

2 tsp - garam masala

1/2 cup besan/chickpea flour

1 cup - Moong dal (soaked and coarse ground)

1 tsp black salt

salt to taste

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp - amchoor /raw mango powder

oil for deep frying

Method 

For the cover

Add the salt and ghee to the all purpose flour and rub the ghee in. The ghee should be very well mixed with the flour. The test to check if the quantity of ghee is enough is to clench some flour in your fist and when you open your fist, it should retain its shape and not fall apart. Then add water to the flour and make a soft dough. Knead till soft and pliable and then keep aside to rest. Cover it with a towl or platic wrap. Taste the dough, and make sure it has a slight salty taste and not bland. Else after frying, the cover will taste very bland.

For the filling

Soak the mung dal till soft (2 hours) Mix together the coriander, fennel and cumin seeds and coarsely grind it. Heat oil in pan and add the hing and then add the ground seed mixture. Stir fry till fragrant and then add the ginger and green chillies, then add the garam masala, kasuri methi, red chilli power, black salt and black pepper. Then add the besan and mix well and cook till the besan starts to smell fragrant. Then add the the mung dal and cook till a dry mixture is formed. If you feel it is too dry, you can add some more oil. However, since this is going to be deep fried, I didn't add anymore. Add salt, sugar, and amchoor powder. Mix well and taste, adjust seasoning if needed. The dough should be slightly salty, since it will get less salty after frying.

Assembly and frying

Take a fistfull of dough and roll it out into a thick 2.5"-3" puri. It should be not be thin. Then add a 2-3 tsp of filling in the center. Gather the edges and bring it together and bring the dough together and pinch it well to seal well. If there is any extra dough, remove it. Flatten into a disc using your palm and roll it lightly to form a thick disc, about 3" diameter. Make sure that the cover is not too thin while you do that.

Heat oil in a deep frying pan. The oil should be luke warm and not too hot. Keep the heat on low/low flame. Then add the kachoris. It should take a couple of minutes for the kachori to start to puff up and start coming to the surface of the oil. Do not be tempted to increase the heat. Once they are puffed up, you can increase the heat slightly, and then fry them till golden brown on both sides.

Serve warm with chutney or potato curry or chole.

Tips

Soak the mung dal in hot water. The mung dal will be ready to be ground in 30-40 mins. This recipe will make about 20 good sized kachoris. Each batch of kachoris takes about 15-20 mins to fry.

Mung Dal Halwa- instant version

I had been wanting to make mug halwa and as it happened, I can across the version of making halwa using dry dal instead of the presoaked one. Well, we had just had dinner and I felt like eating some dessert and decided to make it as it promised to be quick, and it was. And the family liked it so much that I doubled the ingredients and made it again. I made some changed when I doubled the recipe, so I will give both variations below.

Ingredients 
Without milk- half quantity
1/2 cup moong dal, coarsely powdered
1/2 cup jaggery finely cut.
1/4 cup sugar (It wasn't sweet enough with only jaggery, so I added 1/4 cup of sugar after the halwa was cooked. It melted and made the halwa a little fluid, so I cooked it further till I got the appropriate consistency)
3 tbsp ghee - roasted the mung flour in 2 tbsp of ghee and added 1 tbsp after halwa was cooked
1.5 cups water at room temperature
nuts roasted in ghee for garnish - optional

With milk- half, after doubling mung quantity
1 cup moong dal, coarsely powdered
3/4 cup sugar
6 tbsp ghee - roasted the mung flour in 4 tbsp of ghee and added 2 tbsp after halwa was cooked
1 cup water
1 cup milk warmed for 30 seconds in microwave
nuts roasted in ghee for garnish - optional

Method
Measure out the dal, and then pluse it in the blender till coarsely ground. Heat ghee and dal in a pan and roast it on medium low heat till the color deepens and the dal smells fragrant.  It will take a good 10-15 minutes. Roast dal on low heat if possible, as once it starts to change color it will burn easily. Keep on stirring. Next add sugar or jaggery and stir and let it start to melt for a minute or so . Now add water or the water and milk mixture and stir well. The dal will cook in the liquid and initially look like kheer. It will thicken slowly as the dal absorbs the water. Cook it and keep stirring
Till alll the water is absorbed and thicken it to the texture you prefer. It can be soft or a little dry. Add additional ghee and mix and turn off the heat. Garnish with nuts if using. You can also add cardamom powder. Serve warm.

Tips
I used hot water and warm milk when I made it the second time. It caused the halwa to splatter everywhere and was dangerous. Use room temperature water and milk to avoid this splattering. Adding some ghee during the roasting and topping off with more ghee after cooking allows you to cook the halwa in minimal ghee. You can always use more ghee. 

Mung Dal with Garlic

Sometimes one comes across a dish in their life that stays with them forever. The taste and fragrance of the food gets so deeply embedded in your mind that just a whiff of a similar smell and it can take you back to the first time you tasted it. This dish for me is this particular prepartion of mung dal (split yellow mung). I still remember the first time I tasted it. I was a kid in school and had accompanied my parents to a place near Nashik (a city in Maharashtra). For the week that we were there, we lived in the guest house which had a large dining hall. We had to go to the dining hall for every meal and I was absolutely fascinated by the place. It was large, had lots of tables and the plates and bowls used to always be arranged on the tables, but were always kept inverted. We needed to place them back in the upright, correct position and then the servers would come out and serve us the food. I can't remember a lot about the trip, but the memory of this dal is deeply entrenched in memory and my senses. Ever since I started experimenting with recipes, I have been trying to determine the right ingredients and proportions, so that I could taste it again. And I finally got the exact taste last week!!  I am delirious with joy that I was able to recreate the recipe. While it is extremely simple, it is delicious and the perfect comfort food to take me back into the cosy comfort of childhood.

Ingredients
1 cup mung dal - split, peeled yellow mung dal
a pinch of asafoetida/hing
1/2 tsp turmeric
2-3 tsp oil
1/4 tsp jeera/cumin seeds
3 large garlic cloves, finely sliced
1 green chilli, slit lenghtwise into two
10 curry leaves
1/4 cup cilantro/corriander leaves, chopped
3-4 cups  water
salt to taste

Method
Wash the mung dal three times and then add two cups of water, asafoetida and turmeric to it. Pressure cook it if possible as it will be the fastest method to cook ot. If you don't have a pressure cooker, you can boil it on the stove top till it is cooked through and is soft and mushy. You may need to add more water if needed.

In a deep pan, heat the oil, add the jeera seeds. Once they start to crackle, add the curry leaves. Then add the garlic and green chilli and let that fry for a minute. We don't want the garlic to start turning brown. As soon as the garlic looks cooked, add the cooked mung dal. Then add water. Add at least 1 cup of water. You may want to add more water if you want a thinner consistency. Add salt. Bring the dal to a boil. Turn off the heat and immediately add the cilantro leaves. Serve hot with rice or roti/chapati. You can also serve it as a lentil soup. It is just delicious on its own.

Tips
If you are not pressure cooking the dal, you can soak it for an hour before you cook it. That will reduce the cooking time. You can also use dry red chilli instead of green chilli, but that will change the taste of the dal slightly. Mung dal thickens up as it cools down and you may want to add additional water to thin it out while reheating.