I have a friend
who always talks about nice Rajasthani or Marawadi cousins and I have hardly
made any of those but at the same time every now and then I have craving for
these delicious dishes. I have grown up in Maharashtra and there we usually get
samosas, kachori or dhokala only in those typical marwadi sweet shops. As a kid
I have always indulged on them. On the last day of any exam we used to get 2 to
5 rupees to do “aaish” (have fun) with friends and having these kachoris with
sweet n tangy imali (tamarind) chutney was part of this “aaish”
Now coming back
to my cravings, finally decided to make these kachoris at home since I found
the recipe quite interesting and easy to make. Came across a very nice recipe
by Sandhya of www.mycookingjourney.com.
I made few changes rather additions to the original recipe and voila it was a
great success. I made them with almost exact proportion as mentioned in the
original recipe and found that they have done their homework really well, just
awesome judgment of the ingredients. I made few changes to the masala
proportion as per my family’s taste but kept the basic ingredients like Moong
dal and all purpose flour etc. as per the original recipe. So here we go!!!
Ingredients:
For the outer cover of the kachoris (the dough):- All purpose flour/ Maida: 2 cups
- Salt: A big pinch
- Hot oil/ Mohan: 3 Tbsp.
- Yogurt: 2 Tbsp.
- Carom seeds/ Ajwain: 2 Tsp
- Water: To knead a tight dough
For the filling of the kachoris:
- Jeera/ Cumin seeds: 1 Tbsp.
- Saunf/ Funnel Seeds: 1 Tbsp.
- Hing/ Asafetida: ¼ Tsp
- Tikhat/ Red chili powder: 1 Tbsp.
- Haladi/ Turmeric powder: ½ Tsp.
- Garam masala: 1 Tbsp.
- Dhana-jeera powder/ cumin-coriander powder: 1 Tbsp.
- Chat masala: 1 Tbsp.
- Salt: To taste
- Oil: 2 Tbsp. (For tempering) and more oil for deep frying (I use vegetable oil for deep frying, you may use your choice of oil)
Method:
For the outer cover of the kachoris (the dough):
- Take a bowl and add all the dry ingredients of the dough in it.
- Now add the yogurt and mix it well.
- If required add water to make a soft dough. Knead the dough for few minutes.
- The dough should be soft to touch and not very runny or thick.
- Cover it with a kitchen towel and keep it aside. The dough should not become dry or crumbly.
- Wash Moong dal thoroughly or till all the white water is gone and you can see the clear water at the end of washing it.
- Soak it for 2-3 hours. Now drain it and keep it aside for few minutes in a colander so most of the water is drained out from the dal. This step will ensure that we do not have very moist dal at the time of making the filling for these kachoris.
- Grind the Moong dal coarsely. Don’t make a soft paste of it.
- Now take oil in a kadhai or wok and add cumin seeds, funnel seeds, Hing to it. Let it splutter nicely.
- Once the tempering has spluttered nicely, add Moong dal paste. Mix it well.
- Now add all other spices like turmeric powder, red chili powder, garam masala, dhana-jeera powder, chat masala and salt to taste. Mix it well.
- Keep stirring the mixture till all the water is evaporated and the mixture looks dry and crumbly. This will take up to 7-8 minutes of stirring the mixture. If you don’t stir it in between there is a very high possibility that the dal will stick to the bottom of the kadhai. So please keep an eye on it.
- Once done take it out on a plate and let it cool down.
- Heat the oil in a kadhai for deep frying the kachoris.
- Now make around 18-20 balls of the dough.
- Make each dough ball flat on your palm. (I didn’t roll them with rolling pin as advised in the original recipe)
- Now fill it with about a Tbsp. of Moong dal filling and cover it by stretching the
dough. You may want to follow the same method as you would do to make the
modaks or momos.
- Once the filling dumpling is ready, press it with heel of your palm on a floured surface. Do not roll it with rolling pin. I tried rolling them at this point and the kachoris didn’t puff up at all.
- Now start stretching it from the edges just before you want to fry them. This puri
should be well stretched from the edges of it and should be quite thin from the
edges. This step will ensure that the kachoris are well puffed when in the oil.
(I did not stretch the initial couple of kachoris and they didn’t puff up at
all. So invented this method of stretching it just before frying them and it
worked.)
- Now check the oil which should not be very hot. We don’t want to burn the kachoris. If the oil is very hot then the kachoris won’t cook nicely from inside.
- Once the oil is at the desired temperature, start putting two kachoris at a time. Start putting oil on each of the kachori with the help of the strainer. This step will help the kachoris to cook from both the sides and also puff them up nicely. I didn’t put more than two kachoris at a time since my kadhai isn’t very big.
- Fry them well from both the sides till you get a nice golden brown color.
- Drain them on a paper towel. Voila!!! the kachoris are ready!!!!
- Serve them hot with Tamarind-date chutney or with any ketchup.
- You may also want to make kachori chat with these kachoris.
- Keep them in an air tight container.
Please try this super easy recipe of Khasta Kachori for your next party and surprise your guests with it. If you like this recipe, give a thumps up and please share it with others. Happy Cooking!!!!
