Rajasthani Pyaaz Ki Kachori - I Love My India Series

Continuing my exploration into famous tastes of Rajasthan in the I Love My India Series, today's feature is Pyaaz Ki Kachori aka Onion Kachoris.

There's this feeling I go through when I prepare foods like this kachori. Initially, because its a new dish that I haven't prepared before, the whole thing its intimidating. Then, I sit down, look at it objectively and go through the steps in my head - trying to compartmentalize it and break it down into smaller steps. Which makes it easier in my head. Good progress. And then I procrastinate for a while. Don't we all anyway? Just say yes and make me feel good. I know the truth. Then one day, I finally get to it - there's the food excitement brewing in my head now. And when I start the cooking, the fun kicks in. There's light at the end of this tunnel. I see it now. 

Shaping up these kachoris is a pretty thing. Like frosting a cupcake. Your heart wants to do it. And it brings joy when you see a perfectly fried kachori ..one that does not split open in the middle of frying...one that does not turn black while frying because you walked away to catch up on facebook...and one that does not limp and become an oily mess after it has been fried. Like I said, a perfect kachori brings joy. And so does losing 20 lbs in 3 months - but we'll talk about it when that happens too.

The most fun part of this recipe is all the exotic ingredients that go into it. I thought it would be easier to just show it to you rather than list it all here. So here I go yearbook style..

Top row has crushed coriander, cloves, bay leaves and cardamom.
Middle row has Poppy seeds, chopped garlic, chopped ginger and chopped green chilli (well, orange ones too)
Bottom row has saunf, ajwain and white sesame seeds.
Phew. I know. Is this not fun? Its like these little pieces of sparkle that go into the filling...take one bite at the final product and there's nothing but a great firework in your mouth. 

In a pan, add about 1-2 tsps of oil. When oil it hot, add all the spices above except the sesame seeds. Saute for a min.

Then, add about 2-3 cups of finely chopped onions and fry till they turn pink. Add salt to taste, turmeric powder and a pinch of asofoetida.

In a small bowl, take about 1/2 cup besan. Add pinch of salt, pinch of turmeric powder and some red chilli powder for a kick. Add water to this and make into a paste without any lumps.

When the onions are cooked, add the besan paste and mix well.

Cook this for about 5-8 mins until the raw smell of the besan is gone.

Add finely chopped cilantro and mix well.

Finally add the white sesame seeds and mix well.

The filling for the kachoris is ready. I think one of these days I'm just going to make this as a side dish for rotis.

Now on to the kachori covers. My kitchenaid of late has become my trusted lieutenant in the kitchen - I seem to use it almost everyday and many times its not been for baking. I use it regularly for roti atta and just about any paratha - its a breeze with this. I just dump atta in this and throw in all the other ingredients and in a couple of mins, my parathas are cooking on the tawa.

For the kachori dough, add about 2 cups maida, 1/4 cup butter (that's half a stick), and salt to taste. You could also use ghee instead of butter if that's easily available.

Add water little by little to make a soft dough. If you are mixing by hand, mix up all the butter well with the flour and then add water little at a time until you can knead into a soft dough.

So this is how a little ball of dough turns into a pretty kachori.

Here are a few ready for their oil bath.

Fry the kachori is hot oil but make sure the flame is in medium - the dough has to cook fully and turn golden.

Drain on a paper towel to absorb any excess oil.

Serve them hot. If you are storing them, use a oven toaster for reheating or you could also use a tawa. Don't microwave to heat - that will just make it soggy. 

And now I'll just stop talking and let you all enjoy this. Go ahead, grab a bite.

Click here for a printable recipe for this post. 

Printable Recipe - Rajasthani Pyaaz Ki Kachori

Click here for more I Love My India: Rajasthan recipes. 

Papad Ki Sabji 

Dal Baati

Missi Roti and Gatte Ki Sabji

Enjoy. Peace Out!

Corn Ball Pick Me Ups

I saw. I want. I made.

That's pretty much the story behind this little find here. It was one of those day when we wrapped up dinner and sat down to watch my fav channel - Food TV and my little one's fav show - Good eats by Alton Brown. He as usual had a hilarious episode while trying to use up left over corn tortillas. He called these Masa Tots.

And then he made these. And my heart stopped. Well..not really. But I just had to eat these. And it was perfect timing as superbowl sunday was just coming up and this was THE dish for me to make.

These are super easy to make. While Alton used his left over tortillas, I went and bought a pack of yellow corn tortillas from the store. Who's got time to wait for leftovers?

Tear them up or if you are OCD like me, you can cut them into long bits.

Add the cut bits to a food processor with a chop blade and just chop fine.

 

Get it to almost this stage.

Then, keep processing and add about 1/2 - 3/4 cup of just plain cold milk to bring it all together into a big mass. Don't add too much milk and make it watery. No good. Add enough - maybe in drops so that the corn mix comes together and starts forming a ball.

Alton added an egg here - but I just skipped that. These remind me of corn pakodas and we desis never use eggs for our pakodas. So this should work fine without that too. Right? You bet.

Can you see how find this has been ground up because of the milk? Now, add salt to taste for the corn mix.

Then add about 1 tsp of paprika powder or red chilli powder to the mix.

Throw in some finely grated carrots and about 1/2 onion finely chopped to the mix.

Here comes the kicker. Add about 2 jalapenos roughly chopped. Alton of course wore gloves while doing this. But we are hard wired to take this heat on our hands. Ah..nothing. Sissy matter. 

Mix all the ingredients well and make small balls. The pic you see below is actually before I added the jalapenos. I made a few of these for the kids first before I added the spicy stuff in.

 Fry the corn tots in hot oil until golden brown.

These were super soft to eat inside. I had a feeling while watching the show that it might be a hard one to bite - but was totally wrong. Loved these little balls. And they were awesome when eaten right out of the oil. Aaah..perfect!

I used up all the tortilla. There were 30 small ones and this gave me about 55 corn balls. Perfect to share. And I was good and I did share. Took it to my friends house to watch the big game together.

You could enjoy them just as is.

Or make them prettier and attractive. Poke a little toothpick and serve. The kids and the grown up kids both get a little lollipop.

Thank you Alton. You know we all love you here at our home!

Enjoy. Peace out!

Diwali Special: Coconut Milk Murukku

Hope you are all in as much Diwali spirit as me! Here's another 'Bakshanam' recipe for Diwali. A murukku made with Rice flour, Urad flour and coconut milk!

This recipe is a really easy one to do and a little different from all the regular murukkus. I've seen this recipe in a couple of places - one is here by Nithu Bala and at her blog here and the other similar recipe is in Mallika Badrinath's Murukku recipes book. So my recipe is adapted from both the recipe sources. Thank you Nithya for the detailed post. I loved the recipe!

This recipe uses coconut milk and I used home made coconut milk. You probably could also use the canned coconut milk - I don't see why that won't work.

For the urad flour, dry roast urad gota or urad daal in medium heat. The daal should get warm but not brown. Try to keep stirring it while roasting so that the base does not brown. Once the aroma starts coming out, switch off the stove and move to a mixer to grind to a fine powder.

Grind to a fine powder. You could sieve it once so that no lumps are present.

Next, get the coconut milk ready. I used just frozen coconut - these are more fresh here sometimes than the fresh coconut! Now I'm totally nostalgic about fresh coconut water in India - nothing to beat that - Coke and Pepsi should get down on their knees and hold a torch to a fresh coco!

Add a little water to blend the coconut and release all the water while grinding.

Strain all the coconut milk using a muslin cloth and set aside. You can use the dry coconut inside the cloth to make chutney - still got some flavor in there!

I was making a lot of quantity - its Diwali, you see - and I usually make a lot this time of the year and share with my friends here. So, I took about 4 cups of Rice flour. Add 3/4 cup +1 tbsp of Urad flour to the rice and sieve together. Then, add salt to taste. Keep the salt a little on the lower side - that way you won't feel its too much salt while eating more than one murukku.

Add a handful of white sesame seeds in here. You could also add cumin if you'd like that better.

Now, add the coconut milk a little at a time and knead the flour into a dough.

And yes, before you start that - also add about 1 tbsp of ghee to the flour mix. This helps to provide a crisp texture. Don't add too much and it will make it too soft and not crisp anymore - so its a fine line here!

Knead the dough well - it has to be a stiff and soft dough and not watery.

Roll a little of the dough into a cylindrical shape and then put it in the murukku maker. While filling the murukku maker, press down before you close so that there are no air pockets inside - make sure the dough is filled all the way.

Use this shape disc for making this murukku.

Take a ziploc bag or a plastic sheet and coat it with a little ghee or oil. Start at the center and just move around in a circle - you'll see that the batter just falls easily in place. I kept them small - you could make them bigger if you're making it just for your family.

Make a few before you start frying. I fried about 8-9 in each batch.

Heat up vegetable oil or canola oil and keep the heat in medium high. Gently lift from the sheet and slide it into the oil.

Fry until the bubbles stop and you see them turning golden.

Remove and drain excess oil on a paper towel or a drying rack.

Store in an airtight container until you finish them all.

This was just super crisp and wonderful to eat and there is a tinge of coconut flavor that kicks in.

Want some? Take one.

Enjoy. Peace out!