Khasta Kachori

This is my fav street food appetizer. I love this gujju recipe. My mom used to make this quite often, actually almost every other fortnight. Kachoris are an easy substitute to samosas if you want to make something similar but quicker, as we all know samosas are pretty tedious to shape. Kachoris taste great even if they aren't served hot (please dont refrigirate and serve ). You may serve them at room temperature. Store them in an air tight container up to a week.

While I was typing out the ingredients, I realized I have used urad dal which is skinned black gram. Each language for some reason has its own set of ambiguities with no answers for the questions/arguements beset by leaners pursuing the language. Ahhhhh....skinned in english actually means skin-less. Similarly, shelled means shell-less. We all know peeled means peel-less.hahahhahaha.......going back to recipe now :)

Ingredients:-

Dough:-
1 1/4 cups plain flour/maida
1 tbl spn rice flour
1/4 cup ghee - melted/canola oil (I used oil)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tspn salt
warm water to knead

Stuffing:-
1 cup of slit green gram/dhuli moon dal
1 tbl spn of urad dal/skinned black gram
1/2 medium sized onion chopped very fine (optional)
2 tbl spns of besan/bengal gram flour
1 tbl spn of jeera or cumin seeds-coarsely crushed using a motor & pestle
1 tbl spn of coriander seeds-coarsely crushed using a motor & pestle
1 tbl spn of saunf/fennel seeds-coarsely crushed using a motor & pestle
pinch of turmeric powder
pinch of asafoetida
2 green chillies finely chopped
1 tbl spn of red chilli powder
1/2 tsp of amchur powder
2 tbl spn of ginger-garlic paste
salt to taste

Oil for deep frying

Method:-
Knead the ingredients to make a firm dough. Keep the dough aside for an hr(min) wrapped in a plastic wrap/wet muslin cloth.
Cook the moong dal with 1 cup of water in a pan with a pinch of salt and turmeric powder. Drain the remaining water and grind coarsely with green chillies.

In a pan, heat 2-3 tbl spns of oil. Add the jeera, urad dal, sauf and coriander seeds (all crushed coarsely). fry till the urad becomes golden brown in color.
Sprinkle pinch of asafoetida.
Add the onions and ginger-garlic paste. Fry till onions get transparent.
Add the ground moong dal, salt to taste and red chilli powder. Fry well in low-medium flame so that the moong dal can imbibe all the flavors.
Take it off the heat and let it cool. This mixture should not be moist.

Take a ping pong ball sized dough. Roll it out as a circle of 3" diameter using a rolling pin.
Place 2 tble spns of stuffing on the center of the circle and close from all sides to make a ball again. Flatten this ball like a patty (you may fry it as a ball too).
Do this for the entire dough.

Heat oil for deep frying. Once the oil is heated, keep the flame to low-medium (out of ten levels, I keep on the 4th).
Fry them well till they turn light brown on both sides. If you fry them in high heat, the dough will not get cooked and the color of the kachori with darken quickly.take them out and drain the excess oil by placing them on some kitchen tissues.
You will see that as they are frying they will puff up slowly.
The crust of the kachori is thick and flaky (Khasta).
Relish it!

This is my contribution to Purva's Diwali Dhamaka :)