Khasta Kachori/Flaky spicy lentil pastries

There is a small 'hole-in-the-wall' store in my home town. They have lines a mile long outside their store of people lined up to buy their goodies. What do they sell, you ask? Just one basic item, 'Mixture' (of course they have different varieties of it). Mixture is basically your trail mix done indian style. The store was started by this one guy who used to sell his product around town on a bicycle! Now he is a multi-millionaire. Talk about a success story. You will not find a soul in my town who is not crazy about his stuff. Even people from neighboring towns and cities come over and line up. Personally, I am crazy about that mixture too and a few other products he has now..my most favorite being the khasta kachori. A flaky deep fried small round kachori filled with spicy, slightly sour and sweet lentil mixture is just to die for. I can basically just live off of them. Whenever I visit India I make sure to pack my stock to bring back. Due to baggage limitations, I have even compromised on a dress or two so I can pack an extra set of his goodies. That probably gives you an idea how serious this is, right?
Unfortunately since I like it so much I run out within the first few weeks, okay maybe a couple of months, after getting back and always crave for it.
Here comes Sanjeev Kapoor to the rescue. I saw this awesome Kachori recipe on his site the other day. Just reading his recipe it sounded good and I bookmarked it.
Khasta basically means flaky and kachori is basically a fried dough ball filled with a spicy lentil based mix. Got around to trying it a couple of days back and let me tell you, I now have a solution for at least my Kachori craving (still looking for mixture though :)



Ingredients:

All purpose flour (maida) .............. 2 cups
Salt ....................................... to taste
Baking soda ............................. 1/2 tsp
Oil ....................................... 5 tbsp

For Filling-

Split skinless black gram (dhuli urad dal) ............. 1/2 cup
Ginger ..................................................... 1 inch
Green chilli ............................................... 1
Cashewnuts ............................................... 6 - 8
Raisins ..................................................... 1 tbsp
Ghee ...................................................... 3 tbs
Asafoetida ................................................ a pinch
Coriander powder ....................................... 1 tsp
Cumin powder ........................................... 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder ....................................... 1 tsp
Fennel seed (saunf) powder ........................... 1/4 tsp
Sugar ...................................................... 1/2 tsp
Salt ........................................................ to taste
Lemon juice ............................................. 1 tbsp
Oil ......................................................... to deep fry

Method:

1. Sift the flour, salt and baking soda together. Add oil and mix well. Knead into a soft dough using sufficient water. Cover with a moist cloth and set aside.

2. Soak the urad dal in two cups of water for an hour. Drain and coarsely grind using a little water.

3. Peel, wash and finely chop ginger. Remove stem, wash and chop green chilli. Roughly chop cashewnuts. Wash raisins and pat them dry.

4. Heat ghee in a kadai and add the ground dal, ginger, green chilli, asafoetida, coriander powder, cumin powder, red chilli powder, fennel powder, cashewnuts and raisins. Cook till all the moisture has dried up. Add sugar, salt and lemon juice.

5. Mix well and remove off the heat, let the mixture cool. Divide into sixteen portions. Divide the flour dough into sixteen equal balls.

6. Roll out into small puris so that they are thinner around the edges and thicker in the centre. Place a portion of stuffing in the centre and bring the edges together to form a ball. Flatten slightly.

7. Heat sufficient oil in a kadai and deep fry kachoris on low heat for three to five minutes or until golden brown and crisp. Serve with tamarind chutney.


Note:

1. I added bit more spices than recommended in the recipe. Feel free to experiment.

2. When frying, the oil must not be too hot or the kachoris will not be flaky and crispy.

3. Store the kachoris in an air tight container only after they have entirely cooled down.


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