Some evenings after my coffee I crave some crispy Indian snack, like mixture, murukku, boondhi, something... If you have those in the family who cannot stop eating unless you finish the whole thing, then you need to think before you make it :-) But for me, I just need to have small cup of mixture and I am good (of course, I should hide the box of mixture until next evening because I do have those in my family who cannot stop until they finish :-)
I never did this myself, and I was surprised at how easily this can be done. Yes, it did not take me more than 30 minutes.
Ingredients:
For Boondhi:
1. 1 cup of besan
2. 1/2 tsp of red chilli powder (or more if you want it spicy)
3. Salt
4. A pinch of baking soda
5. Oil for frying
For Sev:
1. 1 cup of besan
2. 1/2 cup of rice flour
3. 1/2 tsp of red chilli powder (or more if you want it spicy)
4. Salt
5. Oil for frying
For the mixture:
1. 1 tsp cumin
2. 1 tsp of red chilli powder
3. 2 cups of thick poha
4. Few curry leaves
5. 1/2 cup of peanuts
6. Oil for frying
Method:
Boondhi:
Mix all the ingredients for boondhi with water. The consistency should be a little more watery than dosa batter. Then using the boondhi ladle, make the boondhi. I hear people going, ahhh, like it is easy. Trust me, that is easy. Actually I don't have the boondhi ladle, look what I used, seems familiar?
This is the veggie steamer that you get with most of pots and pans set, or even the rice cooker. I just held it on top of my oil pan and poured the batter on it and let the boondhi drops drip. Let it fry nicely on medium heat until golden brown. If you take it out of oil too soon, the boondhi will be soggy.
Sev:
Mix all the ingredients for sev by adding water little by little like how do chappathi flour. Put the flour into murukku maker with the smallest hole. Squeeze it over hot oil and deep fry.
Mixture:
1. Fry the curry leaves - I deep fried it in the same oil, but you can shallow fry too.
2. Fry the peanuts - I deep fried this one too.
3. Deep fry the thick poha in a few batches.
4. Fry the cumin in a pan with a spoon of oil
4. Mix everything, boondhi, sev, peanuts, curry leaves, poha, cumin, red chilli powder and salt.
Notes: The best way to test boondhi batter, is to immerse a spoon in the batter and as you lift the spoon, the batter should drip on its own without having to shake. Also if you see that the boondhi comes out with a tail after deep frying that means it is watery and you should add besan one teaspoon at a time until you get the right shape. Be careful not to keep the ladle too far above hot oil as the oil may spill when the boondhi drops fall.
