Matar Ki Kachori
Ingredients:
For Dough:
- 1 cup All purpose flour (maida),
wheat flour or both
the flours in half-half ratio)
- 1 tablespoon Oil or ghee
- 1/4 cup Warm water
- 1/4 tsp or salt to taste
For Stuffing:
- 2 cup Peas, fresh or frozen
- 1/4 tsp Hing (Asofoetida)
- 1 tsp Red chili powder (lal mirch)
- 1 tbsp Coriander (dhania) powder
- 1 tbsp Fennel seeds (saunf) ,coarsly ground
- 1/2 tsp Chaat masala or as per taste
- 1 tsp Amchur (dry mango)powder
- 1/4 tsp Garam Masala
- 1/2 tsp Green chili-ginger paste (optional)
- 1/2 tsp Cumin seeds (jeera)
- 1 tbsp Besan or gram flour
- 1 tbs Meethi Chutney
- 2 tsp Oil or ghee
- Salt as required
For frying:
- 2 cups oil
Method:
- Sift the flour and salt . Add Ghee and form a bread crumb like mixture.
- Add water and form a tight dough. cover with a damp cloth and keep aside.
- Boil or steam the peas. mash them coarsely or semi-coarsely.
- Heat oil and fry the cumin and hing. then add the crushed ginger and green chili.
- Fry for a minute. Now add fennel (saunf) and coriander seeds .
- Stir and add the gram flour. saute for 2-3 minutes.
- Add Peas and all the spices and saute for 3 to 4 minutes.
- In the last add the meethi chutney which will give tangy flavour to the kachoris.
- Keep aside to cool.
- Make equal sized 5-6 balls from the dough. roll into 3-4 inch round on a dusted board.
- Add some of the stuffing in the center. brush some water on the edges.
- Bring together all the edges and pinch them. press the edges downwards below.
- Roll into a 4-5 inches kachori. prepare all matar kachoris like these.
- keep the matar kachoris covered with a wet cloth.
- Now heat oil in a kadai.
- At low to low-medium flame, fry the matar kachoris till they become golden, flaky and crisp.
- Drain the matar kachoris on paper tissues to remove excess oil.
- Serve matar kachori hot with some coriander chutney or tamarind chutney.
Notes:
- Proportion of flour to oil or ghee is important for making khasta kachoris.
- Also the amount of water required to knead is another important factor that determines the flakiness.
- Too much water will make the dough crisp but not flaky and too little can dry out the dough.
- Keep the kachori dough covered with a moist cloth at all times.
- Too hot oil won't allow the dough to get flaky resulting in a crisp exterior with uncooked interiors and filling.
- Too cold oil would end up the dough soaking a lot of oil and the result would be an oily kachori.
- So the oil has to be at a low to low-medium temperature but not cold.
- The spices in the matar kachori filling can be adjusted as per your taste.
- If dry mango powder is not available, then add some lemon juice instead.