Kara Boondhi / Kara Boonthi

I am not interested in buying snacks like mixer, sev and other savoury items from shops. I fear about the oil the shops use. because of this reason, I limit myself buying these kind of snacks from outside. But, I like to eat them along with tea or coffee, if it is prepared at home. So, I prepare these kind of snacks at home whenever time permits to accompany tea or coffee.

Few weeks before,  when I was talking with my MIL about preparing kara boondhi, she said that she has the perforated ladle which we use for making boondhi and she took it from the upper loft and gave it to me. I never knew that we had this ladle at home until my MIL gave it to me. Otherwise, I would have prepared some recipe using boondhi for last diwali. I know I can not wait till next diwali to prepare some recipes using it. What next? Got the recipe of kara boondhi from her and made use of the ladle immediately. Off to the recipe now…

Basic Information:

Preparation Time: <10 minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Makes: 2-3 cups (approximately)

Ingredients:

Gram flour / Besan flour / Kadalai maavu – 1 cup

Rice flour – 1/4 cup

Oil – for deep frying + 1 tablespoon

Peanuts – 1/4 cup, with skin

Curry leaves – 2 strings

Garlic – 8-10 nos, small size

Asafoetida – a big pinch

Red chilli powder – to taste

Salt – to taste

Method:

1) Sieve all the flours well and make sure there are no lumps. Then, In a mixing bowl, add besan flour, rice flour and salt.

2) Add water slowly and make a thick batter very similar to bajji batter. The batter should be thick at the same time it should be in a pourable consistency. Also, make sure not to form any lumps in the batter. Preparing batter is the important steps for making perfect shaped boondhis without any tail. So, be careful while adding water.

3) Heat oil in the heavy bottom kadai/pan. Meanwhile, get the perforated ladles for preparing kara boonthi. One is big with covered sides to make boondhi and another is to fry and transfer the boondhis from oil to a dry plate.

4) When the oil is hot and not smoking, just pour a pinch of batter and see it comes to the surface of the oil without any tail. If it forms the tail, add little more water. If it forms very thin or flat boondhis, then add 1 or 2 teaspoons of besan to the batter. Make sure not to form lumps while mixing the besan.

5) When the oil is ready and checked the batter consistency, place the big perforated ladle just above the oil and pour batter to it. Using another perforated ladle, just tap the big ladle so that round shapes boondhis fall into the oil. Don’t hesitate to get help from others to do this job.

6) Fry till the ‘shh’ sound subsides or till the boondhis slightly turn darker in its colour. Transfer these boondhis to the kitchen towel to drain the excess oil.

7) Taste and see the boondhis are crispy. If not, increase the frying time. Repeat the step for rest of the batter. Make sure to fry boondhis with uniform colour in all the batches.

8) Take another pan and heat a tablespoon of oil.

9) Add peanuts, curry leaves, crushed garlic cloves and asafoetida when it is hot.

10) Fry till the curry leaves and garlic cloves become crispy.

11) Transfer this mixture to the kara boondhis. Add red chilli powder and salt. Mix well. Taste and adjust the spicy and salt level.

12) Store it in a air tight container. Before serving, mix well.

Notes:

1) Since I used slotted/perforated ladle which is only for making kara boondhis, I didn’t wipe the batter every time after pouring the batter into it l. If you don’t have one, you can also use the big slotted ladle and make sure to wipe the ladle every time when you pour the batter.

2) If you store this snack in air tight container, mix well before serving. Otherwise, the boondhis left in the bottom part taste salty.