Food has always been one of the strongest sources of nostalgia. The other life experiences that provide the building blocks of nostalgia may come later, but food always goes back to childhood. As I mentioned in my earlier post, when I was between 3 - 5 years of age, we used to live in small town of Neemach in Madhyapradesh. Our next door neighbour was from Jodhpur (Rajasthan) She often made these Kachories that were out of this world.
We used to call this neighbor Bhabhusha, and she would always send us these treats when she made them. I remember the taste till this day, when we were leaving this town and moving to Agra, she made a tin full of these for us to take with us.
The taste always stayed ever so fresh and memorable on my palate. Although my mom never got a recipe but she watched her make these and told me verbally how to make them. Then when I first created this blog, I promised to myself, that one day I will make these and replicate them and post them on my blog and surprise my mom. So here they are and here is to you Bhabhusha,.. wherever you are..Thank you for your inspiration. These turned out as good as yours and my mom tasted them and confirmed it and approved the taste test. I am very proud of myself for replicating the taste of these Kachori and this recipe from my memory. Of course I had to substitute certain things based on availability of ingredients here in USA.
For those who are in to it, I will do my best to break it down into easy step by step directions.
Ingredients 
For filling:
- 1/2 cup Almonds (unsalted, not roasted)
- 1/2 cup Almond flour ( I bought this from Costco) (they should pay me as I do so much of free advertisement of their products that I use in my recipes that at posted on this blog)
- 1/2 cup Pistachios (unsalted, not roasted)
1/2 cup cashews (unsalted, not roasted)- 15 oz tub of traditional ricotta cheese
- 1 tablespoon of ghee
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 cup whole milk powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/4 cup of ghee (clarified butter, recipe on this blog, this time I bought ready made from local Indian grocer.)
Method to make filling
- Coarsely grind pistachios, almonds and cashews in a food processor.
- Add Almond flour to it.
- Heat 1/4 cup of ghee in a wok like pan on low to medium heat.
- Add ground nuts and almond flour.
- Roast the mixture with ghee for 4 min constantly stirring it with spatula.
- When nut mixture is light brown and emitting nice roasted aroma, empty in a bowl and set aside.
- Place back the same wok on stove on low to medium heat.
- Add 1 tbls of ghee and ricotta cheese in the wok.
- Cook Ricotta cheese constantly stirring on low to medium heat for 4 min.
- Caution it will splatter as it liquefies, I covered it with a large silicon screen and kept stirring with spatula to avoid burns.
- Add sugar and keep stirring and cook for additional 1 min.
- Add dry milk powder and cook for 2 more min.
- Add nut mixture and keep stirring, cook for additional 1-2 min, until the mixture start receding the pan.
- Turn the stove off and add ground cardomom.
- Mix well.
- Set aside to cool.
Ingredients for garnish
- 1/4 cup of pistachio
- 1/4 cup of sliced almonds
- 1/2 teaspoon of ground cardamom
Method to make Garnish
* Coarsely grind the pistachios or you can slice them if you like.
* Mix with sliced almonds and ground cardamom. Set aside. 
- Now the filling must be cool and workable.
- Scoop the filling with 1/4 cup of measuring cup or large ice cream scoop and divide it in to 14-15 equal portion.
- Cover and set aside.
Ingredients for Dough - 1 and 1/2 cups All purpose flour
- 3/4 cup Durum chapati flour
- 4 tbl spoon Ghee
- 1/2 cup + 1-2 tbl spoon cold water
- You would need Vegetable oil or shortening for frying Kachories.
Method to make Dough
- Mix flours and ghee, crumble with hands.
- Add water slowly, make the dough nice and firm not very soft, not very hard.
- Cover and set aside for 15-20 min while you prepare the syrup.
Ingredients for syrup
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 tbl spoon rose water
Method to make Syrup
- On low to medium heat water and sugar in a shallow pan.
- Stir until sugar is melted.
- Bring it to boil and cook for additional 3-4 min.
- Total of 5-6 min until thickens a little.
- Test it by placing a drop of syrup in a bowl, when cold place between tip of thumb and index finger.
- Spread apart the index finger and thumb, you should see formation of thread of one string between thumb and index finger.
- Take the syrup off of heat and add cardamom and rose water when slightly cool.
Method to make Kachoris
- Knead the dough a little, do not knead too much.
- Divide it in to 14-15 small balls, same number as portions of filling.
- Heat vegetable oil or shortening in deep fryer.
- While it is heating, you can start rolling and ball and start filling to make Kachori.
Place the prepared filling in center of circle.
Fold it as shown in picture.
Close the edges as shown in picture.
Flatten the stuff dough ball with filling inside with your palms very gently.
Prepare all Kachories same way, keep placing the prepared Kachories under wet cloth.
Fry both side until golden brown, this should take about 10 min to fry each batch.
Do not rush it and turn the heat too high, otherwise dough would not cook thoroughly.
Repeat the process.
- Place the fried Kachories on paper towel to drain the excess oil or shortening.
- Take one Kachori at a time and dip it in the syrup, until nice coated on both side. Do not leave them in the syrup.
- Take it out of syrup and place them on a platter.
- Garnish them with the nut mixture that your prepared earlier.
Enjoy !!
Photographs by Surekha
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