Jodhpuri Pyaaj (Onion) Kachora

Kachori is supposed to have originated in Uttar Pradesh India. In these states it is usually a round flattened ball made of fine flour filled with a stuffing of baked mixture of yellow Moong dal or urad dal (crushed and washed horse beans), besan (crushed and washed gram flour), black pepper, red chili powder, salt and other spices.
Additionally in Rajasthani cuisine, kota Kachori is probably the most famous kachori in the state. The use of 'heeng' gives it an authentic taste of Rajasthan, calling it the most famous rajsthani snack won't be wrong, it's a signature snack of rajasthan.

The Pyaaj Kachori (onion kachori) is also famous in Jodhpur, they call it Kachora. Another form of Kachori in Jodhpur  is the Mawa Kachori, invented by the late Rawat Deora. It is a sweet dish dipped in sugar syrup.
In Gujarat, it is usually a round ball made of flour and dough filled with a stuffing of yellow moong dal, black pepper,  red chili powder, and ginger paste.
In Delhi it is often served as chaat. Delhi also has another kind of kachori, called 'Khasta kachori' or 'Raj Kachori'.

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, during my early childhood,  we used to live in small town of Neemach in Madhyapradesh. Our  next door neighbour was from Jodhpur (Rajasthan) She often made these Kachories and Mava 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.  Although my mom never got a recipe but she watched her make these and Mava Kachori.  Also like many good cooks and grandmas back home she would verbally tell her how to make these.

When I first created the blog  I promised to myself that one day I will make both of these Kachori and post them on my blog and surprised my mom.  I did make the Mava Kachori earlier and she did get to taste them and she approved and confirmed that they were exactly like the one that Bhabhusha made. However unfortunately I never got to make these Onion Kachori when my mom was still with us, and now it has been 2 years since her demise.  I miss her a lot as she was and still is my biggest inspiration and influence on my cooking along with my father.  So I finally decided to make these.  Even though my mom is not with us anymore, but I am sure she would approve of the taste. They turned out pretty good and I will share the recipe with all of you.
Like any Indian cooking this dish requires lot of prep time and patience for the final product but believe me it is well worth it !!
I made them this past weekend and now when I am posting these picture, my mouth is still watering and I have none left over :(



 

Ingredients:   
For the dough:  (this will make 11 balls)

• 1 and 3/4 cup of AP flour (Maida)
• 1/4 cup of Durum flour (chapati atta)
• 1/4 teaspoon of Caraway seeds (Ajwain)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup of vegetable oil
• Two 1/3 cup of water
• 1 table spoon of extra oil to coat the formed dough

For filling: 

• 4 potatoes 
• 2 medium red onions
• 1 large yellow onion
• 1 fresh Jalapeno pepper or 2 Serrano peppers
• 4-5 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 cup of fresh chopped cilantro
• 1" ginger peeled and grated (optional)

 

Spices and other Ingredients for filling:  

• 1 tablespoon of cumin seeds
• 1 tablespoon of coriander seeds
• 1-2 dry red chili pods
• 1 teaspoon of chili powder (Cayenne pepper powder)
• 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of asfoetida powder(hing) 
• 1/2 teaspoon of coarsely ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garam masala

• 1 and 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of sugar 
• 2 tablespoon of graham flour (besan)
• 3 tablespoon oil
• 1 tablespoon mango powder (or fresh lime juice from 1 lime)
• Oil for frying

For serving option:

• Mint cilantro chutney (recipe on this blog)
• Tamarind Chuteny (recipe on this blog)
• Potato sabji (the one I serve with Bedai, recipe on this blog)
• Plain yogurt (Beated to smooth texture)
• Sev (Indian gram flour thin noodles)
• Chopped onion
• Chopped cilantro
• Chopped green chili (optional)

Method:

• Mix both flours together in a bowl.
• Coarsely crush 1/4 tsp of  caraway seeds in mortar and pestle.
• Add to flours,  add salt and  mix well.
• Add 1/4 cup of oil.
• With hands mix the flour and oil togther rubbing in between your palms so the oil is well incorporated in to flour evenly.
• Add water little at a time and knead the dough to soft consistency.

•  Coat the dough with 1 tablespoon of oil, cover and set aside for 20-25 min, while you prepare the filling.

• In a non stick frying  pan mix fennel seeds, coriander seeds, cumin seeds and dry red chili pod.
• Place the pan on stove on low-medium heat and roast all the seeds, with constant stirring until very light brown and emitting fragrance.
• Turn the heat off and left all the roasted seed cool completely.

• While these seeds are cooling off, you can measure all the other spice powder ready.

• When the roasted seeds are completely cool, grind the coarsely in a grinder (I use hand held mixture with grinder blade and bowl attachment, you can use mortar and pestle or can even use clean coffee grinder) 
• Just remembet to grind coarsely and not to fine powder form.
• Set aside.

• Boil and peel potatoes. 
• Finely chop both kinds of onion.
• Separately chop jalapeno pepper,   garlic and mix with grated ginger if using it (I don't use ginger)
• Chop cilantro with chopping knife on chopping board.

• For chopping onions, garlic and chili pepper I use vidalia onion chopper with its small cube attachment.

As you can see my camera of 13 years which I have used for this blog for last 10 years is acting up and does not give me good exposure time :((

Get all the ingredients for filling and spices together.

• Heat 3 tables spoon of oil in a wok like frying pan (Kadai) on stove on medium heat.
• When heated, add the coarsely ground roasted seed mix and saute for few seconds.
• Add asfoetida powder.
• Keep stirring it constantly for few seconds only.

• Add chopped garlic, green chilies and grated ginger.
• Saute for 1-2  min then add chopped onions.
• Now saute and cook onions for  1- 2 min but do not overcook.
• Add salt.
• Add red chili powder, turmeric powder, black pepper,  mango powder or lime juice. 
• Then add gram flour, this will soak all the water from the onions and also will act as binder.
• Cook for 1 min then add semi mashed potatoes.

• Add sugar and garam masala.
• Mix well.
• Lastly add chopped cilantro and turn the stove off.
• The filling is ready.
• Let it completely cool. 
• When completely cook make golf size ball. Important note this filling will make about 22 balls and the dough that we have prepared will make about 11  golf size ball.
• Since there is so much work that goes in toe making this filling, I usually make half of the Kachora one day and then keep the rest of the filling in the fridge, then next day I just have to make the dough and make the rest next day, with half the work.
• However if you like you can dut the ingredients for filling in to half to make enough filling for the prepared dough. Or you can make double the amount of dough and make all 22 Kachoras at the same time.  Your choice !!

• Now you can heat the oil on very low medium heat in a fryer while you prepare the Kachora disks as follows:
• Take the dough ball on rolling stone and with rolling pin roll to circle in such a manner that the disk is thicker in the center and thinner at periphery.
• You may use little flour on the rolling stone so the dough does not stick to rolling stone or the rolling pin. 
• Place parchment paper by side of your work station.

• Place the filling in the center of disk and fold it as shown in picture below to make a dumpling. 
• remove the excessive center part where you close the dumpling.
• Then press the dumpling gently with your palm to desire size of Kachora. 
• Place the prepared disc of filled kachora on parchment paper.

 

• Repeat the process.  
• In the mean time while making these, you can fry the Kachoras.
• When the oil is heated for frying you can gently drop four Kachori in the frying pan placing them on the sieved spoon.
• Turn heat down to low to very medium.
• Must fry them with lot of patience on low heat.
• Turn them when light brown on one side. 
• The entire process of frying 4 kachori on the low heat will take about 12-15 min.  
• Do not rush the process and DONOT turn the heat up, otherwise the dough will not be cooked and the Kachoras will not be crispy.
• Do not over crowd Kachoras in pan while frying. 
• If you wish you can prep the Kachoras first and then do the frying.

Serve with following options as shown in pictures above and below:

• You can serve them with only cilantro/mint chutney and tamarind chutney.
• You can serve them with potato sabji along with both the chutnies.
• Or you can top with plain churned yogurt topped with both chutnies followed by chopped onions and cilantro and sev as shown in the last picture below.

Or you can just eat them plane as you can not go wrong with crispy outer shell and delicious filling inside.
Enjoy !!
Thank you for your patience.
It was lot of oraganizing of picture and lot of typing, so  I apologize  if there were any typing or gramatical errors.
Now I have to look for another camera as this one gave up on me after 10 years of use for  pictures for this blog.  We bought this one in 2007. 13 years is not bad.... tooks some good pics !!!

Kachori information source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kachori
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License

Recipe and Photographs by Surekha.

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