Kachori is a spicy snack from India ; popular in other parts of South Asia. It is also common in places with South Asian diaspora such as Trinidad and Toabgom Guyana and Suriname. Alternative names for the snack include Kachauri, Kachodi and Katchuri.Kachoris have been popular in old Delhi and Kota, Rajasthan even before Samosas gained popularity after the partition. Banarasidas, the author of biographical Ardhakathanaka, has mentioned buying Kachoris in Agra in 1613. For seven months, he bought a ser of Kachoris daily, and owed twenty rupees. Kachori is supposed to have originated in Uttar Pradesh and Rajesthan. 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 and other spices.Additionally in Rajasthani Cuisin, the Pyaaj Kachori (onion kachori) is very famous.
Another popular form of Kachori in Jodhpur is the Mawa Kachori invented by Late Rawat mal ji Deora. It is a sweet dish dipped in sugar syrup. I intend to master that recipe some day and post it as it is one of my very fond memory of my childhood when I was in Neemach, one of the neighbor we used to call her "Bhabhoo Sha", who was from Jodhpur, she used to make these for us, I still remember that taste and will surely will try to replicate that recipe.
In Gujrat, 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'.
A variant includes sweet upwas (fast) kachori, made with potato, coconut, and sugar. Kachoris are often served with a chutney made from tamarind, mint, or coriander. Another type is fried and stuffed with pulses (urad and moong especially) and is generally found in the Kutch region of Gujarat. A kachori stuffed with peas is a delicacy in Bengal.
Some of the variants popular in North India include a version similar to the Rajasthani one, accompanied by a curry
made of potatoes and varied spices or even chana (chole) similar to one
served in Chole Bhatura.I have been thinking of making the Kachori stuffed with Chana dal and I finally made it, I did not want to make it very doughy so rolled it little thinner and bigger, but if you like you can make small size so the outer crust is more doughy.
Only thing is you have to fry it patiently in order to get perfectly cooked flaky outer layer.
- 1 cup Chana dal
- Water to wash and soak dal
- 2 cups all purpose flour (Maida)
- 1/2 cup Durum Roti whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup ghee (clarified butter) recipe on this blog
- 3/4 cup water to knead the dough
- Wash and soak dal for 3 hours.
- Mix both the flours.
- Mix in salt.
- Add Ghee
- Mix the ghee in to flour with palms of your hand.
- Gradually add water to make dough.
- Knead the dough for 3-4 min.
- Cover with wet cloth and cover and set aside.
- 2 tbl spoon of whole Coriander seeds
- 1 tbl spoon on Fennel seeds (sauf)
- 1/4 teaspoon of Carem seeds(ajwain)
- 1 teaspoon of whole black peppercorn
- 2-4 pods of dried red chili
- 2 cloves
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- Mix and Roast above in a wok on low heat for 3 min stirring constantly.
- You can adjust the amount of above spices to your taste.
- When light brown, turn the heat off and let them cool.
- Grind all the whole spices in a coffee grinder and set aside
- One small bunch of cilantro
- 1-2 fresh Serrano pepper or one fresh jalapeno pepper
- 1" piece of peeled fresh ginger (optional)
- Grind very coarsely.
- 2 tbl spoon of Mango powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of garam masala
- 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper powder
- 2 tbls of oil
- 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
- 1/4 tsp teaspoon of asefoetida
- 1 teaspoon of salt or to taste
- 1 cup of water
- Above mixed spices
- Coarsely ground dal with cilantro and chili
- Heat the oil in a frying pan.
- When oil is hot add cumin seeds.
- When these crackle, add asefoetida
- followed by coarsely ground dal mixture
- Add salt and all the spices.
- Stir and cook for 2-3 min
- Add water and cook in microwave covered for 5 min stirring in between until dal mix is wet but thick enough to be made in to balls.
- You will also need following:
- Rice flour to roll the balls
- Oil and or vegetable shortening for frying
- Heat oil in fryer, add shortening (I usually mix oil and shortening, you can use one or other.
- While oil is heating in fryer, knead the dough and divide it in to 10-11 golf ball size balls.
- Divide the stuffing in same number and set aside.
- Roll the dough in to 4" circle.
- Place the stuffing on the rolled dough in the middle.
- Fold it like shown in picture.
- Now at this point you and roll the stuffed ball in to rice flour and further roll it in to 3-5 inch circle or you can press with your hand to flatten the disc if you want the Kachori to be with thick outer layer, I prefer thin outer layer of dough so I further rolled it.
- Deep fry on medium heat at 375 degrees for 5-6 min each turning it in between until Kachori is light brown.
- Place the Kachori to drain on paper towel.
- I made few with thick outer layer of dough as you can see in pictures. Choice is yours.
- Repeat the process until all the Kachoris are done.
You will also need:- Cilantro Mint Chutney, Tamarind Chutney, yogurt, and Garlic chutney (recipes on this blog) serve this with .
- Chopped onions and cilantro and chopped fresh Serrano peppers if desired.
- You can sprinkle chat masala or roasted cumin powder on top.
- Or you can serve topped with Chole (recipe on this blog)
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