• 1 and ½ cup plain flour
• 4 tbsp vegetable oil
• Salt to taste, aprox ½ tbsp
• ½ tsp baking soda
• Water to knead
• For the Stuffing:
• ½ cup split black gram (white/dhuli), soaked for 1-2 hrs
• 2 green chillies, chopped
• 1 tbsp chopped ginger
• 2 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• ½ tsp fennel seeds
• ½ tsp red chilli pwd, or more as per taste
• ½ tsp asafoetida pwd
• Salt to taste
• 2 tbsp ghee or butter
• Oil to deep fry

The dough:
Mix salt and baking soda into the flour, add 4 tbsp oil and mix well. Preferably give a couple of whizzes in an electric blender so that the flour resembles bread crumbs.

Then add a little water at a time and slowly knead into a dough, neither too hard nor too soft. Cover up with a damp cloth and keep aside.

The stuffing:
Using a mixed grinder make a coarse paste of the soaked, drained lentils with ginger and green chillies. Dry roast the coriander, cumin and fennel seeds until nice and golden, allow to cool and crush them using a mortar and a pestle to make a coarse powder.

Now heat the ghee or butter in a frying pan, add the asafoetida and the lentils and fry on a medium heat until there is no liquid left and the mixture has almost dried up. Dress with salt to taste and remove from heat. Then add the crushed spice powder along with chilli pwd and mix well until everything has completely incorporated, set aside to cool.

Slowly heat enough oil to deep fry, you may fry it in one go or in 2-3 batches.

Divide the dough into 30 equal parts; make each into a small ball. Take each ball in your palm one at a time and make a small depression with the thumb and slightly flatten out along the walls.

Stuff approx 1 tsp of the filling into each ball, seal by bringing the ends together and roll back to form a ball and then just press once between your palms to slightly flatten.

Keep the stuffed dough balls covered with the damp cloth until ready to fry, to avoid the dough skin from getting dry.

Once the oil is hot, reduce the heat to absolutely low mark and carefully drop the kachoris and fry on low heat until golden.

Make sure to drain out on a kitchen tissue a little before it has reached the final colour that you want, as it will have a carry forward heat and so will continue to darken after draining.

Allow to rest for 5 mins before serving immediately or allow to completely cool down before storing in an airtight container.

by Pak101.com (few years ago!) / 1504 views