Kachori : Pastry covered - lentil and peas filled savoury snack

Fried Kachoris........

Hot and spicy kachoris are one of my favourite snacks. Kachoris can be made with lots of different fillings but I usually make them with mung dall. This time, I decided to make them with a variety of mung dalls and added some frozen peas to give the mixture a bit of moisture. Lots of recipes ask for the lentils to be boiled and the excess water strained out or some ask for the lentils to be soaked and ground in a food mixture. I like to see what lentils I am eating and I also feel that by straining out the water, you are throwing away some of the goodness in the lentils – hence my style of cooking is shown below. . You can make kachoris using peas on their own too but I added the frozen peas to my lentils so that I would have to use less water to cook my lentils.

Ingredients : This will make 25 to 30 kachoris depending on the size of kachoris you make.

1 cup of dehusked split mung beans
1 cup of a mixture of whole mung beans and split but husked mung beans
Half cup of frozen peas
1 onion
Fresh green coriander
A tablespoon of mixed garlic and ginger paste
1.5 litres cooking oil:  you will need some for the lentil mixture, some for the dough and some for frying.
3 cups of plain flour for making the kachori's outer covering

Spices:

2 teaspoons of  cumin
2 or 3 sticks of cinnamon
3 or 4 cloves
Salt to taste 1 to 2 teaspoons
1 tablespoon chilly powder or pepper if you like mild food.
2 to 3 green chillies – depends on how hot you like your food!
1 -2 teaspoons sugar (optional) – I like my kachoris to have a sweet and sour type of taste.
1 -2 tablespoons lemon juice – again adjust this after tasting the kachori mixture.
1-2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon and cloves mixture (optional)

dehusked and split mung dall

A mixture of whole mung and husked split mung dall

Method

1. Wash the various mung dalls and allow to soak whilst you organise theingredients for tempering.

2. Heat 3 tablespoons of oil and add in the dry cumin, cloves and cinnamon

3. Strain the lentils and add them to the oil - I usually use a long slotted spoon to gently add the lentils to the hot oil. Whilst straining the dall, don’t worry if it’s not too dry as this will give some moisture to cook the lentil mixture.

4. Add the salt, sugar, chilly powder, ginger and garlic paste.

5. Stir and allow to cook gently for 5 to 6 minutes.

6. Add in the frozen peas and allow to cook for further 5 minutes.

7. As I didn’t want to add water to my mixture, I transferred my kachori mixture to the microwave for 10 minutes, checked it, stirred it and cooked it for a further 10 minutes.The lentils need to be cooked completely so do add some water if you feel it needs it. 

Add frozen peas to the mung dalls

.

8. Once the mixture is cooked, add the lemon juice to it, add the ground cinnamon and cloves mixture to it.

9. Cook it for a couple of minutes and transfer it to a big mixing bowl.

TIP: If for some reason, the lentils are cooked and you have added too much water - allow the water to evaporate.  You can add a couple of tablespoon's of potato mash to soak up the extra moisture.10. Taste the mixture and make adjustments.

11. Cut the coriander finely and add to the mixture together with finely chopped onions.Mix well.

12. Spread the mixture to enable it to cool.

13. In the meantime, prepare the dough

14. Sieve the dough and add in 4 tablespoons of oil and 1 teaspoon of salt. Adding the bit of extra oil to the dough helps to make the outer pastry crisp but nice and flaky too.

15. Using warm water, prepare the dough. The dough should not be too firm.

16. Cover and allow the dough to rest.

dough made with plain flour, salt and cooking oil

Divide the cooked mixture into small balls

17. Now back to the kachori filling-  Divide the filling into small balls

18.  Now take a small amount of dough and roll it out in a small circle.

Roll out dough in a small circle

19. Put the kachori filling in the middle of the circle.

20. Picking the edge of the circle, try and join all the edges together to form a ball. I tend to go round the circle joining up small bits of the outer circle.

try and wrap the cooked mixture in the rolled out circle

21. The ball should be sealed from all sides or the mixture will leak out when frying.

kachoris - ready to fry

22. Fry the kachoris in hot oil. Add the kachoris to hot oil, then turn the heat down and allow them to cook slowly until nice and golden brown.

23. Enjoy them with hot chutney, ketchup, a cup of tea or a nice cold coke….the choice is yours….

24.  These kachoris can be par fried and frozen too.

Fried Kachori's ready to eat.

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