Crispy and Hot Gathia (Tikha Gathiya)

I made some crispy and hot gathias for my son as he loves munching them when he comes home from school.  Gathias can be made and stored for a couple of weeks.  I love them in my lunch box and they also make a handy snack when you are travelling.

Gathias are shaped slightly thicker than sev and made a bit hotter by adding chilly powder to the recipe. It makes a great snack and quite easy to make at home.   Apart from the ingredients you will need the following gadget. I call it the sev gathia machine which has different discs to make various sizes of sev, gathia and chakri. . This gadget is sold in most Indian shops selling utensils.

Ingredients:

2 heaped cups of chick pea flour

2 tablespoons of rice flour

1 teaspoon salt (to taste)
1 tablespoon chillypowder ( you can add more if you like hot food)

 pinch or turmeric

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 litre oil for frying

1 cup warm water for mixing the dough  - to use as required

Method:

1.  Sieve the chick pea flour, rice flour, chillypowder and salt in a mixing bowl. 

2.   Add the turmeric and lemon juice.

3.   Add warm water and mix the dough using a fork for as long as you can.  Chick pea flour can get very sticky.   Once you get the dough mixed, grease your hands and check that  the dough is of  a fairly soft consistancy.  Transfer this to a clean plate, cover  and allow the dough to rest for half an hour.  I tend to divide the dough into managable pieces so that it is easy to refill the sev gathia machine.

4.   In the mean time, heat the oil to medium heat. 5.   Grease the gathia maker cylinder lightly with oil, choose the appropriate  disc and fill it with the dough. 6.   Check that the oil is hot - by dropping a small piece of dough in the oil. If it rises quickly - the oil is hot and ready.  Now lower the heat whilst you are dropping the gathia into the oil. Turn the handle of the gathia makes and  drop the gathia directly into the oil - if possible- in a circular fashion, spreading it evenly in the oil, so it does not stick together. Only use half the mixture in the gathia mixture at each stage. ( Note to self: remember t  lower the heat whilst you are making the gathia over the oil and then raising the heat once the mixture is all in the oil.) 7.  Turn the gathia once and allow to cook.  The gathia is best cooked at medium heat or it will burn.

8.  Remove the gathia  with a  metal skimmer and place it  in a colander to allow any excess oil to drain off.

9.  Once cooled, the gathia needs to be stored in an airtight container.

My recipe was sev is posted here.  

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Gathia: Lamba, fafda or Pata Gathia (ganthia)

Gathia (often called ganthia), especially lamba (meaning long) or pata (meaning chunky) gathia and Jelebi are a traditional Sunday breakfast for a lot of Indians.  The salty gathia and syrupy sweet jalebis make a perfect combination. The Gujarati's love this breakfast the most!  The queues outside the Indian takeaways on a Sunday morning in the UK, prove how popular this breakfast is.  Most the dishes cost a lot as the chefs tend to create a a mystery about these two dishes and talk about how difficult it is to make them..  Today, I am posting the recipe for Gathia and the Jalebi recipe will follow soon. I promise you - It's not too difficult to make!!

Ingredients:

3 cups of Gram flour
2 teaspoons coarsely ground pepper
2 teaspoons ajwain or alma (also known as Ajowan caraway, carom seeds)
1 teaspoon salt
2.5 teaspoons papad khar (available in most Indian stores --The papad khar is an essential and vital ingredient in papad and gathia making.  It's a mixture of carbonates of soda and sodium chloride. The quality of papad khar varies from one geographical region to another.  I would pick up a packet that looks more with granules rather than lumps.   Substituting it for Soda Bi-carbinate doesn't produce the correct recipe.)
half cup cooking oil for the gathia plus a couple more tablespoons to add when mixing the flour at the end.
1 litre cooking oil for frying the gathia.


Method:

1. Sieve the flour

2. Add the spices -salt, pepper, ajwain.

3. Make a dip in the middle of the flour and add half a cup of oil.

4. Put the Papad Khar in a small cup and add water to it and mix well. The khar should dessolve. Add this to the gram flour.

5. Mix the dough with some warm water. Continue mixing and add a couple of tablespoon oil. Keep mixing to form a dough that's not too firm.  Keep the dough covered for half an hour.

6.   Divide the dough into small pieces and roll them into golfsized balls.

7.  Heat the oil in a wok

8.  You need a rectangular board for this recipe.  I used a chopping board.  The grooves on the chopping board were useful for my next step.  Take a small ball of the gathia and place it on the board.  Press the palm of your hand on the dough and spread it upwards trying to keep it shaped like a wide long ruler.

9.  Using a knife, peel off the gathia as shown below.

10.   My wok couldn't handle the long gathia so I cut the gathia into two to make them manageable.  Fry the gathia in hot oil until they are crispy.

11. Serve gathia with Green Chutney, fried green chillies or Shambharo. Shambharo is a hot and spicy with sweet and sour tasting accompanyment for gathias. Its a stir fry dish made of sliced carrots, raw green mangoes, cabbage and hot green chillies.

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