Friday, November 27, 2009

Deep fried wheat flour snack, pakodas - Mathri

The nation's capital or at least the newspapers here are full of the state dinner hosted in honor of India's PM by the President. I read the starter for the dinner was a brinjal and potato salad. I am curious as hell what that could be and not creative enough to imagine how they cooked that one. I would have given anything to be a fly on the wall to take a peak at the menu cooked up by the Swiss chef, especially the transformation of potato and brinjal into an elegant salad.

Pictures by DD.





Hope all of you who are residents in the USA had a good Thanksgiving. We are thankful for the life we have amidst all the problems that people in every part of the world are facing.

We had a thanksgiving lunch surrounded by friends and laughter and I am happy to report that there is not too much leftovers.



shaped dough ready for frying


As for the recipe if you have tasted Haldiram's mathri you know exactly what I am talking about. My friend's mom makes these delightful snacks with wheat flour similar in taste but called them pakodas. Unfortunately failed to get the recipe from her and yes that was very unlike me. I wanted to make some crunchies for friends who were visiting us and wanted to give this snack a try recreating the ingredients from the taste memory. The taste of success with murukkus gave courage this experiment. I am sure everyone is pretty aware of these facts,

  • to keep the shapes even in thickness and size to ensure even cooking

  • My helper for the murukkus was busy with her homework and my impatience made for some uneven cooking of the pakodas

  • roll out the dough like you would chapatis as thick or thin as you like it and then cut them for even shape

  • if you would like it crunchier use equal parts wheat flour and rice flour, I did a ratio of 3:1


  • On another note if you are interested in watching a Tamil movie, Unnai pol Oruvan is a good one. Great performances from Kamal Hasan, Mohan Lal and every other member of the cast. This is a remake of the Hindi movie A Wednesday.






    Wheat flour pakodas
    Ingredients
    1. 3 Cups Wheat flour (chapati flour)
    2. 1 Cup Rice Flour
    3. 1 tbsp grated ginger
    4. 3 tsp pepper powder
    5. 1 tbsp red chili powder
    6. 2 tsp cumin powder
    7. 4 tsp cumin seeds
    8. salt as required
    9. Finely cut onion
    10. 4 tbsp oil for making dough
    11. Oil for deep frying


    Method
    1. Mix ingredients from 1-8.
    2. Add oil to the flour and mix it into the flour. Sprinkle water and make a pliable dough.
    3. Roll out the dough just like you would chapati and cut into desired shapes (I did not do this), instead take out a bit of dough, make desired shapes and drop into the oil
    4. Cook till golden brown and drain on paper towels.


    Wheat Flour on Foodista

    22 comments:

    1. A fly in that dinner, well i would like to go a step more and taste the food even if it is in that kitchen :-)
      Never had this snack, looks crunch delish.

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    2. Onion in mathris sounds wonderful ISG! I made a bunch for Diwali but never got 'round to posting them. Yours look so perfect! :-)

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    3. OMG, I'm sitting here sipping a cup of coffee as I blog-hop and pawing at the screen for those mathris :D

      They look so good! I'm glad deep frying is a major pain in my kitchen (poor ventilation) otherwise I would be making deep fried snacks every other day.

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    4. Totally Cool.... Well made & well presented too.... I would try it soon as I always find, short of recipes for quick snacks.....

      Tempted to Taste...Tempted to Taste!!

      Ash....
      (http://asha-oceanichope.blogspot.com/)

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    5. Never tried mathris at home but used to love them with a little bit of pickle as midnight snacks during hostel days. yours look perfect and the presentation captures the perfect moment.

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    6. I am back, they look damn good ISG. Wish we had been there :)

      BTW pakodas are more like bhajias where you make the batter and drop rounds of batter in hot oil and fry, the batter is usually made of chickpea flour but wheat flour or maida may be an option.
      If the dough is rolled out and fried it is definitely mathris and I love them

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    7. hahahah..indo I was actually imagining you as the fly..:))..those mathris are looking great..you know I can never say no for a deep fried one..!

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    8. Oh that sounds so flavorful & delicious... Deep fried snacks are the best for this cold weather.
      I've been meaning to watch unnai pol oruvan.

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    9. Those look like some seriously good mathris!

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    10. I don't think I've had the Haldiram Mathri, but this snack looks like it is right up my alley. I'd love to have some with my coffee right now.

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    11. OOOOOOO.. :-) love the onion in it. don't care for the shape, but do care for these delicious things you have done a lot!

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    12. Lovely! Chennai's weather has some more rains today it seems and thse would go very well with a hot cup of tea! DD's has a brilliant eye for and angls somehow she add her touch. reat shots and the bowl with fish looks cute!

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    13. Nice snack esp in winter..I love the ones with jeera.

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    14. Nirmala, these photos were just for you :)

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    15. Mmmmmmmmmm, looks so good! I ate some that were flavored with kasuri methi, brought by my gujju friend during hostel days. Mathri goes well with spicy pickles. I'm glad you had a nice thanksgiving. Our (Canadian) thanksgiving was a month back and we were in India at the time, so missed it this year. I'm making plans for next year already. :)

      I just thinking... would it work if I baked these in the oven? Maybe with some baking soda and some yogurt..

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    16. Kay, mathris with pickles, I read that too, but these are spicy by themselves, why pickles? Anyway your query has been answered, look at Redchillies recent post-chilly biscuits, just what you want.

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    17. These mathris look wonderful, perfect snack to go with tea !

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    18. Deep fried? Oh yeah, the diet can start tomorrow :)

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    19. We call this tukadas, mini version of pakodas at my place...mathri sounds great...best tea time snack. Perfect for the weather here.

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    20. I don't know... they were very nice to eat with pickles though.. :) Esp. after being tired of hostel food.

      Off to check the chilly biscuits!! Thanks!

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    21. fabulous pics....ive fallen in love with ur blog...

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