Mathri with kasuri methi flavor is a wonderful savory munching snack with tea/coffee. But do you know that many people enjoy mathri along with the masala of mango pickle too? In Indian households, mango pickle is commonly available throughout the year. So if you have not tasted this combo of mathri and pickle till now, give it a try!!
During festivals, we sure prepare a variety of snacks and sweets. Though shops are full of endless varieties of sweets and snacks, till we don’t get the wonderful aroma of home-made fried snacks, festivities are incomplete. During Holi and Deepawali I always prepare Namakpara /Nimki, Layerd papdi or Murrukku. But this year I decided to prepare Mathri also – not the plain ones but with kasuri methi flavour. Did I like the taste of kasuri methi in mathri? I loved it a lot and so did my husband and daughter. So if you have never tried this flavor before in mathri, you can give it a try now. Winter season is here and savory snack is always welcome with a hot cup of tea/coffee!
Mathri is fried on very low flame so that it gets fried from inside too, making it evenly crisp. If you will lose your patience while frying and increase the heat, mathri will be crisp from the outside but will remain soft from the inside and that wouldn’t taste good. Perfectly fried mathri can be stored in an airtight container for a month, making it a great home-made savory snack while traveling too!!
Ingredients :
White flour (maida) 250 gms
Samolina (rava/sooji) 2 tbsp
Salt 1 +1/4 tsp
Dry fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi, crushed) 1/2 tbsp
Carom seeds (ajwain) 1 tsp
Crushed pepper corns (kuti hui kali mirch) 1 tsp
Water 1/3 cup +1 tbsp
Oil/ghee 6 tbsp
Oil for frying
A few tips:
- Mathri can be prepared with half wheat flour and half white flour or completely with wheat flour also. Adding rava is optional though it adds on nice crunch.
- Fry mathri on sim flame so that they can get fried completely from inside.
- I have used homemade kasuri methi, so 1/2 tbsp gave perfect flavour. If you are using market-bought kasuri methi, increase the quantity a bit more as homemade one has a stronger flavor than market-bought ones.
- If kasuri methi doesn’t go well with your taste buds, then omit it – use any other flavoured dry leaves, spices, carom or cumin seeds, or just simple plain mathri with salt.
Process:
Collect all dry ingredients in a broad pan.
Add oil and mix well with dry ingredients. Oil helps in mathri becoming crisp. Mix it all nicely and take a little mixture in your palm and hold it tight. If the mix binds well instead of crumbling, the oil quantity is perfect. If the mixture crumbles, add some more oil.
Slowly start adding water to it and knead it in a tight dough. Apply some oil on the ready dough (so that it doesn’t dry) and keep it covered for half an hour.
Knead the dough a bit after half an hour. As we don’t want smooth dough, don’t knead till it is smooth. We want little rough looking dough. Divide the dough into 20 grams small balls. Flatten this dough ball a little bit between your palms without worrying about the correct shape or smoothing the edges.
Make some cut marks with the help of a knife or fork on this flattened dough on both sides. Prepare the rest of the dough balls in the similar manner.
Heat oil and then reduce the flame to sim and fry mathris till they are crisp.
Let them cool down and crisp mathri with kasuri methi flavor is ready for you and your family, friends, neighbors and visitors!!
I have a few more snack recipes on the blog. You can check them also…
