Savory snack for Deepawali /Holi festival Archives

Mathri (kasuri methi flavor)

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!!

November 28, 2020October 28, 2021

Deeksha Pathak81 Comments

Layered papdi

Layered Papdi is a crisp savory munching snack. During festivals when we are busy preparing sweets and savory stuff, we prepare something special which we can enjoy when all hullabaloo of the festival is over and we just want to relax and enjoy our evening tea/coffee with our home made snack. Layered papdi is one of my favorite snack, to have it with tea or I use them to prepare spicy chatpata chaat…..

I have a few more snack recipes on the blog. You can check them also…Namakpara /Nimki and Murrukku

Ingredients :

Maida (white flour) 1 cup
Chiroti/normal rava (optional) 1 tbsp
Salt 1/2tsp (reduce or increase according to your taste)
Ajwain /jeera (carom or cumin seeds) (optional) 1/2 tsp
Oil (for moyan) 2+1/2 tbsp
Water 1/4 cup
Oil for frying
Cloves (loung) 10-12

Process:

Take maida in a broad vessel and add salt, ajwain/jeera(carom or cumin seeds) and oil. Mix it well and slowly add water and prepare the tight dough.

The dough should be really tight otherwise we can’t roll it thin. Cover the dough and leave it for 15/20 minutes for resting.

After 15 minutes knead the dough again, divide it into equal parts and prepare the same sized balls.

Roll them very thin, in round shape on the clean kitchen counter and keep them on parchment /butter paper.

Fold one round disc along the center and then again fold it to get 1/4th of its original size. Slightly press it and prick it with a knife from all sides to avoid puffing.

Also, inserting cloves in between will help in keeping the layers flat.

Heat oil in a deep pan and fry these papdis on the sim to medium heat till they become crisp.

Let them cool down completely and store in an airtight container. Enjoy these papdis with your tea /coffee.

October 25, 2017October 28, 2021

Deeksha Pathak4 Comments

Murrukku

Murrukku is a south Indian savory snack and it is prepared during festivals. Murrukku can be prepared with different types of flours. We can use maida (white flour) as well as different lentil flours along with rice flour to give crunch. During Deepawali or Holi festival my mother used to prepare Namakpara /Nimki , Shakkarpara with sugar syrup and two three varieties of sev and mixture. Aafter my marriage I came to Chennai and later shifted to Bangalore. Here I got introduced a complete new savoury snack “Murukku” and it tasted really good.

I asked someone (can’t remember who it was) for the recipe and it was such a lengthy process that I gave up any idea of trying this. Later, we shifted to our own house in an apartment complex. Here once again I heard about the recipe of Murrukku and it was very easy to follow. Actually, my apartment friend Ashwini had introduced this recipe. She herself is an amazing cook and believes a lot in healthy cooking. But this recipe was made popular in our apartment by Sunitha, a nice hearted person who also prepares the best melt-in-mouth mysore pak (but that story is for another day). Since then whether it is Deepawali or Holi, I never miss preparing Murukku….

Ingredients :
White urad daal 250 gm
Rice flour 500gm
Salt 3tsp
Butter/ghee 3 – 4 tbsp
Asafoetida 1/8tsp
Water 1+1/2 cup (for boiling daal)
Cumin seeds (jeera) 4tsp
Oil to fry
Process :
Nicely wash urad daal twice and soak it for an hour.

After an hour use same water and boil urad daal nicely in pressure cooker.

Daal should be boiled till it is completely soft and then grind it in mixer without adding extra water. But if it is too thick and it is difficult to grind then add some water. Grind it till daal resembles a paste.

Take it out in a pan and add rice flour, salt, jeera, asafoetida and butter.

Mix everything together and give it a shape of smooth dough. If mixture is dry and difficult to shape as dough, add some water.

This is murukku making mould.

But without this also murrukku can be prepared. Make a lemon size ball from the doug, roll it on oil greased kitchen counter and shape that as murukku.