Thursday, January 19, 2012

Karaishuti Kachuri

Karaishuti or motorshuti as we call it in Bengali is 'peas' in English. Traditionally, karaishuti kachuri is a very popular breakfast item in Bengal, but nowadays it has made its way into the evening snack menu. Some sweet shops in Kolkata sell this kachuri with a complementary mouth-watering potato curry. We have a string of famous confectionaries in our locality in Kolkata where items like hing kachuri, karaishuti kachuri, shingara are staple and hordes of customers delightfully throng the shops in the morning and evening to take a mouthful of those lovely snacks.

In Bangalore, we don't have the luxury of getting these delicacies available at our beck and call. Hence, a Bengali food enthusiast, fond of Bengali snacks in a bid to satisfy her snack craving takes the herculean task on her shoulder to prepare these at home :D.


Ingredients :( makes 8)                    Cooking time: 40 minutes
ü  100 gm of peas (parboiled)
ü  120 gm of all-purpose flour
ü  80 gm whole wheat flour
ü  1/2 tsp hing or asafoetida powder
ü  1 tsp cumin powder
ü  3-4 green chillies (chopped)
ü  Salt to taste
ü  White oil for cooking
Method:
1) Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a skillet. Add hing or asafoetida powder and green chillies. When they begin to sputter, add the green peas and shallow fry them, stirring continuously. Add salt and cumin powder and stir in to mix properly. Turn off the heat.
2) Now put the pea’s mixture into a blender and grind it to a smooth paste as shown below:

3) Keep the peas mixture aside while you get the dough ready for kachuri. Mix both kinds of flour together with a pinch of salt and 1 tsp of oil. Then add required amount of water to knead soft dough. Make small balls out of them as shown in the pic:

4) Roll each of these balls out into a circular shape pancake of about 2 inches in diameter, using a rolling pin. (Add a touch of oil to the balls before flattening them on the rolling board.)
5) Place 1 tbsp of peas mixture in the middle of the pancake and bringing all the edges together, wrap it into a ball. Roll them out again into a kachuri as shown:

6) Just as you fry puri or luchi deeply coated in oil, same way fry the karaishuti kachuris.
7) Enjoy these with any potato curry of your choice. I made the simplest and tastiest of all potato curries, hugely popular in Bengal - potato curry cooked with a pinch of turmeric and nigella seeds.
8) Have a feast.


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