Kachori Chaat- Aloo Mutter

Last week, as per my menu, (see I'm sticking to it), I made Kachori chaat on Friday. My Kachori's turned out great but the chaat part was so-so. I liked them just plain with ketchup.

I started out by referring to my Sanjeev Kapoor's chaat book which by the way is very good. But, his recipes called for all shelled green peas. And if there is one vegetable that both my husband and daughter hate and gulp down with water if they absolutely have to eat is green peas! So, I did not want to put them through the misery ..so I substituted that with Aloo Mutter.

Here's the recipe if you want to try it -

For the Filling:

Aloo (Potatoes) - 5 - 6

Green Peas (1/2-1 cup)- i did cook them throughly and sneak it in between the potatoes - but I have to tell you that my daughter did manage to pull them out from her mouth and put it on her plate midway while eating!

Green Chilli - 2-3 depending on your heat level

Ginger - shredded finely

Garlic - cut into small pieces - maybe 1 -1 1/2 tsp

Jeera

Dhaniya

Pressure cook the potatoes so that you can mash them up well. Add a little bit of oil to the pan and when hot, add jeera, green chilli, ginger and garlic. Fry them up well and be sure not to burn them. Then add the cooked potatoes to this. Since I use frozen green peas, I microwave them in a little water for about 5- 6 minutes so that they cook a little bit and don't smell raw. Then I add the cooked peas to the potatoes. Now to this add salt, pinch of tumeric, red chillli, any masala - it could be garam masala. My secret is that I open up my masala dabba and add a pinch of all that will go with this - that is a little bit of garam masala, a little bit of pav bhaji masala..a little but of channa masala. Dont add pulav masala - that won't be too good.

Once you add them all, take out your masher and mash all of these really well. You would see that it starts coming together and leaving the sides of the pan. You are ready. Switch off your stove and stand there watching this for 30 mins - I'm kidding..walk away...let this cool down. If you can, make this filling in advance and keep. Its easy to work with if this is cooled down completely.

Now for the covering of the Kachori:

1 and 1/2 cups Maida

Pinch of Baking Soda (Sodium Bicarbonate)

1/4 tsp ajwain

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp of pure ghee - (here's my trick - heat it up really nice and then mix it with the maida)

1 glass of cold water

Mix all the dry ingredients together. Now add the warm ghee to this. Mix it up with your hands and break all the lumps that form with the ghee. Now to this, add cold water little by little and knead it well. Don't use a lot of water. The firmer the dough, the better your kachoris will be. But they do have to be soft. So knead well. Or if you are one of those gadget people, use your food processor to make a stiff dough.

Now you are all ready to start Kachoris. Take a deep breath. Stretch your arms and legs. Do a round of Yoga. Come on, you are after all eating kachoris - can't you warm up a little bit!

Take a small piece of the dough and roll it out into a chappathi. You dont have to make it too big. Place a small round ball of the filling inside this and pull the cover over all side making a nice pattern on top. Just use a drop of water to seal the edges on top so the Kachori does not open up while frying. Now finish up all of the dough and the filling. Here's how it will look.

Now, take your kadai, add enough oil to cover the kachoris and heat it up. Once the oil is hot, add Kachoris and deep fry them. I use a small kadai and hence fried them one by one so that they all enjoy their hot bath! So, give them their space.

Here's how they are after their bath - they did get a tan!

Now - my intial plan was to make kachori chaat. To do that, just crush a couple of Kachori's above and add green chutney and tamarind chutney. Take a small cup of yogurt and jeera powder or chat masala and a little red chilli powder to that Sprinkle some of that yogurt mixture on top of the chutneys. Enjoy it now. Or you could just eat them hot with Ketchup. I loved that!

Kacho!