Rice Chakli (Chakali)

Chakali's or Chakli are a perfect spiral shaped (like preztel-ish shape) deep-fried savory snack with a spiked surface. Most of the Indians enjoy eating Chakli with their tea or coffee as a snack in the late afternoon. Or when you go visiting your friends or family, this snack is usually present by default on the coffee table :) along with the other snacks. It is a crunchy snack that makes a loud noise as you munch on it, giving a good exercise to your mouth (he he) as you get into the rhythm of munching and creating sound that goes karram kurram :) -( yeah I know it's the same sound for papad too :))

There are 10 different types of Chakali preparation with various permutation and combination of flours and spices. I make the most simple one with rice flour and chickpea flour (besan) which is how my mom makes. Comes out fine. Soon will try few other kind with Ragi (my fav. grain), Moong dal etc and will experiment with baking instead of frying :)

A special gadget is used to make these spirals. Not sure how you can make this if you don't have one :) This is a must do snack in many households during the festival of Diwali. Every Diwali I think to myself, I must make this snack more often and that somehow never happens :( Either the days are passing by too fast or I am getting lazy to do it before the next Diwali comes by :)

Never mind, let's see on the brighter side, I get into the mood of making it atleast every Diwali :) I like my Chaklis very spicy, that's how my mom makes it and everyone in my house loves it that way.
It is also known as murukku in the south of India or chakri in northern northern India. Whatever the name, it is loved by most of us.

Let us take a look at the Chakli recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rice flour
• 1/2 cup chickpea flour (besan) 
• 2 tbsp split black gram flour (urad dal/kali dal)
• 1 1/2 tsp chilly powder, (more if you like spicy)
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds (jeera) 
• 1/2 tsp carrom seeds (ajwain) 
• 2 tsp sesame seeds (til)
• 1/2 tsp coriander powder (dhania pwd)
• 2 tsp hot oil
• salt as per taste 
• 1 tsp hot ghee (you can use all 3 tsp ghee too)
• 3/4th cup approx. water (to knead the dough)
• oil to fry

Preparation:

• Mix all the above ingredients except water and mix everything with your fingers. Be careful with the hot oil. 
• Then slowly add water little by little and make a chapati/roti like dough. Keep aside for 20-30 min, covered.
  

• Take some portion of the chakli dough, knead it some more and place it in the chakli press, start making spirals on a newspaper sheet or wax paper.

• Heat oil in a kadai, once the oil is hot bring the flame to med.  Slowly slide the chaklis in the kadai using piece of wax paper or slide it on plain spatula and transfer slowly in the hot oil and fry nicely till it is brown on all sides. 

• Take it out and place on the paper towel to absorb the extra oil. Nice crispy spicy chaklis are ready.

• Let it cool down completely before you store it in an airtight container.

njoY!! happY fryinG!! :)

You may also like Microwave Doodh Pedha, Badushai, Mandige, Besan ladoo....

Notes:* Always fry chakli on low-medium flame. If you see that the spirals are breaking while making chakli, try to work with little dough at a time, knead it well,  add couple drops of water, knead well and place it in the chakli press. It works for me that way. If your dough is too soft, add little all purpose flour and knead well before you start making the spirals. If still it isn't working just directly add the spirals in the oil (carefully) and fry. Spirals or no spirals, snack is yummy anyways! :)

Fried Modak

Modak is considered as a favorite food(nevaidya) of Lord Ganesha and all his bhakts(devotees) love to prepare it on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi or any other festival/days related to HIM, like sankashti. It is a stuffed deep fried ball with a modak shape (shaped like Kisses Hershey's: my mom says modak chocolates even to this day :P). It is stuffed with coconut and jaggery mixture!

Mostly every house in Maharashtra will have this as an offering in front of the Ganesha Idol. It is given to all the guests who attend the aarti (pooja) as a prasad (offerings).

Now coming to an interesting story, who knew one day I would start blogging about food! My first post was way back in 2003(maybe?) and it was none other than MODAK recipe on bawarchi.com, if anyone remembers that site. I had searched for the recipe of modak in vain and had not found one (ya can you believe that? I remember getting steamed modak recipes but not fried one's) I finally got it from my mom [Well, my Mom has no concept of measurements, she knows only eyeballing... was tough for me to understand her eyeball measurements :)] I gotta mention, if not for this blog, I would be falling in the same category of eye-balling lol. I somehow managed and the modaks turned out great! I had then sent my recipe to www.bawarchi.com thinking that it would help others who were in the same boat as me! Till recently the recipe was available on the internet, but not anymore :( Maybe they purged the data or something.

So in a way, this is a very special recipe!

One other thing, an interesting game is played while making modaks during the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi. My aunt usually did this ritual. One has to make modaks in odd numbers like 5, 11, 21, 51 etc (any offering to Ganesha must be in odd numbers). While stuffing the modaks, add extra salt or extra sweetness in one of the modaks and when you serve, keep all the fried modaks together. Whoever gets that odd modak is considered lucky and will have a fantastic year ahead :) Some silly fun to look forward to. But now when I think of it, maybe it was a trick to make everyone eat the modaks haha (smart MOMs :))

Bappa Morya: Let us take a look at the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup All purpose flour ( or 1/2 cup wheat flour, 1/2 cup all purpose flour(maida))
• 1 tsp semolina (rava) - optional
• water to knead 
• salt as per taste
• 1 tbsp oil

For filling

• 1/2 cup grated fresh coconut (can use dry coconut too)
• 1/2 cup powdered jaggery
• 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
• 1 tsp sesame seeds (roasted)

For frying:

• 1 cup oil or ghee

Preparation:

• Add 1 tbsp of warm oil to all purpose flour. Mix it very well with your fingers in the maida. 
• Add salt and water little by little to make it a very stiff dough.
• Keep the dough aside for about 10-15 minutes, covered.
• Heat jaggery and coconut together till jaggery melts and forms a uniform mixture with coconut. Add the roasted sesame seeds in the mixture. It smells great.
• Remove from heat and add cardamom powder. Mix everything together.
• Now make the modaks, take small balls of the dough, roll it into small puris (3-4 inch diameter disc)
• Place 1 tbsp of stuffing on the disk(puri) and bring the edges together towards the centre making folds. Seal it at the centre giving a shape of modak.
• Heat oil and deep fry the modaks on medium heat till all sides are brown. Take it out with a slotted spoon and place on paper towel to drain out the excess oil. Let it cool completely before you store it in air tight container.

njoY!! happY cookinG & fryinG!!

Notes:*- You can use whole wheat flour too, to make modaks, but when you use all purpose flour you get flaky, crunchy and perfect modaks.