A delicious snack to binge on, pyaaz or onion kachori, is a perfect partner for your tea. I was introduced to kachoris in my college days, a small Rajasthan sweet shop had opened close by, serving delicious sweets along with samosas and kachoris. They came with sweet and sour chutney, green chutney and topped with onions. It was our favourite spot after pani puri.
Commonly, kachoris have moong dal filling. A lot of variants have now come and this is one of them. This recipe is adapted from a cookbook with little changes. Unlike moong dal kachori, we don’t have a wait time here – no soaking time required. Since the filling here is made from onions everything is quick. While the dough is kneaded and resting, our filling is prepared. Then stuff and fry. Kachoris are ready in an hour.
My source recipe baked the kachoris, while i chose to fry it. frying the kachoris are important and can be tricky. we need perfectly cooked kachoris, with nice golden color. the oil should be heated to right temperature and slow cooked. there is no room for hurry, patience is the key!
so come, lets make some super tasty, flaky kachoris for your evening.
Steps:
Finely chop onions, green chillies, coriander leaves. Keep aside with all other ingredients.
In a pan, heat oil on medium flame. Add kalonji, fennel seeds, onions and green chillies and . When the onions turn transparent add spice powders, gram flour, salt and fry for another minute. Finish with coriander leave and set aside to cool.
For the dough, mix together flour, salt and ghee. Gently mix them together to make crumble like mixture. Add about 1/4 cup of water and mix well. Add water as required and mix to get a soft dough. Knead for about 5 minutes. To make kachoris, equally divide the dough into small portions (the above said measurement will give you 4 kachoris) Shape them to round balls and flatten them with a rolling pin to about 2 cm radius circle. Place a spoonful of filling in the centre. Carefully join all the side in the centre sealing the filling. Carefully flatten with you palms/rolling pin into medium thickness kachoris. Heat oil in a frying pan on low flame. When the oil is hot enough, slowly slide kachoris to the oil.
- Maida/refined flour 1 cup
- Ghee/oil 2 tbsp
- Salt 1 tsp
- Water as required
- Onions 2 large
- Green chillies 2 medium
- Gram flour/Besan 1 tbsp
- Fennel seeds 1 tsp
- Nigella/Kalonji seeds 1 tsp
- Cumin seeds 1 tsp
- Chilli powder 1 tsp
- Coriander powder 1 tsp
- Garam masala 1 tsp
- Coriander small bunch
- Oil 2-4 tsp
- Salt to taste
- Finely chop onions, green chillies, coriander leaves. Keep aside.
- For the dough, mix together flour, salt and ghee. Gently mix them together to make crumble like mixture.
- Add about 1/4 cup of water and mix well. Add water as required and mix to get a soft dough. Knead for about 5 minutes.
- Cover with a moist cloth and keep aside.
- In a pan, heat oil on medium flame.
- Add kalonji, fennel seeds, onions and green chillies and .
- When the onions turn transparent add spice powders, gram flour, salt and fry for another minute.
- Finish with coriander leave and set aside to cool.
- To make kachoris, equally divide the dough into small portions (the above said measurement will give you 4 kachoris)
- Shape them to round balls and flatten them with a rolling pin to about 2 cm radius circle.
- Place a spoonful of filling in the centre. Carefully join all the side in the centre sealing the filling.
- Carefully flatten with you palms/rolling pin into medium thickness kachoris.
- Heat oil in a frying pan on low flame. When the oil is hot enough, slowly slide kachoris to the oil.
- When the kachoris start to puff up, gently flip it.
- Keep frying it on low flame till the kachoris turn crisp and golden brown. Keep flipping occasionally.
- Remove the kachoris from oil and drain on a kitchen towel.
- 1. For the filling green chillies can be avoided and chilli powder can be adjusted as required.
- 2. Fennel seeds/kalonji seeds can be skipped, but they tend to add a distinct flavour to the filling.
- 3. Don’t let the dough to dry out, keep them covered with a moist cloth always, even when the kachoris are waiting to be fried.
- 4. If your pan is small, fry 1-2 kachoris at a time.
