Gari Gari Shankarpali | Sweet Crispy Fritters

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Shankarpali is a great tea time snack. A little sweetish with a wee bit of salt makes this a perfect sweet cum savory to munch on anytime of the day. It can be stored at room temperature for 2-3 weeks. You can pack it for picnics or munch on while watching movies. Here is the simple and easy recipe to make these crispy shankarpalis.

Ingredients:

Maida/All Purpose Flour: 4 cups
Clarified Butter/Ghee: 3/4 cup
Sugar: 1 cup
Water: 1 cup
Salt: 1/2 tsp
Baking Soda: 1/4 tsp

Method:

1. Heat Sugar, ghee and water in a pan until the sugar melts completely. Turn off the flame and let it cool down completely.

2. Mix in flour, salt and baking soda and add the cooled water part by part and start kneading the flour. Make a thick dough. Adjust the quantity of flour if the dough is soft. Cover the dough and keep it for one hour.

3. Roll a lemon sized dough into 1/2 cm thick sheet and cut it into diamond shaped pieces. Deep fry in hot oil on medium flame until golden brown color.

4. Remove on absorbent paper towel and store in the airtight jar. You can store it for 15 days at room temperature. I wonder who's going to leave them for 15 days ;-)

Notes:
1.Keep the flame on medium always to evenly fry the shankarpali.

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Kodubale | A special snack from Karnataka

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Kodubale is a special snack from Karnataka - a festive snack usually made during ganesha festival or deepavali. The list pof ingredients is quite simple but just need a little effort to roll and fry them. Once you start munching on this crispy snack all the effort will seem worth it :-) It's a very addictive snack and I must say the tagline 'no one can eat just one' suits kodubale aptly.

I have adapted the recipe from Swayampaka channel. It's an easy recipe. Do give it a try and impress your family members :-)

Ingredients:
Chiroti Rava/Semolina/Small Sooji: 1/4 cup
All purpose Flour/Maida: 1/5 cup (little less than 1/4 cup)
Rice Flour: 1 cup
Oma/Ajawain/Carom seeds: 1/2 tsp
Salt: 1 tsp
Asafoetida/Hingu : 1/4 tsp
Oil: 3 tbsp + for deep frying
Fresh Coconut: 1/2 cup
Dry red chillies: 8-10 (Byadagi / kashmir non spicy variety)

Method:

1. Heat a pan and add all purpose flour and semolina and warm them for a min. Transfer to a mixing bowl, when it is still warm add 1 tsp oil and mix it well and keep it aside.

2. In a mixer jar grind together coconut and dry red chillies with a little water.

3. Add the ground coconut paste, rice flour, asafoetida, salt and ajwain seeds to Rava and maida mixture and combine everything well.

4. Heat 2 tbsp oil until it's smoking hot and add to the mixture and mix them with a spoon. Do not touch with bare hands as the oil will be too hot.

5. Once its cooled down a bit, knead into a soft dough with hands by adding very little water at a time to get a soft kodubale dough. Keep it covered for 15 minutes.

6. Heat oil in frying pan or a deep wok on medium heat.

7. While the oil is heating, take a spoonful of dough and hand roll it into 1/2" thick rope size and join the ends to make a circle. Repeat the steps and make about 6-8 kodubale in one batch.

8. Drop them into hot oil one by one and deep fry on low- medium heat for about 2-3 minutes and flip it and fry the other side also until both sides turn into golden brown color. 

9. Remove on a kitchen towel, bring them to room temperature and store in an air tight jar.

Notes:
1. Make the oil very hot before adding to the flour mixture and it should make sound when poured on the flour mix.
2. Be careful while kneading the dough as the hot oil can scald your palm.
3. Keep the flame on low-medium while deep frying and give it enough time to fry, otherwise the kodubale will be crisp from outside but raw inside.
4. If the dough breaks while rolling, touch a little water or oil and knead the dough well and roll again. If it doesn't help add a little all purpose flour/maida and try again.
5. Fry Kodubale immediately after rolling if not it will break while frying.

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Fried Modak for Ganesha festival.

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Fried modak is a sweet fried dumpling usually filled with coconut jaggery stuffing. It can be made with many different fillings like mawa, chocolate etc. it has crunchy outer cover and a chewy coconut filling inside. It's also believed to be Lord Ganesha's favorite snack and 21 modaks are offered on Ganesha festival.

Ingredients:

For filling:

Fresh coconut: 1.5 cup

Jaggery:1/2 cup

Cardamom powder: 1/4 tsp

Powdered pistachio: 2 tbsp (optional)

For cover:

All purpose flour: 1 cup

Semolina/Rava: 1/2 cup

Oil :  2 tbsp

Milk: 1/4 cup

Makes about 21-23 modaks.

Method: 

1. In a mixing bowl combine all purpose flour, semolina and salt to taste. 

2. Add 2 tbsp of hot oil and mix well with a spoon. Knead it into a soft dough by adding little milk at a time. Cover with cling wrap and keep it aside for 30 mins.

3. To prepare the filling, add powdered jaggery and grated coconut in a pan and cook on low flame for 2-3 mins.

4. The mixture will become a bit dry then turn off the flame and add cardamom powder and powdered pistachio and mix well.

5. Take a marble sized dough and roll it into a thin sheet (poori size).

6. Put a spoonful of coconut filling in the center of the rolled sheet.

7. Apply little water to the edges and start pinching the edges as shown in the picture and join all the pinched edges in the center and seal it.

8. Follow the same steps and make other modaks.

9. Heat oil in a deep pan and fry modak on medium flame until they turn golden brown in color

10. Drain them on a kitchen towel to remove excess oil.

11. Cool the modaks before serving. 

Note:

1. Roll the dough into very thin sheets so the outer layer will be crispy.

2. You can replace fresh coconut with dry/ desiccated coconut, add 1-2 tsp milk while making the filling.

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