Pakkavada

Pakkavada - A tasty deep fried (crispy and crunchy too) snack  (Naadan Palaharam) in South Indian cuisine. Best with tea /coffee !!!

Makes:  160 g

Ingredients

Please use same measuring cup to measure  gram flour and water

1 cup / 200 ml / 8 oz (Indian standard measuring cup) besan (gram flour/ kadalamaav / chone pittti)

2 tablespoon rice flour (normal aripodi / orva pitti)

1 teaspoon red chilli powder

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon asafoetida  (hing / kaayam)

½ cup cup water

Method

In a wide bowl, mix  besan ,  rice flour, salt, red chilli powder and hing.  Mix well with fingertips until well combined and it forms like soft bread crumbs. First start with less than ½ cup water and later adjust with remaining  1 – 2 tablespoon to make a medium soft dough.  Dough should not be very soft like chapatti  dough and it should not be too hard. If it is too hard, it won’t come out from  the mould.

Put this dough in a murukku / chakali mould. Use pakavada achu / pakoda plate (with 4 slits / 2 slits) to make  pakkavada.

Heat oil in a wide kadai / frying pan and reduce heat to medium and wait for 1 minute. Fry directly in hot oil on a medium heat (between medium and low heat)  until light golden color and crisp on both the sides  in 2 - 3 batches (depending upon the size of the kadai / frying pan). It won't take much time for frying. Please keep a safe distance from  the gas stove / hot oil when frying / pressing with mould. Drain and place on kitchen towel to absorb extra oil and store in an airtight container.  Please use 2 – 3 paper towels to absorb extra oil. Serve with tea / coffee ..