Kaara boondhi

Kaara boondhi is one of the spicy snacks that can be prepared very easily. The broad multi holed spatula, is the special equipment which makes boondhi preparation very easy. I bought this spatula in a nearby Indian grocery store for $4. This spicy boondi can be used to make raita too. It is a popular snack in Tamilnadu and also this is one of the main ingredients in Tamilnadu / Kerala mixture snack.

Spicy Boondhi (Kaara boondhi)

This is the equipment, boondhi karandi needed to make boondhi (spatula with multiple holes)

Ingredients:
besan flour - 1 cup
rice flour - 1/4 cup
salt - less than a tsp
baking soda - 1/8 tsp
red chilly powder - 1/2 tsp
oil - for deep frying (300 ml)

for garnishing:
raw peanut - 1 cup
curry leaf - few
red chilly powder - 1/2 tsp
salt - to taste

Method:
Put the besan flour, rice flour, salt, red chilly powder 1/2 tsp, baking soda in a wide mixing bowl. Using a 1/2 cup water (add little by little), mix to a thick idli batter consistency.
Heat oil in a deep and wide frying pan.Bring it to frying temperature. Reduce to medium heat.
Scoop a ladle full of batter to the boondhi karandi (boondi spatula). Press and allow the boondhi batter to fall as small droplets. These tiny balls of boonthi gets fried within a few seconds. Check and fry till crispy, while maintaining the pale color.
Drain oil, take out and spread over paper towels to absorb excess oil.
Repeat for all the batter and gather the boonthis in a container.
In the same hot oil , fry the raw groundnut and curry leaves separately.
Mix the boonthi with fried items and add chilly powder and salt to taste.
Kaara boonthi is ready!

Serving suggestion:
Store the boonthi in airtight container and serve as snack.
The plain boonthi without adding peanuts can be used to make boondi raita.

Oma podi (sev)

Omapodi (plain sev) is a savory snack of India. The flavor of these crispy snacks comes from a seed called omam / ajwain / bishop weed. This is one of my most favorite snack. I prepared this on a Friday evening to give as surprise gift for my hubby. In my house, preparing some snacks for weekends is a must, otherwise hubby will buy a pack of snack from any first grocery store we enter :)  Homemade snacks are not only fresh and delicious, they are definitely an inexpensive way to show our love for our family :)  This recipe is my mom's , which she got from our 'Tuticorin ladies club cook book'.

Omapodi (sev) ready to be served with evening tea.

various sev / omapodi pressing molds. I used the middle one for a Tamilnadu style omapodi. Very thin sev is used for chaats.

Ingredients: Flours and ajwain seed powdered.

The flavor of the oma podi comes from omam seeds (ajwain).

Before squeezing omapodi.

Oma podi gets crispy within a minute of frying.

Perfectly prepared oma podi should not absorb any oil.  Anyways stack them over kitchen towel.

Ingredients:
Besan flour - 1 cup
rice flour - 1/4 cup
salt - 1 tsp (to taste)
ajwain (omam) - 1 tsp
oil - to deep fry

Method:
Put the flours in a wide mixing bowl.
Run the ajwain seed in mixie and powder it finely. Add some water and make a fine paste. Add the above said salt to this and dissolve it in 1/4 cup water. Extract the omam juice. Likewise extract another time.
Add this to the flours. Mix well , so that it gets a 'soft sticky chapati dough' (or cookie dough) consistency. Fit a required sized hole in the pressing mold (see photo above). Fill the omapodi / sev presser (idiyappa kuzhal).
In the same time , heat enough oil to deep fry in a frying pan.
As soon as the oil got hot, reduce the flame to medium heat and squeeze the omapodi directly to the oil in a circular form. Oma podi gets cooked in less than a minute. So flip once and cook both sides and take out still it is yellow in color, but completely crispy. This is the correct texture for the sev / oma podi. keep it over paper towels to drain oil.  Oma podi is ready.

Serving suggestions:
Serve as snack with evening tea.
Omapodi is one of the major ingredients in the popular Indian snack , the 'mixture' / namkeen.
The same sev, if prepared using a very fine pressing mold , is used as a garnishing item in chaat foods.

Note:
Perfectly prepared omapodi should not absorb oil.