Kara sevu

Karam - spicy hot; sevu - fried noodle like crispies.

Chevu or sev is a very common spicy snack in the rural areas of Tamilnadu. We can get two versions of it. One belonging to the villages of Southern Tamilnadu, the very spicy HOT 'kovilpatti kara sevu' and the next one is called 'lala mittai shop's butter sevu'.
I prefer the  'spicy kara sev' better. It is a very simple recipe and won't demand much skills as we need for a murukku. My mom used to make them for us in a very spicy manner, which my elder brother exclaims as smoky HOT and I am sharing her recipe here. It is a ritual nowadays in our house to make some snacks before weekend, that too a must during winter:) I have to stock up a small batch for hubby's snack needs before he buys home whatever he sees.

Kara sev stacked.

Ingredients:

Besan flour (bengal gram flour) - 2 cup
rice flour - 1/4 cup
salt - as per need
oil - to deep fry

To grind:

dry red chillies - 6
ajwain (bishop's weed / omam) - 1 tsp
whole black pepper - 1 tsp
cumin - 1 tsp
garlic - 4 cloves

Utensils:

A murukku press.
A wide wok to deep fry.
slotted spatula

Method:

Grind the items in a blender to a medium coarse texture.
Mix that masala with the flours, add salt and 2 tbsp of hot oil.
(Adding hot oil reduces oil absorption while frying).
Add required water and knead into a soft chapathi dough consistency.
Fill the 'murukku press' with the prepared dough.
Heat the oil in a wok.
Press the dough in circular form as shown below.

Kara sev after frying.

Flip once and take out after the bubbles disappear.
Drain excess oil and place over paper towels.
Kara chev is ready!

Tips:

Perfectly prepared kara sev should not be oily.
Always keep the gram flour in refrigerator,this will result less oil absorption.
Add some hot oil while kneading the dough to get a crispier sev without much oil.

Serving suggestions:

Break it into long pieces.
Allow it to cool completely and store in air tight container.
Serve as snack with tea.

Event:
Though this kara sev contains very little ajwain (omam), it will have much flavor from ajwain.
So I am sending this kara sev to 'Cooking with seeds event - Ajwain' hosted by Kavita of 'seasoned and dressed' . The event is the brain child of 'Priya.' of  'Priya's easy and tasty recipes'. Happy hosting dear!