Recipe

Hing Kachori
[हींग कचौरी]

Recipe Contributed By: Anupriya Sinha, Pune

 Ingredients

For the filling:
Urad Dal - 1 cup (soaked for 3-4 hrs)
Water (for grinding dal) - as required
Salt - 1 tsp or as per taste
Refined oil - 4 tbsp
Hing (asafoetida) - 1/4 tsp
Dried ginger powder (Saunth) - 1 tbsp
Coriander powder - 1 tbsp
Coriander seeds (coarsely ground in mortar-pestle) - 1 tsp
Fennel seeds powder - 1 tbsp
Fennel seeds (coarsely ground in mortar-pestle ) - 1 tsp
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp or as per taste
Chilli flakes - 1 tsp

For the dough:
Maida - 4 cup
Salt - 1 tsp or as per taste
Ghee (melted) - 1 cup (approx.)
Water - as required for kneading the dough

Refined oil for frying kachoris - as required

 Method of Preparation

1. Grind urad dal to a fine paste, in a mixer, using as little water as possible.

2. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a non-stick kadai and add hing to it.

3. Add the urad dal paste, salt, saunth, coriander powder and fennel powder, and stir well.

4. Keep stirring continuously on medium heat till all the moisture evaporates and a coarse grained filling is obtained.

5. Keep adding the remaining oil, little by little, intermittently. This process will take about 30-35 minutes.

6. Add the rest of the spices and stir for another 3-5 minutes, till you get the aroma of roasted spices.

7. Remove from heat and keep aside for cooling to room temperature.

8. Grind this filling in a mixer to get uniform grain size, which would be finer than that in the previous stage.

9. Keep this filling aside and prepare the dough. For this, add salt to maida and mix.

10. Add the melted ghee and mix well by rubbing between palms. The mixture should be such that you can make a laddoo out of it.

11. Knead this mixture using water, sprinkling little at a time. The dough thus formed should be harder than that of poori.

12. Divide the dough into 20-22 parts and make smooth balls.

13. Fill 1 and 1/2 tsp urad mixture filling in each of them and roll into about 2 and 1/2 " diameter kachoris. The thickness should be about 1/2 cm.

14. Heat oil a kadai and deep fry these kachoris on low heat till golden brown.

15. Serve with Imli chutney or your favourite sabji.

 Notes and Tips