Moong Dal Kachori

I'm really late posting for last month's International Food Challenge. Our host Manjula @ Desi Fiesta wanted us to explore the amazing Marwari cuisine. She gave us a wide variety of dishes from curries, rotis, halwas etc to try from. I wanted to try each and every one of her dishes, but as luck has it November got way too busy and I couldn't cook even one dish. 

Finally this weekend I made 1 kachori and 1 halwa using Manjula's recipes and loved them a lot. I made onion kachori a while back and so I tried making Moong dal Kachori this time. They came out crispy and delicious. The moong dal filling is super simple to make and tasted amazing. We had them as our tea time snack and it was perfect munching on hot kachoris and sipping the tea while browsing through my smartphone.

 

Ingredients:

For the dough:
All purpose flour - 2cups
Oil/ Ghee - 3~4tbsp
Salt - to taste

For the Filling:
Moong dal - ½cup, soaked for 2hours
Cumin seeds - 1tsp
Fennel seeds - ½tsp
Red chili powder - 1tsp
Turmeric powder - ¼tsp
Asafoetida - ¼tsp
Garam masala - 1tsp
Amchur powder (dry mango powder) - ½tsp
Salt - to taste

Method:

• Make the dough: Combine all the ingredients in a bowl. Add water and knead the dough into a smooth, pliable dough. Knead well for 5~7 minutes. Cover with a damp paper towel or kitchen towel and set aside for 30 minutes.
• Make the Filling: In the meantime, grind the soaked moong dal into a coarse paste. Heat 2tbsp oil in a nonstick pan, add cumin and fennel seeds and cook for 30 seconds.
• Add the ground moong dal and all the other ingredients. Mix well and cook until the mixture is dry. Keep aside.
• To make Kachoris: Divide the dough into 8~10 equal balls. Roll it out into a 2 inch diameter circle. Or flatten the ball using your fingers having the center thick and sides little thin. 
• Place about 1.5 tsp of the filling in the center of the rolled dough. Cover the filling with the dough by slowly stretching it over the filling. Seal the ends and remove excess dough. Repeat with all the balls and keep aside for 5 -7 mins. 
• Then using your palm, flatten the balls by lightly pressing it, as using the rolling pin will make the filling come out. Keep aside covered. Repeat with the remaining dough. 
• Meanwhile heat some oil for deep frying. The oil should not become smoking hot. Test to see if the temperature is right by dropping a tiny ball of dough and see if it is rising slowly to the top. Drop the kachoris in batches of 3-4 gently into the oil. It should rise up slowly.
• If you don't want to use lot of oil, use just enough for two or three at a time and fry them. After it rises up (about 2 minutes), turn it over. Cook for about 6 to 10 minutes till the side down gets a golden brown color. Turn and cook the other side for another 6 minutes or till its golden brown in color. Remove when done, cool and store in airtight container. Serve with coriander chutney and tamarind chutney.