When I grew up I wanted to learn to make these kachories and the recipe for the soft tasty kachori was quite simple. Knead the white flour with at least 1 cup of oil, and then fry the stuffing also with oil and then last but not the least deep fry the damn thing.
It was absolutely essential to add oil to the dough so that the kachories were soft, it was absolutely essential to add oil to the daal stuffing so that the daal mixture won't stick to the pan. Great days, great memories but like all good things the days of deep fried kachories had to end but what remained was the taste.
So once again when I was hunting for a nice mini meal which can keep me full for 2 hours and won't make me feel bloated and stuffed and is easy on my weight, I just couldn't stop thinking about how misunderstood these kachories were. If prepared properly they actually make a great filling low cal mini meal.
Before I give you the recipe a word of caution, whenever you opt for the baked version of traditional deep fried snack remember, to make kachories and samosas soft a lot of oil goes in kneading the dough, so even if they are baked they are deadly. Always keep this fact in your mind while buying these devils dressed as baked.
Stuffing
1. Green Peas Mixture : In one teaspoon of oil, add 1 tsp cumin seeds. Add green peas and stir fry till they are soft. Add spices of your choice like red pepper powder, garam masala, coriander powder etc and salt to taste. Let it cool and then mash.
2. Daal Mixture : Soak white urad daal for 4-5 hours and then drain. In one teaspoon oil, crackle cumin seeds, add little hing and then stir fry the daal, also add the spices of your choice and salt to taste. Cook it till its done. The best way to do it is to add some water and cover. We need to cook it till the water completely evaporates and what is left behind is the dry cooked daal. Keep it to cool and then coarsely grind it.
Dough
1. In 1 cup wheat flour use 1 tablespoon white flour and salt to taste. You can avoid the white flour but little white flour give kachories the typical kachori flavor.
2. Add 1 tsp of ajwain to the above mixture.
3. Use milk to knead the dough, as we are avoiding oil we need milk to make the dough soft.
4. Once you knead the dough, pour 1 tsp of oil on the dough and again knead it, at this point the dough should be smooth and soft.
Ingredients:
1. Stuffing mixture
2. Dough.
3. 1 tsp of oil, keep aside for brushing.
4. 1 tsp of white flour for dusting.
Procedure
1. Just roll out small dough ball.
2. Put the stuffing and close the dough ball. Dust with little white flour. You just need a pinch on both sides.
3. Roll out the kachori.
4. On a baking tray, spray oil OR dip a finger tip in the oil and then grease the tray. Arrange the kachories. Again dip the finger tip and apply oil on both side of the kachories. Use 1 tsp oil kept aside for this purpose.
5. Bake. The daal kachories puff up while baking.
Baking trick
1. Pre heat the oven on the highest temperature. It takes 10-15 minutes.
2. Pop kachories in the oven and turn side after 10 minutes.
3. Kachories are done when they turn brown.
Verdict
You won't miss the deep fried version. You can carry one to the office and it makes for a great mini meal. You can make a batch for the whole week and keep in the fridge. Its a small portable version of roti-sabji OR daal -roti
Just in case:
If you don't have an oven, do it on the pan and then keep it in the fridge. You can make a paratha and then cut into 4 pieces and store.
Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!
