Kara Boondi is a savory version of boondi which is prepared with gram flour, peanuts, curry leaves and other spices. You can enjoy this kara boondi as such or can be used to prepare spicy south Indian mixture or boondi raita, chaat items etc. It can be stored in an airtight container for more than a week and enjoy it as an evening munch.

Ingredients:

Serves 4 to 5 people

For making boondi:

• 1 cup – Gram flour / chickpea flour / besan / kadalai maavu
• 2 tbsp – Rice flour
• 1/4 tsp – Red chilli powder (or add as needed)
• 2 tsp – Oil / ghee
• Oil for deep frying
• Salt to taste

For seasoning:

• 1/4 cup – Raw peanuts with skin
• 1/4 cup – Fresh curry leaves
• 1/8 tsp – Red chilli powder
• Salt to taste

Preparation method:

1. For making kara boondi, you will need boondi making ladle or karandi, ladle to pour batter and another for draining them from hot oil. So you have to keep it ready before you start making kara boondi.
2. Take a mixing bowl, add gram flour, rice flour, red chilli powder and required salt . First add little water and mix it well without any lumps.Then add more water little by little and make a slightly thin batter, then add 2 tsp of oil and mix it well.The batter should not be too thick or too thin.
3. The consistency should be like dosa batter (as shown in the picture). If the batter consistency is not perfect then balls will not be round and it will have tails.
   To check if the batter is in correct consistency, first take a spoon and dip the backside of the spoon into batter and hold it on top of the preheated oil. If it drops as perfect rounds then the batter is perfect.
4. Heat oil in a frying pan, then take the boondi ladle and pour a little batter on the ladle. The batter will fall through the holes into the hot oil (as shown in the picture).
   Fry the balls till they are slightly golden brown(or until shh sound stops)and drain it on a paper towel. Continue the same process with remaining batter.
5. Finally fry peanuts and fresh curry leaves in oil until they are crispy. Now take mixing bowl, add fried boondi, peanuts, curry leaves, red chilli powder and salt if needed. Toss well to combine and after it cools, store it in an airtight container.

Notes:

• Keep everything ready before you start to make boondi. Batter consistency is very important to get perfect round boondi.So be very cautious while adding water.
• When you drop the batter with the back of the spoon, If it drops and form balls with a tail, then add little more water to make it runny.  Following same spoon test, if the balls formed are very light and thin then the batter is very runny, so you can add little gram flour / besan to make it thick.
• Once the batter is ready take a ladle full of batter and add it to the boondi making ladle. Let it fall down by itself or else tap it or spread it using pouring ladle so that it drops down.