South Indian Mixture

Written by: 7aumsuvai

Popular tea kadai snacks in Tamilnadu, usually accompanied with hot tea or coffee. It is an spicy and yummy deep fried snacks that you can prepare for festivals like Diwali etc.

Ingredients:

Serves 7 to 10

Omapodi approximately 2 cups(recipe below)
Kara Boondi approximately 2 cups(recipe below)
1 cup - Fresh curry leaves
1/2 to 3/4 cup - Peanuts
10 to 15 no's - Cashewnuts
1/2 cup - Roasted gram/pottukadalai
3/4 cup - Thick poha/Aval
Salt to taste
Red chili powder to taste
Asafoetida/hing as needed
1/4 tsp - Sugar
Oil for deep frying

Omapodi: Ingredients:

1 cup – Gram flour / besan / kadalai mavvu
1/4 cup – Rice flour
1/4 to 1/2 tsp – Ajwain / omam
2 tbsp – Hot oil / butter
2 pinches – Asafoetida
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp – Water
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

Preparation method:

Crush ajwain or omam in mortar and pestle instead of using mixer grinder and then soak them in 1/4 cup +2 tbsp of water for 15 to 20 mins. Strain them, set it aside.
Sieve gram flour, rice flour and transfer this to a mixing bowl. Add ajwain water, hot oil/butter, asafoetida, required salt, mix everything well to form a soft and sticky dough.
Take a sev or idiyappam press (mold with small holes), keep a portion of dough inside the presser and start pressing directly into hot oil in circular shape.
Once it is cooked on one side flip over to other side and cook till bubbles stop. Repeat this process for the rest of the dough. Drain it in a paper towel, cool down and Crush it with your hands. set this aside

Kara Boondi:

Ingredients:

For making boondi:

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

Preparation method:

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.
Take a mixing bowl, sieve add gram flour, rice flour, turmeric powder, red chilli powder and add required salt, baking soda,asfoetida . 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.
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.
Fry peanuts,cashewnuts,roasted gram,poha and fresh curry leaves in oil until they are crispy.
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. Now Kara Boondi is ready.

Making of mixture:

Now take mixing bowl, add fried boondi, omapodi, peanuts, curry leaves, cashew nuts, roasted gram, poha. Finally add sugar, red chilli powder, hing and salt if needed. Toss well to combine and after it cools, store it in an airtight container.