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| Chaklis/Chakris |
"Happy Diwali and a prosperous New Year!" to all my readers. Diwali or Deepavali popularly known as the "festival of lights", is an important festival in Hinduism, celebrated to signify the triumph of good over evil. The name "Diwali" is a contraction of "Deepavali" (Sanskrit : Dipavali), which translates into "row of lamps". Diwali involves the lighting of small clay lamps (diyas or dipas) filled with oil, wearing new clothes, lighting firecrackers and sharing sweets and snacks with family members and friends. Diwali falls on the one new moon night between mid-October and mid-November. Deepavali is celebrated for five days according to the lunisolar Hindu Calendar and each day has its own significance. People start making snacks and sweets before a week from Diwali.
Here's a snack which is my personal favourite and prepared by everyone during Diwali - it is called "chakli/chakri". It is a spicy spiral deep fried snack. It goes well with tea/coffee or just as it is. Each state in India has its own version of "chakli". The one i am showing is from western part of India.
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| Chakli/Chakri |
For preparing chakli, you will need couple more things than usual, they are as follows :-
a) For preparing the spiral shape of chakri you will need a special instrument (called "chakli sacha").
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| Chakli sacha (Instrument used for preparing chaklis) |
b) You will also need a steamer to steam the flour. If you don't have a steamer, you will need a steel plate which fits into a big vessel. You can fill that vessel halfway with water and then fit the plate over it (make sure plate doesn't touch the water).
c) A clean muslin cloth for steaming the flour.
Ingredients :-
1 1/2 cup fine whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter (room temp.)
1/2 tbsp white sesame seeds
1 1/2 tsp salt (or acc. to taste)
4 green chillies (or acc. to the heat you like)
1 inch piece of ginger (grind green chillies and ginger to form a fine paste)
1 tbsp plain yogurt/curd
1/4 tsp sugar
3/4 cup water (plus little more to form a pliable dough)
oil for frying
Directions :-
1. Fill the steamer/vessel with water, turn on the gas and cover it. Take the muslin cloth, dump all the wheat flour on it in form of a heap, collect all the ends of the cloth and tie it tight to form a knot. Place it on the steamer plate, cover and steam it for exactly 15 mins. In this step, we are cooking the wheat flour.
2. Once it is out of the steamer, let it cool completely. Then open the knot and take out the flour, it will be in form of a hard ball of dough.
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| Cooked ball of wheat flour |
3. Now here are 2 ways to transform it back into the flour form :-
a) Either pound it, break it into pieces and grind it fine.
b) Other is grate it through a fine grater.
In both the cases, make sure there are no lumps left. You can break the lumps with your fingers.
4. Add all the above ingredients to this flour except water, mix nicely with hands and taste it. At this point you can adjust the seasoning.
5. Add water little by little and mix the flour. You have to form it into a pliable dough - not too soft. Cover the dough and let it sit on the kitchen counter for 15 mins., just to let the flavors unite.
6. Apply Oil to the chakli instrument (sacha) from inside so nothing sticks to it. Place half or little more of the dough into it, close it tight and start making the chaklis on a newspaper or any other paper. This will prevent the chakli sticking to it. Also it will be easier to pick up the chakli and put into the fryer.
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| Pre-cooked chaklis on a newspaper |
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| Pre-cooked chaklis |
7. Heat the oil over medium high heat, when the oil is hot, pick up the chakli carefully and drop it in the hot oil. Turn the heat on medium and fry the chakli in batches (2-3 at a time), turning occasionally. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the fried chaklis to paper towels to drain.
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| Mouth-watering! golden brown chaklis |
8. Once the chaklis have cooled completely, store them in an airtight container. They stay fresh for a week on the shelf. Enjoy chaklis with tea/coffee, they even taste delicious just by themselves. Happy Diwali :)
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