Mixture: Colourful Indian Snack

Mixture is a famous Indian snack. All variety of snacks are mixed in small quantities with fried nuts, puffed rice, dry fruits  and fried grams. I have prepared simple mixture by adding some nuts.

While making mixture I used corn flour also with rice flour for crispness and to avoid oil absorption in snacks. There are different shapes of mould (achhu) available to suit the type of snacks. The dough should be thick enough to press through the mould. I used oregano (omam), asafetida, and pepper powder in these snacks to digest it easily.

I have prepared a mixture snack with Kara Boondhi, Karasev, Oma Podi, Pottu Kadalai Murukku, Ribbon Pakoda, Thenkuzhal. In mixture I added roasted peanuts and items that can be consumed as it is – like puffed rice, aval pori, fried channa (pottu kadalai). These things absorb oil from other deep fried items to keep the mixture dry. I also added fried cashew nut, raisin, badam and curry leaves. To add some sweetness, I added small Sweet Maida Diamond Cuts.

At last I sprinkled some red chilli powder, mixed all by crushing mildly. I have not added salt separately in the mixture as all deep fried items have salt in them.

You can add snacks in any proportion as you wish. The measurement given below are what I followed and adding items in mixture depends upon individual taste also. Here are the constituents of mixture to make a delicious snack.

Kara Boondhi

Kara Boondhi is a snack known to all and children like it very much. It can be easily prepared at home.

Ingredients

• Bengal gram flour (kadalai mavu) – 2 cup
• Rice flour or corn flour – 2 table spoon
• Red chilli powder – ½ tea spoon
• Turmeric – pinch
• Cooking soda – pinch
• Salt – as per taste
• Oil – for deep frying

Method

• Mix well all given items together with water to a batter like idly batter.
• Hold the boondhi ladle over hot oil, pour the batter on this little by little and let it fall freely in the hot oil as droplets; fry crisp and remove; repeat for remaining batter also.

• Crisp Kara Boondhi is ready. Can be garnished with fried curry leaves.

Tips:

• If the batter is too thick, boondhi as droplets won’t fall freely in the fry pan.
• If the batter is too watery, spherical shape of boondhi is difficult to get.
• While deep frying, oil temperature need to be regulated.
• Boondhi Raitha also can be prepared as a side dish.

Karasev

Ingredients

• Bengal gram flour (kadalai mavu) – 1 cup
• Rice flour – ½ cup
• Corn flour – ½ cup
• Pepper powder –1 tea spoon
• Butter – 1 tea spoon
• Turmeric – pinch
• Salt – as per taste
• Oil – for frying

Mix all flour and other things with water to stiff dough; put in mould and press over hot oil; cook in low flame till crisp.

Oma Podi

This is a simple snack enjoyed by children. As oregano (omam) juice is added in this, it is tasty and is easy to digest also.

Ingredients

• Bengal gram flour (kadalai mavu) – 2 cup
• Rice flour – ¼ cup
• Corn flour – ¼ cup
• Unsalted butter – 1 table spoon
• Oregano (omam) – I table spoon soaked for 1 hour and juice extracted
• Salt – as per taste
• Oil – for frying

Method

• Sieve all flour; mix all flour, salt, butter, oregano juice and make a dough like stiff poori dough.

• Put this in the mould and press over hot oil; fry in low flame, remove when it is crisp and turns golden colour; this cooks very fast, within one or two minutes.

Repeat this process for the remaining dough.

Tips

• Make the dough for only 4 to 5 oma podi shifts at a time because the dough kept for long time will result in brown or reddish oma podi, while deep frying.
• In emergency, you can use oma water instead of taking out juice from omam.

Pottu Kadalai Murukku

Ingredients

• Rice flour – 2 cup
• Pottu kadalai mavu – ½ cup
• Cumin seeds – ½ tea spoon
• Asafetida powder (dissolved in water) – little
• Unsalted butter – 1 table spoon
• Salt – as per taste
• Oil for frying

Method

Mix all together with enough water to a stiff dough and press over hot oil; cook in low flame till crisp and golden in colour.

Ribbon Pakoda

Ingredients

• Bengal gram flour (kadalai mavu) – 5 cup
• Rice flour – 1 cup
• Corn flour – 1 cup
• Red chilli powder – 2 tea spoon
• Asafetida powder – ½ tea spoon
• Unsalted butter – 2 table spoon
• Salt – as per taste
• Oil – for frying

Method

Mix the above things with water make stiff dough; put in mould, press over hot oil; cook both sides in low flame, remove when crisp.

Tips

• You can replace asafetida with garlic juice.

Thenkuzhal

Ingredients

• Rice flour – 1¼ cup
• Roasted and powdered urad dal – ¼ cup
• Black sesame seeds – ¼ tea spoon
• Unsalted butter – 1tea spoon
• Salt – as per taste
• Oil – for frying

Method

Mix all items with enough water and press through mould over hot oil; cook in low flame till crisp and golden in colour.

Sweet Maida Diamond Cuts

Ingredients

• Maida – 1 cup
• Rava – 1 tea spoon
• Corn flour – 1 tea spoon
• Ghee – 1 table spoon
• Sugar – 1 table spoon

Method

Mix all items with enough water to a stiff dough and roll it like chappati; cut into small pieces and fry them till crisp.

Tips for making snacks

• The flour should be fresh and nicely ground; sieve it before making snacks.
• If you add more butter, murukku like snacks will break in oil while deep frying.
• Always dissolve salt in water and then add in the flour to make a dough.
• Mix the flour only to use for 4 to 5 moulds at a time for deep frying.
• Store the snacks in air tight container to keep them crisp for long time.

Here is the Murukku Achhu and Boondhi ladle used to prepare the above items.