During Diwali, I pull out all the bells and whistles and make foods that signify that it's Diwali. Chakli is top of my list as my family loves this crispy snack.
I have had to practice over and over again to get this recipe figured out. And I finally have it right! But, of course, it all depends on the age of the Rice Flour! The older the flour, the more moisture it absorbs. So please watch the video to see what you are looking for! This is a tricky dish, so keep trying if you don't get it the first time!! Enjoy!
Traditional Chakli Recipe Prep Time: 1 Hour 40 minutes (Approx)
Makes 32 Spirals
INGREDIENTS:
230g (1 1/2 Cups) Rice Flour
50g (3 TBSP) Butter
2 Tbsp Sesame Seeds
½ tsp Ajmo
1/8 Haldi
1 tsp Salt
1 Small Red Potato (about 60g)
3 Tbspn or 1 ½ Lemons Juiced
3 tsp Sugar
2 level tsp Grated Ginger
5 or more Green Chilis
1/4 Cup Finely Chopped Fresh Coriander
135ml or 9 Tbspn Warm Water Approx.
Oil for Frying
SPECIAL EQUIPMENT
Sev Machine (Available in Indian Shops or on Amazon)
If you'd like to purchase a sev machine, see the links below.
UK:
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METHOD:
Cook the red potato by cutting it into quarters and wrapping the whole potato in newspaper and cooking in the microwave for about 2 minutes. Once cooled, grate finely. Do NOT boil the potato. You can use a white potato if red is unavailable, but the stickiness of red potatoes works best. Adding potato to the chakri makes it crispy without being too hard.
Mix the rice flour and butter until it resembles bread crumbs.
Then gradually add all the remaining ingredients in with the crumbs, breaking up any clumps you come across.
Add the lemon juice and warm water last, being sure to add the water gradually. It's best to add less water than more at this point: Start with 7 TBS, then add more as needed. The dough should be a little stiffer than roti/chapatti dough but not as stiff as puri dough. Knead the dough together for a few minutes so it becomes a little smoother. This allows the potato to release some starch and get a little gluey too.
Let this rest while you get the piping machine ready, but no longer than a few minutes.
Use the star design in your sev-making machine and add a handful of dough to it.
Heat up the oil in a pan.
Make spiral chakri designs on small pieces of grease-proof or parchment paper, being sure to make the dough strips touch as you make the spiral designs. Pat them gently with your hand so the little bits of dough stick together. This helps to make sure the spiral doesn’t fall apart when frying.
The oil should be fairly hot such that when a small piece of dough added to the oil, it responds quickly. Make sure it’s not too hot otherwise the chakri will be brown on the outside but soft on the inside.
Fry only ONE spiral first and taste it. It should taste sweet, sour and hot. If you need to adjust the seasoning, be sure to remove the dough in the machine.
Then start designing the spirals taking only enough dough to fill the machine. Cover the remaining dough with cling film.
If the dough constantly falls apart when designing the spirals, the dough is too stiff. Remove the dough from the machine and add a little water to it by wetting your hand to soften the dough a bit. You don’t want to adjust anything in the remaining dough until you have figured out what is wrong.
If the spirals fall apart while frying, the dough is too soft, so add more rice flour to the dough in the machine only to start out.
In addition, if the oil is not hot enough, the chakri will become greasy and may fall apart when being fried. Make sure the oil is fairly hot.
If the spirals are greasy, your oil temperature could be too low or there could be too much butter or too much potato. Follow the recipe above to avoid this problem.
Fry all the spirals until they are golden brown. Cool. Store in an air-tight container. ENJOY!
TROUBLE-SHOOTING
Why is my Chakli soft?
Chakli may only be soft if the oil temperature is too high. In this case, the outside will be brown and the inside will be undercooked and thus be soft.
Why does Chakli break when designing?
Chakli breaks when designing if the dough does not have enough moisture or has dried out. Add a little bit of warm water by wetting your hand and kneading the dough until you can make the spirals without breakage.
Why does Chakli break when frying?
Chakli breaks into pieces while frying for several reasons:
- The frying oil may not be hot enough causing the Chakli to break;
- There is too much water in the dough. In this case, add a little more rice flour to the dough and try again.
How can I make my Chakli more crunchy?
If you like very crunchy Chakli, don't add any potato to the dough. You could also reduce the amount of butter if desired.
Why are my Chakli so greasy?
Chakli can become greasy and absorb a lot of oil for a couple of reasons:
- The frying oil temperature is too low;
- There is too much butter in the dough mixture;
- There is too much potato starch in the dough;
- Fresh oil was not used for frying.
How can I remove oil from my fried snacks?
To remove some of the oil from your fried snacks, pre-heat up your oven to about 160ºC. Line a baking tray with newspaper and then paper towels. Lay out your snack on top of the paper towels. Then put the tray in the pre-heated oven for about 5 minutes. Turn the oven off and leave the tray in there for another 5 minutes. Remove the tray and let the snacks cool down. You will notice a lot of the grease has come out. Note: if the snacks were fried in oil that was not fresh, the snacks may end up with a rancid flavour. So always fry snacks in fresh oil.
Can you make vegan Chakli?
I have not tried a recipe for vegan Chakli yet, but if I have success at making them, I will post the recipe on my site! So stay tuned!
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