This year I had decided to make all the important dishes that can be associated with Diwali. Many of my readers had asked for this recipe and also, once I prepared the sweet version , I had to make the spicy or khara (Kannada) or theek (Konkani) version. These were a favorite of my family.
This shankarpal was a regular at my home when we were kids. We had a special kind of cutter – like in this picture from Vaishali , which was used to cut these. Aayi’s shankarpal were very spicy and all cut in the same shape and size. As a kid, I used to love using this cutter, it was loads of fun. So one of the reasons I love to try these is – they remind me of my blessed childhood.
I have seen some people cut these into long strips instead of these little parallelograms, which is more easier and less time consuming. But I like these small shapes because I feel it is fun. I made these yesterday after returning from my office, I was hoping to do one post a day till Diwali. But by the time I finished this, I felt like I would fall off – 8hrs of work at office + all the work at home does not leave much energy. So I let it go.
This is my spicy entry to Vee’s Diwali special JFI . Till she is fed up of my entries and asks me to stop, I will keep sending her my Diwali entrees, after all I get into this kind of cooking mood very rarely ;).
There are many ways of making this dish. This is aayi’s version.
Ingredients: 1 cup maida or all purpose flour 1 cup wheat flour 2 tea spns rice flour 2 tea spns(approx) chili powder A pinch asafoetida 2 tea spns hot oil + oil for deep frying A tea spn slightly crushed cumin seeds(optional) – I didn’t add this Salt
Adjust chili powder according to your taste.
Method: Mix flours with chili powder, asafoetida, salt and 2 tea spns hot oil. Add enough water to make a dough. Leave the dough for about 30mins.
Take a big ball of the dough and roll into a thin circle. Cut into small parallelograms. Do not stack the pieces one above other.
Heat oil for deep frying. Deep fry the pieces. When they are cooled to room temperature, store in air tight container.
Preparation time : 1 and 1/2 hrs
Wish you all a very happy and prosperous Deepavali and very happy new year.
And let’s get to the recipe now….
Its been a kind of tradition at my home that whenever any deep fried item like chakli or shankarpali is prepared, these are preceded by few taLile (deep fried) shenga (peanuts). I think this was mainly because people wanted to make use of the little oil remaining after all the deep frying. This recipe must be the most easiest and no-brainer one among all the hi-fi munchies that we prepare.
Even though these are very simple to make, they are one of the tastiest little treats. Eat one and you gobble up 2-3 handful without even realizing. I love them when they are made spicy. I love to eat them in between bites of sweets – yeah, I can’t eat any sweet all by itself. I need something spicy to “wash it down” ;).
Ingredients: 2 cups peanuts A pinch asafoetida 1-2 tbl spn gram flour( besan ) 1 tea spn chili powder Salt Oil
Method: Mix all ingredients, except oil. Sprinkle 1-2 tbl spn of water and make sure the paste sticks to the peanuts uniformly.
Deep fry them in hot oil. While adding in hot oil, lightly loosen them with your fingers to make sure they are separate and don’t form lumps. Do not keep mixing, otherwise the masala drops off in the oil. Take out on a paper towel.
Preparation time : 15mins
