Matar ki kachori is a flaky, crispy deep-fried pastry filled with savory, spiced green peas stuffing. In the Hindi language, matar means green peas and Kachori is a deep-fried and flaky pastry.
½teaspoonamchur powder(dry mango powder) or add as per taste
½teaspoongreen chili-ginger pasteor crushed or minced green chili & ginger - use about ½ inch of ginger and ½ or 1 green chili and then crush them in a mortar & pestle
¼teaspooncumin seeds
2teaspoonsoil- can use ghee (clarified butter)
1tablespoonbesan(gram flour), can use chickpea flour
In a bowl sift the flour, salt and baking powder. Add oil and mix with your fingertips to form a bread crumb like mixture.
Add water in parts - a few tablespoons at a time. Work to a smooth and stiff or firm dough. Cover with a damp cloth and set aside.
Making matar kachori stuffing
Boil or steam the peas. Mash them coarsely or semi-coarsely.
Heat oil and fry the cumin seeds till they splutter and get browned. Then add the crushed ginger-green chili paste. Fry for a minute on low heat.
Add the coarsely mashed peas. Then add the dry spice powders and salt as required. Stir and mix well.
Add the gram flour. Saute for a couple of minutes until the raw aroma of besan goes away.
Check the seasoning and add some more of the spice powders or salt, if required.
Rolling matar ki kachori
Make equal sized 5 to 6 balls from the dough. Roll into 3 to 4 inch round on a dusted board.
Add some of the stuffing in the center. Brush some water on the edges.
Bring together all the edges and pinch them. Press the edges downwards below.
Roll into a 4 to 5 inches kachori. Prepare all matar kachoris like these.
Keep them covered with a wet cloth.
Frying matar kachori
Now heat oil in a kadai. When the oil becomes medium hot, slid the prepared matar kachori gently and carefully into the hot oil.
The peas kachori would start puffing up. Fry the first side until golden and crispy. Then turn over with a slotted spoon and fry the second side.
Turn over a couple of times as needed and fry till they become golden brown and flaky from both sides. Make sure they are evenly fried.
Drain them on kitchen paper tissues to remove excess oil. Fry the remaining batches this way and regulate the heat as needed.
Serve matar ki kachori hot with some coriander chutney or tamarind chutney or mint chutney or any green chutney of your choice.
Notes
For making any flaky pastry, the proportion of flour to oil or ghee is important.
You can choose to skip baking powder. But it helps to make a lighter and crispy crust.
Also the amount of water required to knead is another important factor that determines the flakiness. Too much water will make the dough crisp but not flaky and too little can dry out the dough.
Keep the kachori dough covered with a moist cloth at all times.
Next comes the frying. Too hot oil won't allow the dough to get flaky resulting in a crisp exterior with uncooked interiors and filling. Too cold oil would end up the dough soaking a lot of oil and the result would be an oily kachori. So the oil has to be at a low to low-medium temperature but not cold.
To check the temperature while frying, add a small piece of dough to the oil. If it comes slowly and steadily to the surface, then the matar ki kachori are ready to be fried.
If the dough comes quickly, the oil is too hot. So lower the flame. If it does not come on the surface, then the oil is cold. Increase the flame.
A point to be remembered is that when you add the matar ki kachori to the hot oil, the temperature of the oil does get lowered naturally, so accordingly increase a bit of the flame.
The spices in the kachori filling can be adjusted as per your preference.
If dry mango powder is not available, then add some lemon juice instead.