Take the whole wheat flour, all purpose flour and fine rava in a mixing bowl or plate.
Add carom seeds, cumin seeds, crushed black pepper and salt. Mix very well with a spoon. Set aside.
In a small pan, heat 2 tablespoons ghee or oil.
Add the melted ghee or hot oil to the flour mixture. First mix with a spoon.
Then with your fingertips rub the ghee or oil in the flour mixture and make a breadcrumb like consistency. Take a portion of a mixture and press it in your palm. It should gather and hold itself.
Now add milk to the mixture in parts. The milk should be at room temperature. You can also use water instead of milk. Add water as required.
Mix and knead to a firm and stiff dough. The dough should not be soft.
Cover the dough with a moist muslin or cotton napkin and let it rest for 20 to 30 mins at room temperature.
Rolling and making namkeen shankarpali
Then knead lightly again. Roll into a log and divide the dough in three parts. In your palms, roll each part in to a ball.
Now take one part and begin to roll it to a disc or circle of about 6 to 7 inches in diameter and having a thickness of 5 to 7 mm. Make sure the rolled dough is not too thick and not too thin in thickness.
Now with a knife or pizza cutter, cut the dough in strips.
Then again cut to give diamond shapes or square shapes from the dough.
Separate the diamond shapes. Cover and keep aside when you begin to heat oil.
Frying khare shankarpali
Heat oil for deep frying in a kadai or pan.
Before you begin to fry, drop a small piece from the dough and check. The oil has to be medium hot. If the small piece of dough comes gradually and steadily on top, then the oil is ready to be fried.
If it comes too quickly, then oil is very hot, so reduce the flame. If it comes slowly or stays at the bottom, the oil needs to get heated up. So increase the flame. If the oil is too hot, the shankarpali will be cooked from outside but raw from the center.
When the oil is medium hot, add the shankarpali pieces.
With a slotted spoon turn over and fry when one side of the shankarpali gets golden.
Flip a couple of times and fry to get an even golden color.
When golden, remove with slotted spoon and drain them on kitchen paper towels to remove extra oil. When cooled, store the shankarpali in an air-tight container or jar.
Serve them as a snack.
Notes
You can decrease the amount of spices if you want. Do not add more carom seeds than what is mentioned in the recipe. As it can result in the shankarpali becoming slightly bitter.
Knead to a stiff and firm dough. Do not make the dough soft or too hard or dry.
The recipe can be scaled to make a larger batch for festive occasions.