Khandvi, a snack from Gujarat

Khandvi is a very popular snack from the western state of Gujarat, India. It is prepared by rolling out cooked chickpea flour and yogurt mixture into swirls. My neighbors back home are from Gujarat and it was always on their party menus.

ICC for this month is, you guessed it right, Khandvi! I followed Lathaji's recipe with a few changes. I made two batches. The first batch tasted similar to the store bought khandvi and I was not satisfied with it.

The trick to this preparation is cooking the flour mixture to the right consistency. I felt the first batch was a little under cooked and tasted raw. So I made it gain! The second batch, I cooked it a little longer, an additional 30 - 60 seconds and it turned out yum.

Although this preparation came out good, I do need to prepare it a few more times to master it. There are many khandvi preparation videos on youtube. I wish I had seen those videos before preparing it! If you are making it for the first time, I would suggest you watch thee videos before rushing off to your kitchen to make these delicacies!

Source: Lathaji

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Yields: 25 - 30 (depends on the size)

Ingredients:

⅓ cup Gram Flour
⅓ Yogurt (sour would be better)
1 cup water
1” (approx.. when chopped aprrox. ½ teaspoon – ¾ tsp) Ginger peeled
2-3 Green Chilies (adjust to taste or omit if you don't want it spicy)
1 teaspoon lime Juice (opt. if yogurt not sour)
¾ teaspoon – 1 teaspoon Salt (adjust to taste)
½ teaspoon Turmeric
3 tablespoon Oil

Tempering:

¾ - 1 teaspoon Oil
¼ teaspoon Mustard Seeds
¼ teaspoon Sesame Seeds
2 Curry Leaves
2 Green Chilies chopped

Method:

Grind 2-3 green chilies and the ginger to paste.
Mix lime juice, ground paste, salt, turmeric and gram flour in a bowl.
In a separate bowl whisk the yogurt. Add water to it and continue whisking it to make buttermilk. Add this buttermilk to flour and mix it using a whisk. Make sure there are no lumps in the flour buttermilk mixture.
Grease a plate or baking sheet with oil and keep aside. I used 2 baking sheet and greased the back of the sheets. For one sheet I lined the back of it with an aluminium foil and then greased it. In videos on you-tube, they did not grease the sheets. I should try ungreasing the sheets and see if it helps spreading of the mixture easily.
In a skillet, heat 3 tablespoon of oil. Reduce the heat to medium and add the flour mixture. Stir the mixture continueously to avoid formation of lumps. Stirring it continuously, cook for about 3 minutes. By now the mixture will come together and separate from the pan. Make sure it should not be too thick either.
Immediately transfer the mixture to the baking sheet or a plate and spread it out thinly. This should be done very quickly. As the mixture cools, it gets thicker and becomes difficult to spread it out.
Cut it into 1 – 1 ½ “ wide strips. Let it cool and roll them into swirls.
Arrange the khandvi or the swirls in a serving platter.
In a skillet or pan heat the oil for tempering. Add mustard seeds and when they start spluttering, add curry leaves, green chilies and sesame seeds. Turn off the heat. Pour this over the khandvi and serve.