Indian snacks ("nashta") come in three varieties: sweet ("mitthai"), salty ("namkeen"), and savory ("farsan"). One of my favorite snacks is "chakli" (or "chakri"; "murukku" in the south of India). They are fried spirals of spicy dough. I tried making some this summer, but they require a heavy-duty cookie press to extrude the dough -- and the cheap aluminum one I had wasn't even close to the task.
So yesterday, we ventured into a "steel shop"-- an Indian kitchenwares shop. Indians eat on, drink from, and store food in metal dishes and containers. Think steel plates, cups, and bowls rather than plastic or ceramic, and steel "Tupperware". I asked for a chakli-maker, and even with the language barrier (we speak no Gujarati), I was able to get exactly what I needed: a heavy-duty brass extruder:
The extruder comes with several plates to make various types of noodles.
The chakli shape is a star:
The dough is spiced with turmeric, ginger, chilies, and cumin, along with some salt and sesame seeds. The extruded spirals are then fried to a crisp golden brown.
My results looked fine and tasted OK, but were not quite as crispy as "authentic" chaklis. Next time I'll have to try adding a bit of besun (chickpea flour) and rice flour to the wheat flour base. Still, I amazed our Indian friends that an American could pull off a reasonable version of a classic Indian snack.
So yesterday, we ventured into a "steel shop"-- an Indian kitchenwares shop. Indians eat on, drink from, and store food in metal dishes and containers. Think steel plates, cups, and bowls rather than plastic or ceramic, and steel "Tupperware". I asked for a chakli-maker, and even with the language barrier (we speak no Gujarati), I was able to get exactly what I needed: a heavy-duty brass extruder:
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| The extruder is essentially a screw press. |
The chakli shape is a star:
The dough is spiced with turmeric, ginger, chilies, and cumin, along with some salt and sesame seeds. The extruded spirals are then fried to a crisp golden brown.
My results looked fine and tasted OK, but were not quite as crispy as "authentic" chaklis. Next time I'll have to try adding a bit of besun (chickpea flour) and rice flour to the wheat flour base. Still, I amazed our Indian friends that an American could pull off a reasonable version of a classic Indian snack.
Those look really good. Store-bought chaklis are probably made in a commercial deep fryer with insanely hot oil, so frying at a higher temperature will make them crispier, but... I'm not sure that's worth the hazard/added heat at home!
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