Boondhi is an Indian Snack made with tiny little gram flour batter droplets fried in hot oil. There are 2 types of boondhi - kaara boondhi (spicy boondi) and sweet boondhi. Boondhi can be had as a stand alone snack or can be used for making other sweets, chaats and snacks.
Ingredients
Besan (Chikpea flour/Gram Flour/Kadala Maavu) - 1 cups
Water - to make a thin batter (app. 3/4 cup)
Turmeric Powder/ Yellow food colour - a pinch
Asafoetida - a pinch
Oil - for deep frying
For Spicy Boondi
Salt - as needed
Chilly Powder - as needed
For sweet Boondi
Water - 1 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Method
1. Mix the besan, asafoetida and turmeric powder together.
2. Add water slowly while mixing continuously to avoid forming lumps.
3. Mix in enough water so that the final batter will be a thiner and smooth than bajji batter. The batter should be of the consistency to coat the back of a spoon evenly.
4. In the meantime heat oil in a kadai for deep frying.
5. Hold a perforated spoon (spoon with small round holes usually used for draining oil) few inches above the hot oil.
6. Using another spoon, pour some batter over the perforated spoon.
7. Spread the batter so that batter passes through the perforations and falls as batter drops into the hot oil. Gently tap the spoon to help the droplets to fall.
8. One sppon of batter would make enough boondis to cover the entire surface of the hot oil in the kadai. Do not put more than that and over crowd.
9. Once the vigorous bubbling of the oil stops, thats an indication that the boondis are done.
10. Remove them from the hot oil using another perforated spoon and put them on a paper towel to drain the excess oil.
11. Store in airtight container for more than a month.
This is the basic bhoondhi that can be used for chaats, for making bhoondhi raita and sweet bhoondhi.
For Spicy boondi
- Just add a tsp of chilly powder and enough salt to the boondi batter. This type of bhoondhis can be had as an evening snack or to make spicy mixture.
For sweet boondi
- Make a sugar syrup by boiling 1 cup of water with 1/2 cup of sugar and soak the bhoondhis for few minutes till all the syrup is absorbed by the boondis and it becomes soft. Drain any excess syrup if present.
- This type of boondi can be had as a festival sweet, used as a topping for payasam (especially semiya payasam/kheer) or used to make bhoondhi ladoos.
