Ammalu’s Kitchen

Urad Dal Kachauris

My first lunch at K’s place after our wedding was urad dal kachauri with lauki ki subzi. K was born and brought up in the Northern part of India and hence the north Indian tinge to our marriage. I, being a south Indian was a rice freak and was flabbergasted to hear my mother in law say that lunch would be kachauri, lauki ki subzi and a cup of yoghurt. I assumed them to be similar to store bought ones and was so sure of not liking them that I made plans to go outside for a snack in the evening. K made the subzi and my dear M-I-L made the kachauris. They were so wonderful and filling that I could just eat two and my stomach was full. It was an amazing meal and we still make it whenever K gets nostalgic and misses the family. Its really simple and easy to make.

The dough for the Kauchauris should be made exactly similar to how the Puri dough is made. By that I mean, the consistency of the dough should be thicker/harder.

For the stuffing:
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1/2 cup Urad dal soaked overnight
2 Tbsp grated ginger
2 Tsp saunff
1/2 tsp Garam Masala
1 Tbsp oil
Asefoetida
Salt

Make the Urad dal into a coarse paste. Heat oil in a wok and then add the grated ginger and saunff to it. Fry for 2 minutes. Add the asefoetida and garam masala powder and salt to it.Fry again on low heat for another couple of minutes. Now add the Urad dal paste to this and keep stirring. The paste should be fried on medium heat till it starts to leave oil. Take this paste and let it cool

Frying the Kachauris:
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Take oil in wok for deep frying. The oil should be two inches from the bottom. Heat it for Deep frying.Now take a ball of the wheat dough and make a small puri out of it. Take a small ball of the urad dal paste and keep in this small puri. Cover the urad dal ball from all side with the puri. make a ball of this puri with the stuffing inside and then roll it out as a puri again.

Deep fry this stuffed puri in the heated oil, till the puri turns golden brown.

Now Comes the Lauki/kaddu ki subzi’s turn. This is the simplest dish I ever made. All you need is…

2 cups of cubed bottle gourd or any squash

2 cups of Alu cubed

1 medium sized onion finely chopped

1 cup of dice tomatoes

A teaspoon of cumin seeds

2-3 green chillies finely chopped.

A teaspoon of red chilli powder

A pinch of turmeric

Salt to taste

Oil for frying.

In a Pressure cooker, heat oil and add cumin seeds. After they splutter, add the onions and fry them till they are pink and transparent, Then add the alu and let cook for 2-3 minutes and add the rest of the ingredients and salt too, Do not add any water and the bottle gourd will cook in its own water.Pressure cooker for 1 whistle and remove from stove top. Serve hot with kachauris and it tastes pretty good with chapatis/phulkas