Khandvi - A super quick and super delicious gujarati snack

Everyone loves khandvi. Wait what? Yes! Everyone loves khandvi when it comes to eating. But this gujarati snack has quite a notorious reputation when it comes to making it at home. Few people try to attempt this at home since they fear they won’t be able to get it right. Well, that’s when I come in. I have developed a simple and fool proof recipe for those who want to make delicious khandvis at home. I have tested this recipe over and over again and it hasn’t failed once. For this all you need to do is follow the recipe strictly. Read it. And read it again. Before you start you should be aware of all the steps mentioned below and be well prepared as this recipe requires a little bit of prep because once you put the batter over the flame, it would be a quick affair and your hands won’t be free to do the rest of the stuff, unless of course you’ve help. So here you go!

For the khandvi

1 cup Besan (Bengal Gram Flour)

1 cup Curd (Make sure it isn’t too loose or watery, must be firm)

1 cup Water

2 tsp Ginger garlic paste

1 tsp Turmeric powder

1/8 tsp asafoetida

Salt to taste

For the Tempering

3 tbsp. Oil

½ tbsp. Black Mustard Seeds

½ tbsp. White Sesame Seeds

1 tbsp. finely chopped Green Chilies

A pinch of Asafoetida

1/3^rd cup freshly grated coconut – for stuffing

1/4^th cup fresh chopped coriander – for garnish

·  Take a heavy bottomed deep pan, preferably a no stick pan and put all the other ingredients for the batter into it, except for the water. Mix well with the help of a whisk and make sure that the batter is smooth and does not have any lumps. After that gradually add the water in and mix well. Do not add all the water in at once or you might have a lumpy batter.

·    Take 3 metal plates or 2 sheet pans and grease them with oil on both the sides. A few drops on each side should be enough. Rub it well to have an even coat all over. Keep them aside. You can even clean and oil your platform or cooktop with oil if you don’t want to use so many plates.

·        Place the pan on the stove and turn the flame on to medium or medium low heat.

·        Stir the mixture continually or else the batter can turn lumpy or would stick to the pan and start to scorch. It would take anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes to get to the desired consistency depending on the heat.

·    After 10 to 15 minutes of stirring, the batter would become thick enough and start to leave the pan (not entirely though). Even a drag with the spatula would leave a gap in the batter. It should now be the consistency of creamy scrambled eggs, without any lumps

.

·   Once you’ve achieved the said consistency, lower the heat. Take a small spoon and spread just a little mixture on the greased plate as thinly as possible and let it cool for 10 seconds. If it firms up and rolls up like a khandvi, you’re ready to spread up the entire mixture. Do not forget to lower the heat and stir the mixture as you wait for the test batch to cool or it would stick to the pan.

·      Shift the pan to the smallest burner and put the flame on to the lowest setting so that it keeps warm while you’re spreading the mixture in batches. If you’re spreading it over your cooktop/platform, you can do that in a single batch. If you remove it from the flame, it might cool down and set up and give you a difficult time spreading it.

·        Take the greased plates and put roughly about ¼ cup of mixture onto the front side and spread it with the help of a spatula into a very thin sheet. Quickly reverse the plate and repeat the procedure. Then take the next plate and spread the mixture on both sides in the same manner. Do this until you run out of batter.

·    You’ll have to be very quick with the spreading of the mixture because it cools down very quickly and it won’t spread once it sets.

·    By the time you’ve spread the last portion of the mixture, the first plate would have cooled down. Sprinkle the grated coconut over all the sheets. Make long horizontal slits about an inch apart and one vertical slit at the center of the plate. Gently tug at the end of the plate to release one strip of the dried mixture and roll it up in the shape of khandvi.

·      Once you’ve rolled up all the khandvis, heat up the oil for the tempering in a small pan and add the mustard seeds, sesame seeds, green chilies and asafoetida in that order. Let the first ingredient crackle and let the noises subside before you add in the next one.

·     Pour this mixture over your khandvis and then sprinkle the coriander over them in an even layer.

·   There you have a perfectly wonderful Gujarati snack! It may seem like a very long recipe but it is mostly instructions. And It may even seem quite fussy, but trust me, it’s not! And the end result is worth every bit of your patience! 

Quick tip for clean-up. Don’t try to scrub the dried batter off your pan. Just submerge it completely in water for 20 minutes and the residual batter would release itself into the water. No fuss at all!

Bon Appetit!

For quick YouTube video, click on the following link:

https://youtu.be/H3Pk9JuGvy8