By 
FAFDA
Fafda is a friedcrispy crunchy tasty snack made with besan (gram flour), laced with carom seedsand black pepper. A popular Gujarati vegan snack.
Ingredients
- 1 cup besan (gram flour)
- ¼ teaspoon ajwain (carom seeds)
- 10 to 12 black pepper - crushed coarsely
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric (haldi)
- 1 pinch asafoetida (hing)
- ⅛ teaspoon baking soda or 2 to 3 pinches baking soda
- 3 to 4 tablespoons water or add as required
- 2 tablespoons oil
- ¾ teaspoon salt or add as required
- oil for deep frying, as required
Instructions
Making Dough
- In a bowl or parat (large plate with rims at the sides) take 1 cup besan (gram flour).
- Add carom seeds (ajwain), crushed black pepper, turmeric powder and asafoetida (hing). Also add ⅛ teaspoon baking soda or 2 to 3 pinches of baking soda.
- Mix very well with a spoon.
- Now add ¾ teaspoon salt or add as per taste.
- Add 2 to 3 tablespoons water in parts.
- Begin to mix the water with the besan. thenknead to a tight dough
- Now add 2 tablespoons oil. mix again and continue to knead.
- Also add water if required. Initially I added 3 tablespoons water and after adding oil, added 1 tablespoon water. So in total I used 4 tablespoons water. Depending on the quality of besan, you can add a total of 3 to 4 tablespoons of water.
- Continue to knead till all the water is absorbed.
- When the water is absorbed, the stickiness will go away and you will get soft dough. So Knead till you get a soft smooth dough. cover and keep aside the dough for 30 minutes.
Rolling Fafda
- After 30 minutes, make small balls from the dough. Cover them with a lid or a kitchen towel so that they do not become dry.
- On a wooden board spread oil very lightly.
- Now with the heels of your palms, with a light pressure and force, press and flatten the dough ball and at the same time move the palms forward.
- If you apply too much pressure then fafda will stick to board and will break while lifting. This is the only tricky part in the whole recipe.
- You will get a long elongated shaped fafda. Gently pick it up from the board.
- An alternate method is to roll a large piece of dough with a rolling pin (belan) on a greased rolling board (chakla). Then with a knife cut strips and remove them.
- Keep it on a separate plate which has been greased lightly with oil. Make fafda this way with the remaining dough balls. Cover with a kitchen napkin so that they do not become dry.
Frying Fafda
- Heat oil in a kadai. When the oil becomes medium hot, check a small tiny piece of the dough. It should gradually come up on top of the oil.
- Now reduce the flame to low-medium. Add the fafda pieces gently in the oil.
- Do not overcrowd the kadai. Depending on the size of the kadai, you can add 3 to 4 pieces at a time.
- Begin to fry at a low-medium flame.
- When one side is crisp and golden, then with aslotted spoon gently turn over each fafda and continue to fry.
- Turn over again and fry till crisp. Do not fry till too much browned. Fafda gets fried quickly, so the frying needs attention.
- Remove with a slotted spoon draining excess oil.
- Place them on kitchen paper towels for extra oil to be absorbed.
- Serve them warm or at room temperature with papaya sambharo or fafda chutney or gujarati kadhi. or you can also enjoy the combo of fafda jalebi.
