Kara Sev ....

Kara Sev is a very common south Indian snack. It is a make-ahead snack that stays up fresh as "just-made" for quite a few days. The only thing that it might demand from you to stay fresh is an air-tight container, which obviously you should not say no to. This is usually had as a festival snack followed on the other days as a simple tea-time snack. A little spicy and crunchy it serves perfect as munch-ons

There were days when I used to eat them all day and end up saying "oops... my tummy hurts" and my mamma would say "a snack should be had as a snack and not a meal". Now you know how much I loved it. Mamma used to make it in big batches and store in big stainless steel dabbas. We could serve ourselves whenever wanted

These snacks are made in different ways in different parts of  tamilnadu. Some make it with besan / gram flour, some use rice flour, some use both. For the spice kick some use pepper powder, some use red chilli powder, some use whole pepper corns. It all finally ends up with what one wants. We prefer making this 2 ways - one with rice flour and red chilli powder and the other one with rice-flour and peppercorns

Serves... many

Serve option... stored in airtight containers and served at room temperature

This is what u'll need....

Gram Flour - 2 cups
Rice Flour - 2 tbspn
Red chilli powder - 1 tspn (adjust as per need)
Asafoetida - a pinch
Oil - for deep frying
Salt to taste

Here is the stir....

• Grab a working bowl and put all the ingredients into it - gram flour, rice flour, asafoetida, red chilli powder and salt 

• Gently add water and knead everything together to get a soft dough. Make sure you dont make it too watery

• Adjust salt and chilli powder to suit your taste buds

• Heat oil in a deep kadai

• Take a small amount of dough and put it inside the murukku maker with a stencil that has big holes

• When the oil is at correct temperature press the dough through the murukku maer straight into the oil. When the kara sev is about an inch or two of length just shake the maker a little so that the dough break s and slides into the oil with ease

• Cook it over medium flame for a few minutes till it is evenly cooked and golden in color

• Remove from flame and drain on paper towels to remove any excess oil

• Let them come down to room temperature. Once they cool down transfer them to an airtight container and enjoy whenever you want 

Note:

• Adjust rice flour as you need. It makes the kara sev harder so I feel a little serves good for us 
• Cook on medium flame for the correct crispiness, hardness and color
• Adjust salt and chilli as per your requirement