Sev is a popular Indian snack food. It is a very popular snack item in the Madhya Pradesh regions where many snack item contains Sev as a side ingredient. Over the course of time , this snack item has spread all over the Indian subcontinent with their own specialty and variation in taste. What we will see here is the South Indian type Sev – consisting of small pieces of crunchy noodles made from gram flour mixed with spices like pepper, red chilli etc and deep fried in Oil. Sev is eaten as a standalone snack. Thin noodle type noodles are used as topping on dishes like bhelpuri and sevpuri etc. Sev can be made at home and stored for weeks in airtight containers.
We will see here how to make a typical south Indian Karasev in the home kitchen.
Ingredients:
Black Pepper – 1 tsp
Asafoetida – ¼ tsp
Red Chilli Powder – 2 tsp (Or adjust to suit taste)
Salt – to suit taste
Garlic Pods – 6
Besan (Gram Flour / Kadalai Mavu) – 2 cups
Rice Flour – ½ cup
Cooking Soda – ¼ tsp
Clarified Butter (Ghee) – 1 tbsp
Oil – for deep frying
Method:
Blend the Black Pepper, Asafoetida, Chilli Powder, Salt and Garlic to a fine paste with required amount of water.
Sieve the Gram Flour and Rice Place. Take them together in a large bowl. Add cooking Soda and Ghee. Mix very well. Add the ground spice mix. Mix well. Check the taste. The mixture should be slightly salty and spicy. (If necessary, adjust more Salt and spices to attain the same).
Add water little by little and mix to make slightly sticky dough.
Get ready with the Murukku maker (Chakli Maker). Select bottom disk with slightly bigger sized holes. Grease the inside of the Murukku maker. Stuff the Murukku maker with the dough and close with the piston and lid.
Heat the Oil in a wide pan for deep frying. Drop a small piece of the dough into the Oil. It should rise immediately and that would be the indication that the Oil has achieved the right temperature for deep frying.
Press out the tough into the Oil directly in a circular motion. Do not overcrowd the Oil. (Reduce the flame to middle in another minute or two). Fry in medium flame. The Sev should turn golden all over evenly.
Remove the Sev with slotted or holed wide spoon, allow the Oil to drain back into the pan and transfer to a kitchen tissue towel so that any excess Oil is absorbed by the tissue paper.
Use the remaining dough and make more Sev in the same way. While pressing the dough into the Oil, the Oil should be hot. But, fry the Sev in medium flame only. Else the Sev is likely to become brown and taste will turn bitter.
Once the Sev cools down, break the Sev into pieces and store in air tight containers.
Notes:
- Sieve the rice flour and gram flour before mixing and making the dough. This would help in making dough without lumps.
- You can use either Pepper Powder or Chilli Powder instead of using both.
- Add just enough Cooking Soda. Do not add more quantity.
- You can substitute Ghee with Butter or hot Oil.
- You can avoid Garlic if you do not want to use Garlic.
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