Ribbon Pakkodam

i admit.. this is a crappy photo... i was tired people!!

This is my favorite childhood snack and i remember amma would make dabbas of these at a time and hide them in different places so that my dad and me would not get to them. So, my father and me would go through 10-15 dabbas to find the extra stash... yeah! we both love to eat snacks. I remember being greedy and eating handfuls when i would open the dabba in the store-room where this dabba would be eventually found and then take some on my plate 'formally' for my mom to see ;) this way i would have had waay too much and would skip dinner... which eventually would culminate to ... you know what! me getting yelled at.. well, all that was just like water off a duck's back, because i love pakkodam :)

I am submitting this to Latha who is hosting goodies for Krishna Janmashtami at the
yum blog


This recipe was something i have never written down, but asked my mom a hundred times to repeat and keep telling her 'i am writing amma!!' so this is off my memory. Actually, it is fairly simple and it came out really good... but nothing close to my mom's who is the family pakodam champion ;) i think all of us go thru this, whatever we make, our mom's do better...

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

Rice flour - 3 cups
Besan - 1 cup
Chilli powder - 1 to 1/1/2 tsp.
Hing - a pinch
Butter - 1/4 cup (room temprature)
Salt - to taste
Warm water - to make the dough
Oil - to deep fry

Method:

1. Sift the rice flour and besan to ensure they combine well and are free of lumps.

2. Add the red chilly powder, softened butter and salt and mix it in the dough well.

3. Add the warm water and form a dough. It should be thick but not too hard ( your hands will really hurt when you press the dough out, if the dough is too hard)

4. Make big oblongs of this dough and feed it in the pakkodam press.

5. Heat oil and press the pakodam in a circular motion and deep fry till golden.

6. Line tissues in the container you are going to store these goodies and place the pakodams after they have cooled in a strainer/colander.

Notes:

a) if you do not have butter on hand, warm oil can be used instead.

b) the dough should be soft when pressed by hand so that you do not get an arm workout when you are pressing over the oil.(i know people say the dough should be hard...ignore them ;) )

c) trust me, it tasted fine, not crappy the way that photo has come out... but
of-couse nowhere close to amma's :)