KHARASEV

 

Khara sev. Ompudi, different avatars of yummy crunchy savory snack takes me back to my school days. We would spend our summer vacations at ajii mane (maternal Grand mom's house) in the city of Bangalore.. The best part of the visit was our auto rickshaw rides and yummy snacks ajji used to prepare for us. Ajji used to make heavenly Mysore pak and pair it with Khara sev. After nearly five decades my memory rolls back to the Bangalore of yore, ajji mane and of course khara sev.

It is raining in Bangalore and feels like we are in the midst of peak monsoon. No mood to step out of the house, hard to kill time. The setting is perfect for a freshly brewed hot cuppa and some snacks to go with. Is there something better than fresh crunchy addictive Khara Sev?. I put my thoughts for vote. Without delay proceedings start. The kitchen starts bustling with activities and aroma of hot ground nut oil, spices and fried sev fill the air.

Let me tell you how I go about.

• Ease - moderate - practice needed for perfection
• Preparation time - 15 min
• Cooking time - 45 minutes

Ingredients

• Gram Flour - 1 kg
• Oil - for deep frying
• Cashew - 3/4 cup
• Pea nuts - 1 cup 
• Thick beaten rice - 2 cups
• Curry leaves - 6 sprigs
• Desicated coconut - 2 halves
• Turmeric powder - 2 spoons
• Asafoetida powder - 1 spoon
• Red chilly powder - 4 spoons
• Salt - 4 -5 spoons
• Kasuri methi- optional

Method

• Mix chilly powder, turmeric powder, salt and asafoetida  well ( use mixer) and keep aside
• Break cashew into pieces
• Cut desicated coconut into 1/2 inch pieces
• Take gram flour in a large bowl, add 1/4 spoon salt, 4 spoons of hot oil
• Make a soft dough with gram flour adding water little by little
• Heat about 1/2 a liter oil in a wok/kadai on medium flame
• Fry cashew till golden and keep aside
• Fry peanuts till reddish brown and keep aside
• Fry cut pieces of dry coconut and keep aside
• Fry curry leaves in the oil and keep aside
• Fry kasuri methi and keep aside
• Fit Chakli press with sev attachment (bille), fill the dough and press directly into hot oil. Fry till crisp. flip for uniform roasting
• Take it out on a plate and sprinkle  chilly powder mix on hot  sev, crush gently, transfer to a big container after sev cools down
• Repeat the process for the rest of the dough. Each time hot sev has to be taken out on a plate and chilly powder mix sprinkled individually
• After the dough is fried, beaten rice has to be deep fried.
• Let the oil become hot, add 2 spoon fuls of beaten rice (poha) to hot oil. Poha swell and floats on oil. take fried poha out in a plate and sprinkle masala powder.
• Repeat the process till all the poha is fried.Take care to see that the oil is hot enough.
• After all the fried ingredients cool down gently mix them
• Store in an air tight container

NOTES

• Fry beaten rice, poha, in the end.
• Do not fry  sev till become brown 
• Kasuri methi adds flavour