Kara boondi is another recipe I used to help my mom when I was a kid. I love the process of making this. Always fascinated by the method they make this. Pouring the batter over a slotted ladle and forming boondis. My mom also makes sweet boondi, that’s another favorite of mine. Few times, we have made boondi laddoos too. May be next year I will share those recipes. My mom passed me a cookbook that has recipes very close to our way of making. Some other recipes me and my mom wrote in a note and till date, I refer it.
This particular cookbook is ‘Rani Samayal’ by the famous Tamil novelist Ramani chandran. Its really very useful for me at various preparations. And I followed the kara boondhi recipe also from this cookbook. Turned out perfect. Crispy and flavourful.
Kara boondi recipe
Recipe Cuisine: Indian | Recipe Category: Snack
Prep Time: 10 mins | Cook time: 25 mins | Makes: 2 cups
Prep Time: 10 mins | Cook time: 25 mins | Makes: 2 cups
Ingredients
Gram flour/ kadala maavu – 1 cup
Rice flour – ½ cup
Cooking soda – 1 tiny pinch
Salt – As needed
Coarse Pepper powder – 2 tsp
Garlic – 4 flakes
Cashew nuts – 8
Ground nuts – 2 tbslp
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Ghee – 1 tsp
Oil – for deep frying
Rice flour – ½ cup
Cooking soda – 1 tiny pinch
Salt – As needed
Coarse Pepper powder – 2 tsp
Garlic – 4 flakes
Cashew nuts – 8
Ground nuts – 2 tbslp
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Ghee – 1 tsp
Oil – for deep frying
Method
- Mix gram flour, rice flour, cooking soda, salt well (sieve if possible) and add water gradually to make a batter like bajji batter. Slightly thin than that. May be 1 tblsp more water.
- Heat oil in kadai. You will be needing two big ladles with holes as seen in the picture below(slotted) . One for making boondi and one for draining from oil. Use another deep ladle to spoon the batter. Pour one ladle of batter over the ladle with hole holding it just above the oil and spread it.
- Wipe the laddle as seen below. Fry with constant turning to ensure even cooking and drain once the bubbles ceases and shhh sounds reduces or until golden colour.
- Drain using other big slotted ladle in kitchen towel. Repeat the process to finish the remaining batter.
- Heat another pan, add ghee, when hot, add broken cashews, peanuts if using and fry till golden. Then add curry leaves and well crushed garlic(with skin) and fry till nice aroma rises and add half of the pepper powder, give a quick stir and switch off the flame. Add this to the boondi, add the remaining pepper powder and little more salt and toss well to get all mixed.
Notes
- Since I add crushed garlic, I do not add asafoetida. If you want you can add a little.
- If you like red chilli powder version, add 1 tsp to the batter and ½ tsp while tossing. Others the same.
- If the batter is too thick, you will get boondis with tail. So add more water and try.
- If the batter is too watery then the boondis may fall flat. So add more gram flour and try.
- Cooking soda is added for crispiness. Since I use more rice flour, use very very tiny pinch of cooking soda.
- We personally dont like groundnuts, so I have not added here.
Store in air tight container and enjoy as a tea time snack! The garlic, pepper and curry leaves fried in ghee adds a great flavour to the kara boondi.
Nice boondhi Raji!
நெய்யில முந்திரி,மிளகுத்தூள் தாளிச்சு போடுவது புதுசா இருக்கு! நான் அரிசிமாவும் சேர்த்ததில்லை பூந்திக்கு! அடுத்த தீபாவளிக்கு செய்து பார்க்கிறேன்! 🙂
Am going to bring the slotted ladle from India this time..the savoury version looks delicious..
Hats off to you for making this on your own and taking pics too during the steps.Have a wonderful Diwali!
Very yummy n love it
Event: Dish name starts with P
super tempting karaboondhis with peppery flavor.Beautifully presented
peppery flavour is a nice variation Raji…
one of my favourites with tea. a bakery in kottayam sells the best boondi but they stopped making it recently 🙁 i love adding peanuts too!
Divya, you are right, it was difficult :):)
so cute boondis!! how do u take pictures and also cook in hot oil – how do u do it? amazing!!
Sowmya
Ongoing Event – CWF – Whole Wheat Flour
Lovely,i dont hav 'Boondhi karandi',can i use the normal jalli karandi for making tis?will it come out well??
Hi Geethu, mine also not the traditional boondhi karandi, just bought this broad karandi and used it. You can sure try the small one we use in day to day cooking. I did try last one with that and saw, came out perfect. Only that you have to pour less batter, at a time to prevent overflowing. But you can do it twice acting quickly. Note that spreading also has to be done carefully,otherwise it may flow in the sides.
Thanks a lot for the quick reply…will let u knw the results by tonite 🙂
Perfect.. Love this crispy, yummy bhoondi anytime…
http://recipe-excavator.blogspot.com
yummy and tempting clicks Raji. these are my Dhs fav. Nicely prepared..
Looks absolutely perfect and tempting.. very nice presentation too.. love it 🙂
Indian Cuisine
Love this yummy snack with hot tea..beautiful presentation..
Boondi looks perfect Raks..I love the cashews in it,yumm
looks perfect raji 🙂
love the addition of pepper powder.
Hai Raks,
The pics were so tempting that i tried it immediately. In the beginning it was taily. Si i added little bit water.. Then it was perfect.. Thanx for the wonderful recipe…
lovely!!!
I am going to cheat by using ready made boondis that are sold as raita boondis…but will surely use ur idea of the ghee and masala .. 🙂
Wow, Kavitha, hats off to your enthusiasm and thanks for taking time to write the feedback as well here promptly 🙂
Looks perfect…loved the 2nd pic with the bg bokeh…lovely!
aaha arumai
Hey Raji,Geethu again,tried kara bhoondhi for the first time and the result is 50-50 :)) i did with normal jalladi karandi only,at first it came out well,but later on the boondis turned out like corn flakes!! then i added lil besan and finally finished it…over all the result is 'passed my bhoondhi exam' thanks again..cheers 🙂
Looks delicious…Nice pics
Raks..this one is a winner..Looks even better than the store bought ones..Loving it:-)I have bookmarked ur Murukku and planning to make it this weekend:-)
Hi, boondi looks yummy…mine is not crispy..why???
Hey hats off to you for making it. i always scare to make boondi at home, I will try some time.
The boondhi is so tempting.Today i will amke and have it dear.
yummy snack….
Lip smacking …lovely clicks too
I tired this recipe but the boondi sticks together. What can be the problem?
Was planning to make them for this Deepavali, but ended making something else 🙂
Hi geetha, oil might not be hot enough and when u drop boondi in oil, do it in spreaded way, donot over lap. Try again, sure will turn out gud.
Perfectly made!
Send me some,i'll happily have it anytime,wonderfully done.
Tried this today and it turned out perfect. Thanks for that wonderful recipe.
I always wondered how people managed to make such complex dishes at home. But you've made that task seem so simple. Nice step by step.
Hi raks…. i did made this today noon and for the first time i am really amazed…. it came out very well….. but few things i just wnt to clear with u .. do we hav to hold the big laddle (with holes) close to hot oil while droping the batter or just little above or more of distance makes better round boondhis ??? because mine came out with 80% perfect rounds and 20% with tails… and some may be around 10 pieces came out flat.. so i wonder is there any methodology to be followed while dropping the batter into oil..?? another thing is, it was very crispier when i prepared and after i tempered with cashews, garlic and curryleaves i found it lost the crispiness which it had before.. is there anyway we can maintain the crispiness throughout for longer period?? kindly answer… and i really thank u for the wonderful recipes u r posting here. i am doing most of ur recipes at home and everything is dooper hit!!! thanks once again.. HAPPY DIWALI to u and ur family 🙂
Hi Raks,
i tried this one. it came out very well. It had some tails too. but that was ok. It was my first time i'm preparing kara boondhi. Everyday you keep on posting some recipes. i don't know what to make or what to leave. All are tempting.Soon i'll send you my tried recipes
this is my favourite from my childhood.. I love the pics
great-secret-of-life.blogspot.com
Hi Vanisree, Thank you for your feedback. Yes you are right, for each batter consistency, the distance also plays a role for perfect shape. For that we have to estimate ourselves and adjust as we make it. No other go. But generally, roughly about 8-10 cm from oil it should work fine. You should leave some space for the batter to drop and get the shape,so not too close to oil.
And regarding the crispiness, for me till last day I finished it was crisp as I ate in the beginning. There could be 3 reasons why yours went that way. One could be the tadka you did, you should fry the items well without moist. If you want to make sure 100% then you can deep fry in the hot oil that we used to make boondi, after finishing the boondi. Deep frying gives a better result.
Two – may be any one of your batches was not crispy.
Three, you might not have stored in airtight container?
Hope this helps you next time 🙂
Divya, thanks for your feedback as well 🙂 If you get tails, you can add a tblsp of water and try.
Happy Diwali to you all
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Thanks for ur reply raji…. will try out once again and post the pic and comment…. happy diwali to u and ur family…
Hi Raks..wonderful recipe..lovely clicks..!hope u had a great Diwali..
U r tempting me now to try this,,,
I love your recipes!
can v do dis without using cooking soda
Sorry you cant.
K…tnks….
Wonderful, I directed my with iPad… And she made it for me… Picture directions here is too good. நன்றி
tried this now….superb outcome raji…thanks a lot for sharing such wonderful recipes
I tried this recipe today and it came out well
I have tried this today and it was good
It is too crispy.. any idea to modify??