Kara Boondhi

This is a simple and immensely addictive snack made in many parts of India, but perhaps called by different names. In Tamil kara means spicy and boondhi means drops.  The kids had gone out for a swim. My hubby had just finished off a rather distasteful packet of something from the indian store, the kind that is excessively spicy and doughy and not much else - I decided to launch on the boondhi trail - after all, how hard can it be- In my mind, it seemed a cinch, since I had bought the boondhi ladle the last time I was in India.
I took my inspiration from the video from Vahrevah - he explained it quite nicely and it was easy to figure out what I should look for - And the bottom line is consistency - that's really all it boils down to when you consider how, oily or soft, or elongated they could get -if the consistency is incorrect - so what you are looking for is a thick flowing consistency that drops slowly from the ladle - You take a ladle to the ladle and assist the drops
The second point to not is don't over crowd the pan - there should be exactly one layer of boondhis per time else you get yourself and the boondhis into a sticky, clumpy mess.

Here is my recipe with a few changes that helped me make the best boondhi

2 cups of besan (or what you amount you choose)
1 tsp of baking soda
1.5  cups of water (divided)
2tsp of salt

kara podi (to mix in after the boondhi) I used homemade molagapodi, some roasted cashews and curry leaves.

Preparation of batter

Sift the besan to get rid of knots
add the salt and the baking soda
mix them in nicely with a whist
Add 1/2 cup of water first and and make a thick paste
Then slowly add the rest of the water in small installments, checking for thick flowing consistency

Note: Too much water will not make round drops and will absorb too much water. Too thick a batter will not allow the batter to drop into the oil -

Trial and error is OK! It took me at least two tries to know when to stop the dripping to avoid clumping. I had to add more batter because I had gotten it a little too thin for starters. I guarantee you that by the 3rd or 4th round, you'll have nailed it :)

Heat oil on a medium flame
Get the boondhi ladle positioned above the centre of the frying pan.
Now I will let my pictures speak for themselves.

The boondhi ladle

My watery atta

bad bad bad!!

Not so great -too much water and too much batter in one go!

Really good right :)

That's my wrist flying around with a ladle stirring the ladle :)

Check out these beauties :)

I had added to much batter

My best batches :)

You can see how I kept improving until it really did get perfect - I think adding the baking soda gave it the air to puff up nice and round.