The Indian Food Court

I have already put up one or two varieties of Chaklies – Maida Chaklis and MoongDal Chakli. This recipe which uses Rice Atta can be prepared either by soaking and grinding rice or using the rice atta available off the shelf. I prepared a modified verion of the usual Rice Atta Chakli where I used milk instead of water or coconut water while kneading the dough. Here goes the recipe:

What you need to have:

1. Rice Atta – 5 cups

2. All purpose flour (Maida) – 1 cup

3. Dalia dal – 1 Cup

4. Cumin seeds -2 teaspoon

5. Pepper corns – 2 teaspoons

6. Butter – 1 cup

7. Sesame seeds – 4 teaspoons

8. Milk -2 and 1/2 cups

Ingredients of Rice Atta Chakli

What you do with what you have:

1. Clean up Dalia dal and powder it with pepper corns and cumin seeds to a fine consistency in the dry grinder.

2. Sieve Dalia dal powder from step 1 , Maida and rice flour toegher in the atta siever. You may have to do it 2-3 times.

3. Transfer the sieved atta mixture from above to a wide bowl and add butter, salt and sesame seeds to it and keep it pressed for about 10 -15 minutes.

Sieved Atta and salt and butter mixed

4. Add boiled and cooled milk to the atta mixture from step 3 and bring it to the consistency of chapathi dough. One can add 2 cups of milk and then gradually add the remaing milk so that the dough doesn’t stick to one’s hands at all.

Pinched out ball & the Chakli dough

5. Pinch out the required quantity of the dough and knead it in such a way that it turns out smooth. Push the knead ball of the dough into the chakli mould.

Knead Chakli dough in the mould

6. Press chakli on a thick plastic sheet to get shapes and patterns as below.

Chakli pressed on a plastic sheet

7. Place a skillet on medium flame with 4-5 cups of cooking oil in it. On heating fry chakli in batches – you may have to turn Chaklis around to ensure that both sides are fried.

On cooling store them in airtight containers.

Ready to serve Rice atta Chakli

They remain crispy for more than 15-20 days if fried in fresh cooking oil. Serve crispy chaklis with tea or coffee for tiffin in the evening.

Number of Chaklis: 120-130 of above size

How long it takes: 2 hours

Good to remember:

1. The reason for sieving the powders is that they get mixed up well and evenly.

2. Please do not add the whole measurement of milk at once since the rice atta may not absorb all milk. Amount of milk it absorbs depends on the specific quality of Rice Atta. The consistency of the dough should be such that the dough while kneading should never be left over either on the palm or should it stick to your finger tips.

3. The reason for not adding chilli powder ( we add white pepper powder instead ) is that chaklis may turn out bitter/black if a little over-fried.