Gujarat has exclusive mouthwatering chats, which can make you crave for them. And in this article, we are going to share a recipe for such a delicacy. Cholafali is today’s recipe, and we are going to explore it.
Cholafali is an exciting snack which is very popular among the Gujarati community. This is made with lentils. It is fluffy, crispy, and rectangular. It is quite oily as it gets deep-fried while getting prepared. It is known that the authentic cholafali gets prepared with the Chola dal flour, but as it is hard to get, people usually use began or gram flour and head dal flour to prepare cholafali. You can enjoy cholafali any time you want, but it is prepared exclusively in Gujarat o Diwali.
Recipe of Cholafali:
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Total time: 20 minutes
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
Besan or gram flour or chickpea flour 1 cup
Urad dal flour 1/3 cup
Chola dal flour 1/3 cup
Baking soda 1/8 teaspoon
Oil for greasing and deep-frying 1/2 liter
Salt to taste 1/2 teaspoon
Red Chilli Powder 1/2 teaspoon
Black salt 1/2 teaspoon
Amchur or dried mango powder 1/teaspoon
Lukewarm water as per requirement
Method:
- Add 1/3 cup water in a small pan. Add a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of oil to it and get it heated for 1-2 minutes until it becomes lukewarm.
- Pour gram flour, urad dal flour, Chola dal flour, and baking soda in a bowl and mix well.
- Now add lukewarm water little by little and keep on mixing.
- Prepare a very stiff dough with the ingredients. Once it is prepared, cover it using a clean muslin cloth and leave it for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, uncover the dough and divide it into multiple small portions. Get a clean wooden board or a clean flat surface and grease it up with oil. Take a small portion of dough and place it on the flat, greased surface. Add five drops of oil to it and start pounding the dough with a pestle. After few minutes, fold it and again three drops of oil to the dough and pound as before. You can also pour the portion into an airtight pouch and pound it with a pestle. Keep on repeating the process until the color of the dough gets lighter, and it becomes flexible.
- Now, you can see the surface of the dough has become smooth and lighter in color. Repeat the pounding portion, which is mentioned above, with all the small portions of the dough. Once it is done, keep all the doughs together in the same bowl and cover the bowl with cloth or plate to resisting the doughs from getting dried.
- Take out a lemon sized portion of the dough from the bowl. Give it a flat round shape. Add two drops of oil to grease it. Now put it on the rolling board and press it to get it to flatten.
- Start rolling it and roll it out as a very thin circle. Never use flour to ease rolling out; instead, grease it with oil. Get it as thin as possible. Once you are done, you can find the thin circle which you have rolled is semi-transparent. Now transfer it to a clean, dry plate and cover it up with a plate or a piece of muslin cloth. Repeat the same rolling out process with all the dough portions left.
- Once you are done rolling out all the dough portions, take a rolled thin circle out of the plate. Slice it up, prepare multiple 2 inch wide strips with a sharp knife and then divide them from the center.
- Pour the oil into a pan and start heating it over medium flame and get it ready for deep fry. While the oil is getting ready for the deep fry, get the red chili powder, black salt, and dried mango powder mixed in a small bowl.
- When you find the oil medium hot, place two strips of the preparation in it, and fry until they turn light brown and look crispy. They take just a few seconds to puff up once getting added to the oil. Use a slotted spoon to remove them from oil and drain oil well from them.
Place them on tissues so they should get rid of any extra oil. Now get all the strips deep fried. Place all of them on a plate and sprinkle the prepared mix masala upon them. Now your spicy, crunchy cholafali is ready to get served.
Tips:
- You can serve cholafali with green chutney or tomato ketchup.
- You can store cholafali in an airtight container for around ten days after preparing.
- To get puffy cholafali, make a very stiff dough.
- Pound the dough well, or else the cholafali will not puff up.
- Do not deep fry the strips on a high flame; they can get burnt immediately after releasing them in the hot oil.
Conclusion:
Cholafali can be your family’s favorite snack item. And its hassle-free preparation can get the cholafali ready very quick. So, why not preparing cholafali on your next Dhanteras. I hope you like the recipe.
