Nippat (vegan snacks)

 

These were an instant hit at home! I used this recipe - in fact that is my favorite blog for any Karnataka recipe. This was probably the second or the third time I was making them. I'd tried them years back (using some other recipe) and with less experience. It was not a successful experiment. Then this year during holidays I decided to give it a try again. Anytime you try something totally new, be ready to fail and make sure you have lot of patience as it's not going to be easy.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rice flour
• 2 tbsp all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp sooji
• 1.5 tsp red chilli powder 
• 1/2 tsp Asafoetida
• 4 tbsp raw peanuts
• 4 tbsp dalia (Roasted gram dal)
• 1.5 salt
• 4 tsp oil + oil for deep frying
• 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp water water

Method

1. Grind the peanuts and roasted gram dal coarsely. I used the food processor to do that.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients. 
3. Heat 4 tsp oil and add it to the above mixture of flour and nuts. Keep aside for 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Then, add water little by little to make it a medium dough. Not too hard, not too soft.
5. Divide the dough into 24 pieces to make the Nippatu, the spicy crackers.
6. Heat the oil on a medium heat. For me, setting it to "4" worked. A little less than medium is just right.
7. Grease a parchment paper. Take a piece of dough and roll it out.
8. Roll out 4-5 and then fry them in the oil. Make sure the oil is hot enough. To test, put a tiny piece of dough in the oil and it should float up immediately.
9. Fry it until it turns golden brown color on both sides.