Mathari or swali
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Mathri or matthi is an Indian delicacy made during Indian festivals like Holi or Diwali. This time I made them for the Valentine’s theme meetup ,so i made them pink.It has a good shelf life of over 1 month. It is fun to try out different shapes of the mathri, yes you guess it right; they were pink hearts..
Ingredients:
1. All purpose Flour (maida) – 4 cups
2. Salt to taste
3. Red chilli powder to taste
4. Carom seeds(ajwain)-1 tsp
5. Color red -2 pinch dissolved in water
6. Vegetable oil – 1 + 3 cups
7. Cookie Cutter
8. Rolling pin
9. Fork
Method:
1. Take a Paraat or a shallow large bowl and pour the flour in it.
Now make a well in the center and add salt,carom seeds,chilli powder and oil (1 cup) in it.
Mix all these ingredients with hands so that the flour forms small lumps in it.
Now slowly add color-mixed water in it to form a dough.
The dough is harder than the one done for puris and should be as hard as possible.
Once the hard dough is formed knead it well to push in some air in it ,not too much though ,just on the outside keep it little moist and smooth.
Let it rest for 15 mins covered on the counter.If you don’t want to roll out matthis then you may cling it in freshwrap or plastic wrap and keep it in the refrigerator.Just remember to take it our half an hour before you need to roll out the matthis.
Take a wok and add oil(3 cups) in it and let it heat on high flame.
To check the oil take a small round from the dough and drop it in the oil,if it sizzles and comes up slowly,then your oil is ready.
Now take a portion of the dough and roll it with a rolling pin as thin as possible.Here I would like to add that if your dough is very tight ,you don’t have to roll out thin mathris,but since i like thin crust ,i had rolled it thinner than the Roti(chapati).
Now pierce some holes in the rolled dough with a fork. This is to help escape any air which is trapped while frying or else it will swell like a kachori.
Now cut out the desired shapes with cookie cutter .Alternately you can make small loiyan( pedhas) and then roll them out in small size matthis ,if you don’t have a cutter.
Now drop them slowly in the hot oil and let them cook on medium heat such that they neither swell nor they remain uncooked.
After they turn brown on one side toss them on the other side and let them fry both sides golden brown,oops golden pink in my case.
When they are done,strain them and place them on a plate lined with paper towel or tissue.This will help absorb the extra oil and the matthi will stay fresh and dry for a longer time.
Make sure you don’t use already used oil or burnt oil for cooking,because this sometimes leave a smell in the matthis.
So your beautiful ,delicious savoury is ready. You can have this as a snack with some pickle or chutney or gravy during tea time.