Nighttime Nibbles: Spicy Sacarparas
When night falls, I oftentimes (read: daily) find myself in a dilemma. My stomach whines and grumbles for food, and though every health-buff through the world says that we should probably eat something light such as, oh, cucumbers, god forbid, it doesn't help me at all. Nope. Nu-uh. Nada. Dainty food doesn’t fill me up at night. I’m an Indian by heart, which means I need some sort of grain-based food. It doesn’t mean I want something extremely heavy, though, either. That’s where the deliciousness of sacarpara come in.
Sacarparas are a light, but crunchy snack item that can be found floating around in any Gujarati’s house. It’s one of those things that you mindlessly munch with at the 4 o’ clock daze, or, like me, at the exact time that you need to sleep but your stomach won’t let you. It’s a fried snack with the base being whole wheat flour, and it. is. the best!
Since there are a lot more steps than the Kothmi-Marcha ni Chutney, I took the liberty of taking pictures of the whole process for those of you who have never even popped your head in the Indian-snacks world.
Ingredients:
- 100% fine ground whole wheat flour (I used Aashirvaad Atta)
-1 tbsp. salt
-heaping 1/2 tsp. herder, or turmeric powder
-1/2 tbsp. chili powder
-1/4 tsp. ajwain (carom seeds, or in Gujarati: ajmo)
-1/2 tbsp. sesame seeds
-5 tbsp. canola oil
-3/4 c. water
Directions
1. Put the flour, salt, turmeric powder, chili powder, ajwain, and sesame seeds in a medium or large-sized bowl. Mix with canola oil until the oil is evenly distributed and the mixture is a light yellow-ish color.
2. Gradually add the water and mix until it features a soft, but not mushy, dough. Pound with your fists to smooth it out. Remember, it needs to be rollable. Let sit for 10 minutes.
3. Form palm-sized patties from the dough by rolling and pushing them between your hands. With a rolling pin, evenly roll the dough into a circle. The thinner you make the dough, the crunchier the snack will be. Try not to get any folds in yours as this picture shows, but if you do, just pat it down with your fingers. I just liked the aesthetic and composition of this picture, which is why I chose to share it.
4. Place a couple of glugs of canola oil in a deep dish frying pan, and turn on high. While you’re waiting for the oil to heat, you can roll all of your dough into circles.
5. Once the oil is almost ready for frying (put a piece of dough in; if it rises up quickly then it’s ready), cut the rolled dough into diamond shapes. Then place one circle’s worth of diamonds in the frying pan for your first batch.
6. Flip and stir continuously until it’s a light golden-brown/red-orange color.
7. Obviously they’ll be a little oily, but place them on paper towels to soak the excess oil.
8. Admire these melt-in-your-mouth, crunchy beauties you’ve just made. Let them be devoured by your mouth, along with a raging sea of milk. You are now n% more Indian than you used to be.
Enjoy, my darlings!
P.S. Try dipping them in raw honey. The flavor that explodes in your mouth can only be likened to if Ella Fitzgerald became an angel and had a karaoke night in your mouth. It is heavenly.
-A