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Have you lost your faith in the usual namkeen mixture, because of their massive marketed production devoid of homely appeal? Do not. Give the Kerala-Style Mixture a try. Made with yummy ingredients that are fried and mixed together to resuscitate the old mixture with a tad new assortment. The sev made from besan dough containing besan, water, salt, chilli, and turmeric powder can be hailed as the hero of this snack that is both the base and body of it. The additional crunch and needed variety of tastes are introduced by mixing it with sparse boondis from the same besan dough, fried peanuts, split chana dal, curry leaves, and garlic petals that make it that subtly spicy and enlivening evening snack.
Tracing The Mixture, Boondis And Sev
We definitely can’t attribute the exact year of origin of the widely prevalent Namkeen Mixture, but there has been in existence a very close item resembling it for ages. It’s called the ‘Bombay Mix’, which is made using a variety of spicy dried ingredients - such as fried lentils, peanuts, chickpeas, chickpea flour, corn, puffed rice, fried onion, and curry leaves flavoured with coriander, mustard seeds, salt, and spices.
Speaking of variations, there are many made with the addition and removal of dry fruits, makhanas, and various lentils. The Tamil Nadu and Kerala varieties are popularly called ‘Mixture’, which has fried peanuts, kara boondi, roasted chana dal, karasev, and murukku broken into small pieces. Mixtures have a presence all over Malaysia and Singapore, where they are known as kacang putih.
Now coming to the sev, it is an extremely popular Indian snack which appears like small pieces of crunchy noodles made from chickpea flour paste, seasoned with turmeric, cayenne, and ajwain before being deep-fried in oil. These are consumed alone or topped on chaat and bhel puri sometimes. Boondis are made from the same flour as you may have understood by now, with the help of a slotted spoon.
Preparation time: 45 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Servings: 5
Ingredients:
• ½ kg peeled peanuts
• 1 crushed garlic
• Curry leaves as desired
• ½ Besan powder
• Turmeric powder
• Salt, to taste
• Split chana dal
• Asafoetida
Method:
• Make a dough out of besan, turmeric powder, salt, chilli powder, asafoetida, and water. Take a small portion of the dough and add water to make it a batter for boondi.
• In a Masai, heat oil, fry curry leaves and keep aside.
• Then fry garlic and take out once crisp, and keep it aside. Similarly, fry peanuts followed by split chana dal.
• Use a dotted spoon over the oil to fry the boondi by pouring the batter over the spoon.
• Fry on low flame until done and keep aside.
• Mix all the fried items and keep them aside.
• Now make sev by first greasing the Sev Press or the Sev Sancha with oil and then filling it with besan dough.
• Keep pressing the dough into the hot oil with the dough squeezing out like noodles and forming a nest shape.
• Fry it till it turns golden brown, using a slotted spoon drain excess oil out and transfer on a plate with an oil absorbent paper to cool completely. Break it unevenly like in the mixture.
• Add salt, and chilli powder, to the mixture, and combine all the fried items.
