Oma podi - South-Indian Tea-time Snack - Guest post by Vardhini of Cooks Joy

This month's guest host is by my dear blogger friend Vardhini. I believe most of my blog friends would definitely know Vardhini of Cooks Joy (Previously Zesty Palette). She is an ingenuous food blogger giving the most tempting recipes. She is one person who presents each post with beautiful step-by-step pictures. Now how cool is that. It takes a lot of sincere effort to do that and I know it is pretty tough for me :). I especially like her Dish-It-Out event. If you are wondering what it is you should head over to her space and check it out.
She recently moved to her own domain - Cook's Joy and it is simply elegant. When I asked her to do a guest post, she happily agreed even on a very short notice. And she made this delicious snack - Oma Podi, just for me. Oma podi is a South-Indian deep-fried snack made with Besan and carom seeds (Bishop's weed). It is similar to murukku/chakali but has a thinner texture and literally melts in your mouth. Now I present Vardhini in her own words.


I probably have told this quite a few times already, but blogging has opened a whole new world for me and brought me a lot of friends. My first interaction with Krithi was roughly a year ago when she was hosting the pancake event. I was new to blogging and did not know how to link up to the event :). Thus, started my conversation with her on the same.
Over the past year we have interacted a lot of times and I was thrilled when she asked me to do the guest post and finally decided on this recipe. She has a warm and cozy blog and her pictures are adorable. She does a lot of fusion cooking and her recipes are mostly healthy.
Ever since I made Idiyappam, this has been on the list. A lot of recipes call to grind the ajwain(omam), but my mom suggested that I just extract the water so that I do not end up with tiny pieces of ajwain blocking the holes. Just the water had a lot of flavor and everyone loved it. As with most snacks this one also flew out in a very short amount of time.

Ingredients:

1 cup besan (kadala maavu)
1/4 cup rice flour
1 tsp ajwain (omam) soaked in 1/4 cup hot water
1 tsp ghee
Salt to taste
Pinch of turmeric
Asafoetida
Oil to deep fry
Method:
Soak ajwain in hot water for an hour.

We have to extract the water. For this mash the ajwain with a spoon to get the flavors.

Then strain using a tea strainer. Keep the strained water aside.

Take besan and rice flour in a bowl.

Add asafoetida and turmeric powder.

Add salt.

Add ghee.

Add the strained ajwain water little by little and form a stiff dough. (If more water is needed, use regular water.)

We need a murukku press for this and this is the disc we will be using.

Heat oil in a vessel and load the murukku maker with the dough. Directly press the murukku maker over the hot oil allowing the strands to fall into the oil. Keep moving the murukku press to form a circle.

When the hissing sound stops the oma podi is done. Remove from oil. It hardly takes time to cook because it is thin.

Stack of yummy oma podi ready to be eaten.

Enjoy!


For more recipes from Vardhini, do head over to Cook's Joy!