Namak Para - Spicy Shankarpali
Namak para is a crispy, crunchy, and savory snack. It is a lightly spiced diamond shaped deep fried dish flavored with cumin and carom seeds.
Ingredients
For Making The Dough
- 2 cup All purpose flour
- 1 tsp Cumin seeds crushed
- 1 tsp Carom seeds/Ajwain crushed
- 3/4 tsp Salt or as required
- 1/4 cups Oil
- 1/2 cup Water
Frying Namak Pare
- 2.5 cup Oil
Instructions
For Making the Dough
- In a large bowl, add all the dry ingredients, and mix them well.
- In a small pot, heat some oil and pour it over the dry mixture.
- Using a spoon, mix the flour mixture when it is hot.
- Next, using your fingers rub the mixture and the texture should become crumbly.
- Now add a little water at a time and start kneading the dough - you may need more or less water depending on the stickiness of the flour.
- Knead the dough into a stiff and smooth dough. Cover the dough with a cloth and keep it aside for 15-20 minutes.
- Next, knead the dough again until it turns soft and smooth. Divide the dough into 6 equal balls and cover them with a cloth.
Rolling And Shaping
- Take one ball and flatten it. Roll it into a thin circle with a rolling pin.
- Normally, the dough will not stick to the work surface if kneaded into a stiff dough. If the dough is sticking then knead it again by adding some flour or grease some oil on the work surface and your rolling pin.
- Cut the circle into diamonds with a sharp knife. Keep the namak para covered with a cloth until they are ready to fry.
- Line a plate with paper towels to absorb the extra oil from the namak para.
Frying Namak Pare
- Heat some oil in a kadhai (pan) on medium heat. To check if the oil is hot enough, drop a small ball of dough in the hot oil. If it rises immediately that means the oil is ready for frying.
- Once the oil is hot, lower the temperature to medium-low. Transfer a few namak para to the hot oil. Do not overcrowd them.
- Fry the namak pare by flipping them halfway through with a slotted spoon. Fry them until they turn golden brown in color from both sides. Keep stirring them while frying.
- Transfer the namak pare to a lined plate using a slotted spatula to drain off the oil.
- Let them cool down completely for about 20-25 minutes and store them in an airtight container.
Notes
- The key for making the best namak pare is to form a stiff dough. The dough should be soft and smooth without adding too much water.
- The dough should not be rested for longer than 15-20 minutes. If you rest the dough for longer, it will start to release more moisture and the dough will stick to the work surface.
- If your dough is sticking while rolling, add some flour in the dough to make it a little stiff, and roll it.
- Greasing some oil to the work surface will help not to stick the dough while rolling. You can add a few drops of oil as you need while rolling all the dough.
- Rolling the dough into a very thin circle is very important to make the namak pare crispy.
- Adding hot oil while making a dough helps to make the namak pare more crispy and flaky.
- Frying the namak pare on medium low heat is very important to make them more crispy.
- Checking out the oil temperature before frying each batch of namak pare is very important to cook them perfectly from inside or else they will turn soft. You can increase or lower the temperature as you go to maintain the correct temperature of the oil.