Tomato Sev

Tomato Sev with Tomato Chakli in the background

The tomato and potato sevs were on my 'to do' list ever since I spotted them at our grocery store, a few years back. Today when I started to make some sev for samosa chaat that I had promised my son, I remembered the tomato sev and so happened to add some tomato paste from the can to see how the tomato tang works in the recipe.

The chaklis were good for snacking as usual, only with a pronounced tomato flavor since I had added about 6 -7 Tbsp of tomato paste while making the dough. Also a little more chili powder can be added than what we regularly use to cut the tang.

Ingredients:

2.5 cups besan

1/2 cup rice flour

Salt and chili powder to taste

1/4 cup tomato paste

1 Tbsp cumin / carom seeds

2 Tbsp hot oil

Oil for deep frying

Special utensils needed:

Chakli mould / press with the small holes disc

A kadai (Indian wok) to fry the chaklis in

A big slotted spoon to remove the chaklis

Note:

Remember to crush the cumin or carom seeds if using for fine sev though the whole seeds can be used if making thicker sev. Whole seeds make it difficult to press the dough through the chakli press when using the tiny holed disc.

Preparing the dough:

Sieve the flours and combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add water and make thick dough. (Almost same as or a little softer than roti dough. Have to figure out how much depending upon the dough consistency.)

Frying part:

Heat the oil in a kadai. To test whether the oil is hot enough to fry, slowly slide a pinch of dough into the oil. If it sizzles and comes to surface, then the oil is ready. If not, heat the oil a little longer.

Take a small portion of the dough and fill in the chakli press. My chakli press had two discs with holes - a big holed one and one with small holes. I used the disc with tiny holes for the sev and the bigger one to make chaklis. Using your hands, press the mould over the hot oil making circling motion so that coils of dough from the mold dropping into the oil make a circle shape. You can press as big circle as the circumference of the kadai. Fry on low - medium flame till it attains a golden brown hue. They fry very fast and so be around.

Remove them with a slotted spoon and drain them on paper towels covered plate. Repeat the process with the remaining dough.

Let cool and crumble them. Store the sev in an airtight container.

(The thicker chaklis take more time to fry than the thinner version used to make sev and also they attained a darker hue because of the addition of tomatoes I guess.)

This goes to Sanyukta's Cooking with the Whole Foods - Tomato, an event originally started by Kiran.

Other chaklis posts here:
Easy Chaklis
Sago Chakli
Thentharlu / Thenkuzal
Vampodi Karalu / Kara Sev

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