Karjikai
Vegetarian dish from Karnataka. Made with jaggery, all-purpose flour, gram dal. About 220 calories per serving.
Ingredients
- Sunflower Oil (optional) (whole)
- All-purpose Flour — 1 cup (ground)
- Chana Dal — 0.5 cup (roasted)
- Cardamom Powder — 0.5 tsp (ground)
- Jaggery — 0.5 cup (grated)
- sooji — 0.25 cup (ground)
- Rice Flour (Fine Steamed - South Grade) — 3 tbsp (ground)
- Ghee — 2 tbsp (whole)
- Fresh Coconut — 0.25 cup (grated)
- Water (optional) (whole)
Method
- To prepare Karjikai (Karnataka Style Deep Fried Sweet Pastry Recipe), make the pastry dough.
- To make the dough, In a small pan, heat ghee.In a mixing bowl, add all-purpose flour, rava, and rice flour.
- Combine them together.
- Add the heated ghee to the flour mixture.
- The ghee should be really hot, such that once added to the flour, the flour bubbles up.Combine them together with hand.
- The mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
- The ghee should be added hot to the flour for the crispy flaky outer layer.Add water and knead the dough.
- Ensure the dough is not too soft.Cover the kneaded dough with a damp cloth until they are fried.
- This prevents the dough from losing its moisture and avoid cracks while frying.Let’s prepare the filling now.
- In a mixer, add roasted chana dal and coconut.
- Grind them into a coarse powder in a mixer grinder.
- Add grated jaggery to the mixture and combine them well.To prepare karjikai, take a lemon sized dough and make a small ball out of it.Roll them into a small circle of 2mm thickness.
- Ensure to cover the remaining dough with a damp cloth.Now, you can shape Karjikai with molds if you have.
- Else, cut the rolled dough into circles using a cookie cutter or with a simple jar lid.Place a spoon of stuffing on one side of the rolled dough.
- Brush the edges of the circle with water.Fold the pastry to form a semicircle.
- Ensure the edges are sealed completely and there is no gap left.Now, mark the edges with a fork to give them shapes and stick them together.
- Else, you can just fold the edges a bit to seal them together.Cover the filled pastries with a damp cloth.Repeat the same procedure for all the balls.Heat oil in a kadai.
- Once the oil is hot, drop a small ball of flour into the oil.
- If the flour raises up steadily, then the oil is perfect for frying.Fry karjikai one by one on medium heat until they turn golden in color.
- Flip the karjikai through the half way.Serve the Karjikai warm or allow them to cool down completely to store them in an airtight container.
Common questions
- What is ಕರ್ಜಿಕಾಯಿ (ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ ಸ್ಟೈಲ್ ಡೀಪ್ ಫ್ರೈಡ್ ಸ್ವೀಟ್ ಪೇಸ್ಟ್ರಿ ) in English?
- ಕರ್ಜಿಕಾಯಿ (ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ ಸ್ಟೈಲ್ ಡೀಪ್ ಫ್ರೈಡ್ ಸ್ವೀಟ್ ಪೇಸ್ಟ್ರಿ ) is written Karjikai in English.
- How many calories in one plate of Karjikai?
- 225 kcal per plate.
- How much cooking time?
- 75 min — 15 min prep, 60 min cooking.