Chiroti

My sweet tooth never lets me live in peace. It let's me down way too often. I hate to admit that I love anything and everything that is sweet and has sugar. I know the fact that it is not so nice on the body. Despite all possible attempts at keeping me at bay from sweet meats by my near and dear ones, I sneak way too often with no resistance to my temptation to grab few on almost daily basis. Honestly, I go through a guilt feel. But my weakness wins over most of the times. All my attempts at trying to stay away from them have gone in vain. I have been trying real hard, cautiously, but no go.

Every time, I enter the kitchen with a thought to make a dessert, I have a mind that strongly disagrees to it, but a heart that never approves. This is how the conversation goes...

Heart: Shall I... ?
Mind: No, that's not for you...
Heart: Please!!!
Mind: You know it's not good for you...
Heart: I know... hmm... but it's not for me... it's for him (my hubby)...
Mind: It's always for him... but you eat them most...
Heart: I know, that was last time... not this time I swear!
Mind: Hmm... ok, go ahead
Heart: Yippie!!!

And the heart wins always...

I was recently in the same situation. My hubby was out on a trip and I had some free time at hand. I had Chiroti on my mind for long. In fact, I wanted to make these for Diwali, but somehow couldn't make them then. I made these recently in his absence. They were really good. I probably would require more mastery in making these, but for the first attempt they came out really well.

Chiroti

INGREDIENTS

2 tbsp semolina/chiroti rava
2 cups all purpose flour/maida
1 cup water
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cardamom powder/elaichi

1 tbsp all purpose flour/maida
Ghee for greasing

Oil/Ghee for frying
1 cup finely powdered sugar

DIRECTIONS

Make a dough by mixing semolina, flour, cardamom powder, salt and water. Add more flour if it's too soft. Make it pliable. Leave it to rest for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile keep the icing sugar (finely powdered sugar) ready.

Roll out the dough flat using a rolling pin, similar to a nice long roti. Grease this with ghee/butter all over evenly. Next spread all purpose flour on this. Now, starting from one end, gently roll this (like cinnamon rolls) till the other ends meet. Using a knife, cut into 1/2 inch rolls. Dust some flour and roll these to small disks. These will help us in forming a nice multi-layered dough almost similar to a pastry dough.

Now, heat ghee/oil in a frying pan. Let it heat up well. Drop each chiroti to the oil at a time. Fry them on low flame gently till they turn golden brown. When done, remove from oil on to a kitchen towel. Then lay them on a plate and gently spread a generous dose of icing sugar so that they coat them well.

Another option is to drop these fried chirotis to thick sugar syrup. However, they need to be consumed soon and may not last as long as the one coated with powdered sugar. They also taste equally heavenly. These treats are often seen as desserts in our marriages and we relish them a lot. Bite into one of these and you will notice multi-layered thin crispies which you are sure to relish with each bite. Bet you, you can't stop at one!