Its a mommy's favorite recipe. Crispy noodle strands made with besan (chickpea flour) is a perfect tea time savory snack. In south India they are called ompudi becuase it is flavored with caraway seeds. Most popularly it is called as sev.
Its the most common garnishing ingredient in Indian chats and they are not complete without topping of sev.
My mom usually makes this snack in large batches. It takes very less time to prepare and cooks very fast. With proper storage it can last for up-to a month.
Ingredients
3 cups Besan (chickpea flour)1/2 tsp Ajwain (caraway seeds)
1 tsp Red chili powder
1/4 tsp Asafoetida (hing)
2 tsp Melted Ghee
Salt
Water
Oil for deep frying
Method
- Blend ajwain into fine powder
- In a large mixing bowl, mix together besan, ajwain, red chili powder, asafoetida, ghee and salt
- Add water in small batches to the besan mixture and mix together to form a sticky dough (*** Note - you can use spoon to make dough for less messy)
- Grease the sev maker. Load the besan dough until it fills up the cylinder. And close the cylinder
- Heat oil until it is moderately hot on medium heat
- Press the handle of sev maker and gently drop the noodle strands in oil in circular motion. Fry in medium heat until oil bubbles go away (*** Note - Flip the sev only once. Flipping more than once will break the sev)
- Use an absorbent paper to drain excess oil
- After sev cools down, store it in a air tight container