Cholafali for Indian Cooking Challenge / Chorafali Step-by-step with pictures

The chosen recipe for this month's Indian Cooking Challenge is Chorafali - A Gujarati snack. Having not seen or tasted Chorafali is not much of an issue when I have not even heard of the name before now. But that aspect of trying out an unknown snack was the challenge really. Lataji's step-wise recipe was very helpful for a newbie like me. The recipe called for besan and mathia flour. When I tried googling I came to know that mathia flour was the one used to make papad like deep fried crispy snack (Nasto) popular in Gujarat. However I used the mathia flour substitution given by Lataji. I halved the original recipe and here is my recipe and notes.

Ingredients:
Using Standard cup measurements
Besan/Chick pea/ Garbanzo beans flour - 1 cup
Urad dhal/Black gram dhal flour - 1/2 cup
Moong dhal flour - 1/2 cup
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Soda Bi-carb - a big pinch
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Lukewarm Water - To make the dough
Oil - as required to pound the dough and to grease while rolling
To sprinkle on the fried cholafalis
Salt - 2 tsp (Original recipe calls for black salt, but regular table salt worked fine for me)
Red chilli powder - 2 tsp

Method:
Making the dough:
Sieve the flours and the soda bi-carb together. In a small pan heat the 1/4 tsp of salt until warm and add to the sifted flours. Add the ghee and mix well. Now add the warm water slowly and mix well to form a stiff dough. The dough should be tight and not pliable.

Softening the dough:
Now comes the challenging part (well, for me). Oil a flat surface, I used a cutting board. Take lemon sized portion of the dough and place it on the oiled surface and beat with a wooden rolling pin. When all the dough (of the small portion) is flattened, apply oil over it and fold (or roll) it. Beat again with the rolling pin. Repeat the oil, fold and beat process until the dough becomes soft, pliable and lighter in color. Repeat with the rest of the dough in parts.

Rolling out:
Take a small lemon sized portion of the dough and roll it very thin. Cut into rectangles of size 1 in x 3 in (approx). It should be so thin that you should be able to see the surface (cutting board n my case). If you are not able to roll out thin then the dough needs more pounding.

Fry and Serve:
Heat the oil for deep frying in medium-high heat. Too much heat will make the cholafalis turn brown faster. Drop the cut out pieces in the oil and try to hold in down in the hot oil with the slotted spoon. This way the the cholafalis will try to puff up. (Remember making pooris, same concept). Turn over once and fry for few more seconds. Drain and remove with the slotted spoon to a plate lined with tissue paper to remove extra grease. Sprinkle the salt and chilli powder mixture as soon as it is out of the oil. Allow to cool and start munching. Can be stored in an air-tight container for a couple of days.

Notes:
1. If you do not have a wooden rolling pin use any hard object that would pound the dough well.
2. Always keep the dough covered to prevent drying out.
3. The thinner the dough is rolled and cut, the crispier your chorafalis would be.
4. I used homemade urad dhal flour and moong dhal flour. I dry roasted both lightly until it changed color. Allowed it to cool and used a mixer grinder to make fine flour.
5. Make sure the besan used is free of lumps.

Do check out all my fellow participators in the Challenge for this month in Srivalli's page.