Yesterday, after a long time I could manage a little free time for myself. While I was enjoying a little chat session with my friends someone passed me the schedule of this year’s Durga Puja and suddenly I realized only 45 days are left for puja and I haven’t even started making list of things to do and buy 🙁 (weep weep). Whenever it comes to the topic of Durga Puja, I feel so nostalgic. A collage of old memories crowds my mind.
It seems like a motion picture, scenes are changing with thoughts, moments are being relived. I simply can’t get over it.
With the puja ambience you know what comes hand in hand? None other than our very own street-food of Calcutta ( ya ya I know it is Kolkata now but to me it will always remain as my Calcutta). OMG none can imagine how badly I’m missing them right now. I want those fuchka, egg rolls, street side chowmins, singara and loads of misti (sweets). These sweets are a must thing on bijaya with a plate full of nimkis(salty diamond fritters). It’s a ritual for Bengalis that on bijaya (dassera) everyone visits their friends and relatives with a box of sweets. They also greet their guests with sweets. To balance so much sweetness little salty-crunchy nimki, samosa are served. I simply love those homemade nimkis.
Talking about nimki and suddenly I felt the urge of having it, like now now now!!! And I just made up my mind to cook some tasty crunchy nimki for my urge, why not? It’s a rainy evening (read snacks time). So I thought lets have them with my evening tea. Immediately I got up and got my mom on phone and Voila… my mom’s special nimki recipe was in my hand (again read, mobile). My mom also called me as “uthlo bai to kottok jai” (feeling like having it now, so do it right now). But I can’t help it, I’m like that only.. anyways, what am I waiting for?? Let’s jump into the bowl of nimkis directly.
Ingredients:
All-purpose flour/Maida: 2 tea cups
Nigella seeds: 2 tbsp
Red chili powder: 2 tbsp (if you don’t prefer the chili flavor, feel free to reduce the amount)
Asafetida/ Hing: 1 pinch
Sugar (powdered): 1 pinch
Salt to taste (I used 1.5 tbsp)
White oil: 3-4 tbsp
Warm water: ½ cup to knead
Oil to deep fry (I used around 3 cups of oil)
Yes, people do use baking powder but i didn’t use any. Actually i completely forgot about them due to my over excitement. And when i realized that was too late, my mouth was already filled with freshly fried hot nimkis. So if you want to use baking powder, use 1 tsp (not more than that; otherwise your nimkis will be flat not puffy).
Preparation:
Shift the flour in a large bowl.
Make a well in the center and add nigella seeds, red chilli powder, asafetida/hing, powdered sugar, salt. Mix well by using your fingers. Add oil and keep mixing until you can spot the texture between your fingers.
Add warm water little by little and knead firm dough. Don’t make it soft. Keep the dough aside for 20-30 mins, covered.
Knead the dough again with a light hand. Take out small balls out of the dough.
Roll out the ball with the rolling pin to make a very thin layer. No need to be concerned about the shape. If you like little thick nimki from bhujiawala you can make the layer little thick. I prefer little thin layered crispy nimki so I made it as thin as possible.
Now take a sharp knife and cut the layer in a crisscross way to make little diamonds.
Take a heavy bottomed nonstick kadhai and fill it with enough oil to deep fry. 1/4th of the kadhai will be fine I guess. Heat the oil enough to sizzle. Check the oil temperature by sliding a diamond/nimki in to the oil. If it sizzles and floats immediately your oil is ready to fry. If not, wait few more mins try gaian and check.
Add diamonds/nimkis batch by batch and fry until golden in color.
If you will wait further your nimkis will get dark color and bitter in taste.
Remove and drain the excess oil and on paper towels.
These nimkis can be stored in any air tight jar upto 2/3 weeks (if the nimki can manage to snatch that much life from your hands 😉 ).
I’m planning to make them on a large scale just before the puja so that I can enjoy the ‘nimki-bhora-bijaya’ this year 😉
Are you trying small nimkis (refer to the pictures) or the bigger one? If you are talking about the smaller version then make sure oil is hot enough to sizzle and the 'nimkis' should be thin for the crisp crunch.
May Add some soda in the mixture before kneading to make crispy.