KODUBALE – rice and gram flour crispy rings

‘Kodubale’ is one of the popular traditional tea-time snack from Karnataka, which is very crispy and delicious. Its made of the rice flour and roasted gram flour. The soft dough is rolled into long cigars, and then cut into 1.5 inch strips and shaped into small or medium size rings by pressing the ends together. Its one of the snack made during festivals.

In Kannada, ‘Kodu’ means give and ‘Bale’ means bangle. So all that makes sense to me is that, we should give these bangle shaped goodies to others as they are delicious. 😉 haha.. I would like to hear if anyone else have some other explanation. 😛

I had made these in a jiffy, and had added little extra water than required while making the dough. So you can see few cracks on the rings. Be very careful while adding water, as we are looking for a smooth and firm dough for this recipe. And make sure you are using the fresh ingredients for best results. I have used Carom seeds (Ajwain) and Curry leaves (Kadipatta) which  aids digestion and has many other health benefits.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Rice Flour
• 1/2 cup Plain Flour
• 1/2 cup Roasted Gram / Channa Dhalia, powdered
• 3/4 cup Coconut, grated
• 3 tbsp Ghee / Butter
• 3-4 Dry Red Chili, roasted or (use 1 tsp chili powder)
• 1/4 tsp Asafoetida
• 1/2 tsp Carom seeds / Ajwain
• 3 springs of Curry Leaves / Kadipatta, fine chopped
• Oil for Deep Frying
• Salt to Taste

Method:

1. In a blender, grind roasted dry red chilies and grated coconut into fine powder. Keep aside.
2. Grind roasted gram into a powder.
3. Combine all the ingredients together in a large bowl and knead to make a smooth and firm dough.
4. Add just little water, that’s sufficient enough to make a smooth dough.
5. Divide and shape dough into lemon size balls. I now kept the dough covered with muslin cloth while i started working on making the rings.
6. Take lemon size ball from the dough. Roll the dough, with your palm, into a thin and long cigars. Cut the roll into 1.5 inch strips and finally shape them into small or medium size rings or circle like patterns, by pressing the ends together. Repeat the process with the rest of the dough.
7. Heat the oil in a Wok/ Kadai. And when its hot enough, test the oil by dropping a pea sized dough into the oil. If the dough sizzles and floats to the top immediately, then the oil is hot. Or you have to wait for few more minutes.
8. Drop raw kodubale into the oil one by one slowly so it doesn’t break. Fry on low-medium flame until both sides are slowly browned and cooked from inside as well.
9. Remove the kodubales from the oil and drain them on the paper towel. Kodubale is ready.
10. Store Kodubale in an air tight container after it is cooled.