Boondi

Batter dropped through a slotted spoon, so it fries as separate pearls.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 200 g gram flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• about 200 ml water
• a pinch of saffron, or a little food colouring
• 300 g granulated sugar
• 150 ml water, for the syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• oil for deep frying

Method

1. BATTER IS DROPPED THROUGH A SLOTTED SPOON, SO IT FRIES AS SEPARATE PEARLS. Its article's method is three sentences and that is the middle one: chickpea flour, baking powder, and food colouring ARE MIXED INTO A BATTER. A SLOTTED SPOON IS USED TO POUR SMALL DROPS INTO A DEEP FRYING PAN. THE BOONDI IS THEN SOAKED IN SUGAR SYRUP. The spoon is the whole equipment list, and it is what makes a pearl rather than a fritter.
2. THE BATTER HAS TO POUR, NOT DROP. Thinner than a pakora batter: it should run off a spoon in a thread. Too thick and each hole gives a tadpole with a tail.
3. HOLD THE SPOON WELL ABOVE THE OIL AND TAP IT. Fifteen or twenty centimetres up. The drops round themselves on the way down, which is why the height matters.
4. FRY THEM PALE, NOT GOLDEN. Thirty or forty seconds at a medium heat. They are going into syrup and they should still be soft; browned, they stay hard in the middle.
5. WIPE THE SPOON BETWEEN BATCHES. Batter drying in the holes turns the next lot into clusters.
6. THE SYRUP IS ONE THREAD AND IT GOES ON WARM. Sugar and water boiled four minutes with the cardamom. Hot pearls into warm syrup is the combination that soaks; cold into cold does nothing.
7. FIFTEEN MINUTES IN THE SYRUP, THEN DRAINED. They plump and go glossy. Longer and they collapse.
8. ITS ARTICLE ALSO GIVES THE SAVOURY ROUTE, WHICH IS THE SAME PEARLS WITHOUT THE SYRUP. Boondi IS EITHER EATEN AS A SAVOURY SNACK OR SWEETENED AS A DESSERT, and boondi raita is made by soaking them IN WATER TO MAKE THEM SOFT, THEN SIEVED, with curd, salt and chilli.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

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