Omapodi karapusa, a typical deep fried and crunchy snack made in Telugu states with gram flour. The addition of carom seed lends a mild spicy flavor yet suitable enough for the kids. A quick and easy snack to put together under 30 mins.
Karapusa is usually made during festive celebrations like Deepavali, Sankranthi or also as regular tea time snack. This omapodi karapusa is slightly different than the thin sev used for topping Indian chaats. Nylon sev i.e., sev used for chaats is made with gram flour too but it’s quite thin and seasoned differently.
Karapusa is made with a mixture of gram flour, rice flour, carom seed powder and salt. That is all we need for this quick recipe. Well we can also add red chili powder for more heat. It is important that we are adding powdered carom seeds in the dough, else it has the tendency to get stuck in the holes of the murukku maker disc. The fine, thin strands of dough is pressed directly into hot oil and fried until crisp, golden brown. Once the golden fried chakralu are taken out, you can see a lacey, beautiful stacks of karapusa. The crunchy, fine and thin textures of these karapusa attracts the kids and also makes it easy for them to bite it.
Rubbing the hot oil/ghee into the flour before making the dough makes the texture of karapusa quite buttery and melt in the mouth good. The deep frying needs to be done on medium flame to ensure evenness in cooking, crispness and to achieve that golden color.
To make this karapusa we need a murukku/chakli maker, that is designed for making these snacks. We usually get different discs/plates with holes in it. Star holed disc is used for making murukku/chakli, vertical slit disc is used for making ribbon pakoda etc., For making these fine karapusa, we need the disc with fine thin holes.
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OMAPODI KARAPUSA
Equipment
- Murukku maker/chakli maker
Ingredients
- 1 cup Gram flour / Besan
- 1 cup Rice flour
- 1 tsp Carom seeds
- ¼ tsp Red chili powder optional
- Salt to taste
- water
- 2 tbsp Hot cooking oil
- Frying oil
Instructions
- First let's make a fine powder of carom seeds in a mortar and pestle.
- In a mixing bowl add gram flour, rice flour, salt, chili powder, carom seed powder, hot oil and combine until the oil is well incorporated into the dough.
- Now gradually add filtered water and bring the dough together to make a soft dough, and test it by pressing the dough through the fine holes disc.
- Taste and adjust the spices and salt according to your taste preference.
- Heat a wide thick bottomed wok/kadai, add oil and heat it until it's good enough for deep frying.
- Take the murukku maker grease the inside with a tsp of oil, roll the handful of dough into cylindricals and place them in the murukku maker and use the disc with fine holes.
- Once the oil is hot, reduce to medium flame and using circular motion, press the murukku maker to make concentric layers of the karapusa dough.
- As you press the dough into the hot oil, you will find the oil froth up in bubbles which will eventually subside as the karapusa fry and turn to a golden shade.
- When the karapusa turn into golden color, flip them and fry on the other side and let it also cook to a golden brown. Karapusa fries quickly compared to chakralu or murukulu. So keep an eye on them all the time while frying.
- Use a slotted ladle to remove fried karapusa on a paper towel and let them cool down. Now repeat the same process till the rest of the dough is done.
- Cool completely before storing in an airtight container.
Notes
- Please make sure you're pounding the carom seeds to fine powder, else it tends to stuck in the tiny holes of murukku maker disc. Adding in powder form distributes the flavor evenly and makes the dough easier to press.
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