pastry-encased cinnamon-spiced peas or green beans
Ingredients (5-8 portions)
- For filling
- ginger (4 cm) : roughly chopped
- green chili (2 pieces) : roughly chopped
- garden peas / green beans (600 gr) : boiled, fried on oil
- mustard seeds (1 ts)
- cinnamon powder (1.25 ts)
- garam masala (1.25 ts)
- turmeric powder (0.5 ts)
- salt (1.75 ts)
- chili powder (0.5 ts)
2. For pastry
- plain white flour (300 gr)
- salt (0.5 ts)
- oil (1.5 ts)
- hot water (175 ml)
Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC and lightly grease a tray with oil.
- Place the ginger and green chili in a food processor and blitz into a paste, or bash them up using a pestle and mortar. If using a food processor, remove the paste and set to one side. Briefly blitz the peas in the food processor and set aside, or mash up using a potato masher.
- Put 3 Ts. of oil into a frying pan on a medium heat and, when it’s hot, add the mustard seeds. When they start to crackle, add the ginger and chili paste, stir-fry for a couple of minutes, then add the peas and cook for a further 5 minutes.
- Add the cinnamon, garam masala, turmeric, salt and chili powder. Cook for 2 minutes, or until there is little to no moisture left but the peas are still bright green. Transfer to a bowl and put aside.
- To make the dough, put the flour into a bowl, make a well in the middle and add the salt and oil. Rub through with your fingers until the flour resembles fine breadcrumbs. Pour in 120ml of the water and add the rest little by little, kneading it into the dough until it feels nice and firm. Pour a teaspoon of oil into your hands and pat the dough with it to keep it moist.
- Before rolling out the pastry, get your station ready. You will need a clean floured surface, a bowl of flour and a rolling pin. Now pinch off a blob of dough roughly the size of a marshmallow. Dip your dough ball into the bowl of flour and roll out to a circle roughly 10cm in diameter. To speed things up, you can divide the dough into the small balls before rolling and stuffing them.
- To make the Cachori, pop a heaped teaspoon of pea mixture in the middle and bring the sides of the pastry up tightly around the peas. Seal the pastry at the top by pinching it closed, then pinch off any excess pastry, roll the Kachori into a ball and put it on a plate. Then make the rest. The first one you make might look a bit odd, so mark it out for tasting when it comes out of the oven.
- Roll the Kachori balls around on the baking tray to coat them in the oil and bake in the oven for 20 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown.