Khasta for FIFA Funday!

Khasta is indian fried puff pastry with spicy lentil or potatoes filling inside. It comes right from the streets of northern India and is just perfect to munch on while watching FIFA on a lazy Sunday!

I have made the kachoris with potatoes filling, but you can fill in any goodies you like – stir-fried veggies, lentils etc. They are just awesome with any spicy filling.

Ingredients

For pastry dough

• Wheat flour – 1 cup
• All purpose flour – 1 cup
• Salt – 1/2 teaspoon
• Oil – 1.5 tablespoon
• Lukewarm Water – 1/3 cup

For Filling

• Boiled, peeled and mashed potatoes – 2
• Onions – 1/2 red
• Oil – 1 tablespoon
• Cumin seeds – 1 teaspoon
• Turmeric powder – 1/2 teaspoon
• Green chillies – 2
• Coriander powder – 1 teaspoon
• Mango powder – 1 teaspoon
• Green peas – 1 cup boiled

Extras

• Oil for frying
• Green chutney for serving and garnishing

Method

For the dough

• Sift both kinds of flour together and add salt. Now make a well and add oil little by little. Keep mixing the oil with flour.
• Keep adding oil until the flour roughly holds its shape if pressed between palms.
• Now add water very little by little and keep kneading the dough. In the end you should get a very smooth, unstickly and no so soft ball. Wrap it up in a cling wrap and keep aside for 30 minutes.

For the filling

• Heat oil in a non-stick pan and when hot, add cumin seeds. Let the cumin seeds splutter and release their flavor.
• Add finely chopped onions and saute for 5-6 minutes until they get translucent.
• Now add turmeric powder, coriander powder and chopped green chillies.
• Saute for 30 seconds and add thawed frozen peas. Saute for a couple of minutes and add mashed potatoes. Also add salt.
• Mix up everything together. Potatoes should get an even yellow color from turmeric. Add chopped coriander leaves and keep aside to cool for 10-15 minutes.

Pastries

• Heat oil in a wok on medium heat.
• Oil your palms and pinch some dough and make a smooth ball. The ball should be of size of a table tennis ball approximately.
• With the help of a lightly oiled rolling pin, start rolling your dough ball in a circle of 1/4 inch thickness.
• Put some filling in the center of the rolled dough and apply some water on the edges of the rolled dough.
• Now lift up the edges and bring them together, pasting every edge and closing the rolled dough in a ball again. Make sure you do no have any open holes in the filled dough ball, else oil will seep inside your pastries while deep frying.
• Similarly, work on the rest of the dough to make fill the potatoes mixtures in the dough balls. Deep fry these balls on medium heat until they turn brown from all sides.
• Serve hot hot with green chutney or potatoes curry or any sauce at hand!