Combine chana flour, sooji, salt and black pepper powder in a bowl. Add a little water at a time to make paste. Put oil to heat. Meanwhile add methi and coriendar. Mix well. Add 3 tbsp hot oil and combine again. Add water if needed to make batter with dropping (lumps) consistency as shown in the picture below. Add eno and beat vigorously with hand in the same direction. Drop dumplings in medium hot oil. Do not over crowd.
Stir and fry on medium heat till they get cooked from inside. do not let them turn brown. Remove from oil and serve hot.
These dumplings taste really nice with fresh masala curd. Take all the ingredients for masala curd and fold in gently to combine all the ingredients well. CAUTION: Brisk stirring will turn the curd into chhash.
Choose fresh, thick and mild green chillies. Wash and pat dry. Make a vertical cut on all the chillies. Fry in hot oil until you see a bit of fried skin here and there on the chillies. Chillies are supposed to be fried to get that fried flavour, not to make them tender. That's the reason why it is important to choose mild chillies. Sprinkle some salt,
Tips : 1. Consume hot, straight out from oil to enjoy it's best taste and texture. 2. You can replace Eno with 1/4 tsp soda bi carb topped with 1 tbsp lemon juice to activate the soda. However, Eno is batter. Reasons given tin tip no. 9. 3. If you are making batter way in advance, add fenugreek leaves just before frying. 4. Add a little water at a time to control consistency of the batter.
5. Consider oil, fenugreek leaves and eno while adding water in the batter. Moisture in the leaves and oil both 6. Too thick a batter will make hard and dry dumplings whereas very thin batter will make oily dumplings. 7. The dumplings will remain uncooked from inside and get overcooked from outside of the oil is too hot. 8. These dumplings are supposed to maintain it's natural colour even after frying. If you let them turn a bit dark (pinkish or brownish), they get crunchy and do not taste nice.
9. Soda vs. Eno - soda has a typical sopy taste. If added even a little more it absorbs a lot of oil and you end up having very oily gotta. You don't have to worry about these points with Eno. Goya turns out to be very soft and spongy and oil free.
