Baked Ragi and oats thattai – A guilt free snacking or a illusion??

Recently read a article by rujuta where she justified fried snacking, and I was like what?? It is so easy for her to talk about it, it is me who puts on kgs for every few gms of those fried snacks like pakoras, samosas and sev (I am a savories person than a sweet tooth person), but wait, maybe she has nailed it right in her own way.. :bonk
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Interested in reading what she did write…I am sure you are – I reproduce the article as it is..that I had copied into my notepad.

Coming back to the subject matter of thattai.. well who does not like some homemade ones.. and if it could be a baked one, why not.. this is for sidvidu, who said that her husband was not a fan of sweet cookies and would love savories..

Ragi Thattai.

Ragi flour – 2 cups
Roasted gram dal (called pottukadalai in tamil) – 2 tablespoons
Urad dal – 2 tablesoons.
Chana dal – 1 tablespoon
Moong dal – 1 tablespoon
Curry leaves- a few leaves torn into small pieces.
Hing - a pinch..1/4 of a tsp..
White sesame seeds – 1 tablespoon.
Red chilli powder – 1.2 tsps.
Salt – to taste (I use 1 tsp as we are low salt fly)
Oil – needed to fry (in the fried version if you want to do)
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Method :
Soak the moong and chana dal in water after washing for an hour.
Roast the urad dal in a dry pan until the raw smell goes and it starts turning golden and the flavor arises.
If your roasted chana dal is not fresh do roast in a hot pan for a minute..and remove it.
In the same pan roast the ragi flour for a few minutes.. do one cup at a time, and as it starts smelling of roasted flour flavours remove.
Cool urad dal and grind it to a fine flour. Cool and grind the roasted chana dal to fine powder.
Strain the soaking dals.
Now in a bowl, add the ingredients one by one, ragi flour, roasted chana dal, urad dal, salt, chilli powder, sesame seeds, hing, curry leaves and the soaked dals. Now if you want you can add a spoon of oil or butter for taste.. (I have not used any in my preparation..) .mix the ingredients, add water slowly. Make a dough that is not stiff like chappati dough nor too lose . a medium dough that can be patted with fingers.
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The dough is ready. Now take a aluminium foil, place it on the back of a plate..rub it with water or just rub a drop of oil.. now take lemon size balls of dough and pat it thin on the plate, ensure that you can remove it off the plate (it means it should not be spread too thin as to make it difficult lifting off..) I make these in batches of 20..
If you are thinking of frying take oil in the pan for frying, allow it to heat. And it is a oven, allow the oven to preheat at 200 degrees.
If baking just prick with a fork..and transfer the foil sheet straight on to your baking tray..life becomes easy right..allow it to bake for 10 minutes, and if you find it is cooked earlier, open and flip them for uniform cooking..another 5 minutes.. remove and cool. Store in a airtight container..stays fresh for 15 days.(but it does not stay for more than 2 days is another story).
If frying just remove them using a dry dosa ladle. , carefully, slip it into the oil..
Now continue frying as regular thattais.. allow the sounds of frying subside and then allow it to cook and remove on to tissue..cool and store in air tight containers.
Verdict : I had kept the baked ones separately for myself, and i woke upto a empty box early morning both the kids and fil declared even the baked ones are great and in fact they never felt it was different and without oil. but remember they still contain calories :hide:

Coming to alternatives:
you can roast 3 tablespoon of urad dal flour that is available readymade if you have.
Replace sesame with jeera.
Replace chillies with freshly ground pepper.
Replace red chillies with coconut, curry leaves and green chillies ground together..this makes a difference in rice flour thattai keeping it golden and while here it is just a different taste.
Add ginger garlic paste if you like it.

Do try it and keep me posted..

Will post the oats thattai in the next one... as this has become too long ...