When I embarked on " Mission Kodubale"......:)

Kodubale is a crispy fried speciality of Karnataka  made with rice flour. Shaped like doughnut, many people say it looks like a bale(bangle in kannada) and so it is named thus. This is one of my favorite snack since childhood and it is easily available in most Bangalore  condiment shops and bakeries. Especially, the iyengar bakeries of Bangalore make some of the best kodubales. 

My  parents home in bangalore was on a lane flanked by Belur iyengars bakery on one side and Hasan iyengar's bakery on the other, I have tasted this snack many times especially when the fresh batches of kodubales are put for sale during 3p.m. This snack was even a favorite with many of my relatives who travelled from other states so much so that when ever they left,  we bought them a packet too or whenever we went to their homes, we made sure a  kodubale packet  traveled with us.

Malti aunty, my parent's neighbour from mysore was an expert in making Karnataka dishes. They would often make it at home, since they observed kosher and never ate outside food. When she made the snacks she would share it with us. My mom learnt the recipe and she  started making them later.  The crispy crunchy and subtly spiced rings would melt in ones mouth . The ingredients for this are simple but the art of frying is very important.

They are available in  the so called Iyengar bakeries of Hyderabad( just brand name, not the original)  but they don't match the taste of the original  kodubale's . So I  had not tasted them for long. I frequently make Bangalore trips but my childhood/teens snack is not on my priority 'To buy'  list. 

      ( Pic courtesy: Google)

But, on my visit to my neighbourhood supermarket last week, i saw  'Maiya's products(MTR) exclusively on a shelf.  I  was tempted and immediately picked up a 100 gms  Kodubale packet from the shelf.

My fussy children too loved the crunchies and so the  packet  was gone in a trice and the taste was close to the ones I had tasted in Bangalore.  

Since my children loved this,  I decided to make these crispies at home yesterday.  The weather was also favorable, it was raining due to Lehar in Coastal AP and so an ideal weather to warm up in kitchen and do some experiment.  After a call to my mother to cross check the ingredients, I embarked on "Mission kodubale". 

My plan was to try  on a small scale  (10-15 nos)first .
 If the mission was a success , i would  make more numbers,  lug in DSLR to click the photos and renew my cookery blog.  Afterall,  It remains untouched since long.     But kodubale had other ideas. It decided If it makes to my cookery blog,  lesser readers would know about it, it instead made it to my 'Musing and rambling' blog . How?

Here goes, "Mission Kodubale"

I mixed the ingredients, like i said on a small scale so, i took a small cup each of flour& rice flour and half a cup chiroti rava.  but on mixing, the dough swelled in  capacity( did'nt anticipate this).

I rolled the dough into thin cylinders, made small ring  patterns , put them in the pre- heated oil. So far was happy with the outcome, a few more minutes and i would head into the balcony  with a plate of crispy hot  kodubale and cup of cinnamon green tea  along with my daughter.

My daughter who is on a pre-board leave, took  a break and just then walked into the kitchen. She  helped me in making roundels with the remaining dough  at the far end of  kitchen platform.

I suddenly remembered   the frying instructions and so lowered the flame to sim so that the interior of the kodubales too would be fried else they would turn raw while the outer turned crispy.  A few seconds later, all i knew was there a pop up from the oil, one of the kodubales had burst out of the oil and was floored, splashing oil all over the kitchen. I,  who was close by felt a few of the minor splashes but my daughter at the far end had a pretty bigger splash on her wrist(nothing serious though). And before we realized, there was another pop and splash, now I bravely switched off the gas and came  out of the kitchen. A  3rd and 4th followed till the 7th. By then we were watching the pops and splashes from the dining hall. 

All but two popped and i was left with two kodubales in the pan and an oily kitchen. The oil though less had splashed till the farthest wooden cabinet.  

After a hearty laughter session( it was real fun when it popped)  and narrating the incident to all our relatives, I ended up cleaning the kitchen with shampoos and washing soda. It will take some more time or may be i will not embark on this mission again. But the mission was not a failure........ it turned out to be an invention of "kodubale dosa".

With the remaining dough, i pulped  them with water in  a mixie and made dosa batter.  The dosa turned out  really crisp like wafers but could make only 6 wafer thin ones. It turned out to be kodubale dosas( like rava dosa) and served as lunch for my teens.