Pastry Shell Kachori

"Pastry shell Kachori" sounds interesting isn't it? Ya even I was excited when that came to my mind. But actual execution was little time consuming, may be because I started with making my own pastry shell instead of using the readymade ones. Otherwise the recipe is easy, tasty and ideal to be served as an appetizer at the parties. Its an effort to " remix" the kachori by presenting it in new avatar :). If you are also interested make note of the recipe.

Ingredients:

For Filling:

1 cup yellow Moong dal

1 small Onion finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon Mustard seeds

1/2 teaspoon Corriander seeds

1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds

1 teaspoon cumin powder

1 teaspoon corriander powder

1 1/2 teaspoon garam masala

1 teaspoon red chilli powder

salt as per taste

2 tablespoon oil

You can use the ready made pastry shells. They are easy to use. If you plan to make your own note ingredients.

For Pastry shells:

2 cup All purpose flour

5 tbsp butter at room temp

Salt

Cold water to knead

Directions:

Mix flour. salt and butter till a crumbly mixture is formed. Add cold water little by little and knead the dough. Wrap in a plastic sheet and refrigerate for half an hour.

Soak moong dal for half and hour and then boil in enough water for 5 minutes. Strain all water and coarsly grind it or use it whole. Its good either way, but I have grounded it a little so that the masala sticks to most of the dal.

Now heat oil in a pan. Add all the seeds. When the seeds crackle add onions and cook till onions turrn light brown. Now add all the powders and mix well. Add the dal now, mix well and put off the flame.

Now take out the pastry dough from refrigerator. Let it rest for 5 min. Now its ready to work with. Take a small portion on your palm and turn into a ball. Now roll into a circle of 3-4 inches.

Preheat the oven at 450F.

Now put a spoonful of the dal filling in the middle of the pastry circle. Now make 4 Z shape folds at four corners to form a shell filled with stuffing. Similarly form all your filled shells and line on a baking tray.

Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Then take out from the oven. Put a small piece of mozarella cheese on each shell and sprinkle a small amount of the garlic-herb seasoning.

Put it back in the oven and bake for 3-5 min. Its just for the cheese to melt and form a tempting top layer.

Serve the pastry shell kachories with tamarind or pudina chutney. They are bitesize and perfect to kick start the party.

These "Pastry Shell Kachories" is my entry for theMonthly Mingle-Appetizers & Hors'Doeuvres. Some more details at Meeta's blog.