Nimki

 

Subho Bijoya!

What a perfect time for me to be sharing this recipe with you. Nimki, as this is called is a savory snack synonymous with Bijoya during olden days, and yes, this was made at home. Those days were different: life was simple, almost all the meals eaten and served came out of the kitchen instead of packets or through delivery portals. And Bijoya celebration was no different. All forms of sweetmeats and savouries were prepared at the spacious home kitchen before the festivities would set in.

Now what is Nimki?? The easiest answer to this would be fried dough cut up in squares or diagonals served as savory snack, a welcome relief among all the sweet snack that are mostly served during Bijoya.

One is not wrong to think, why would a 32 year old living life in 2020 wants to pursue age old customs. I say what is the harm when old traditions yield such amazing results without much effort. Trust me you are going to agree and probably laugh at how easy this can be. I am sure I do not need to remind you how handcrafted products are almost like couture these days. So let's raise a toast to couture and make the shortest journey to stack up on some. So here we go.... in a way to live the festive feel for some more time.

1. Sieve in 160gm plain flour and add to it some salt + 1tsp kalonji or kalojeera or nigella seeds + 3/4th tap ajwain + 1/2 tsp red chilli powder and mix the dry ingredients roughly in a medium sized bowl.

2. Add in 3tsp of good quality ghee in the the dry mix and rub it into the flour with the tip of your fingers, till they look like sand. 

3. Bit by bit add in 5tbsp of warm water to make the dough. Tip it out of the bowl, onto a well floured surface and knead it till smooth.

4. Add a 1tsp of oil on the dough & rest the dough in the same bowl for about 15mins. Cover it with kitchen towel.

5. After 15mins, divide it into 2 parts and roll it out quite thin, thickness of 50paise coins can be your guide.

6. Time to heat some vegetable oil in a wide surface pan. It is important to remember that we need to deep dry the Nimki.

7. Once the oil in heating up, with the help of a knife or pizza cutter, cut out the spread out dough into shapes of diamond or squares, if you please    so. The size of these diamonds would be your choice completely.

8. Once the oil in warm enough, start adding the diamond shaped ajwain encrusted dough into the hot oil. Fry well on both sides till they are golden and take it off. Cooking time will depend on the size one opts for! Drain them on kitchen towel. Repeat till all is done.

9. In the same hot oil, add in some more if required at this point, flash fry the golden babies for a second or so again. 

10. Spread the flash fried beauties now darker in color on the kitchen towel and then store in airtight containers. 

Easy right?

I have made Nimki few times now and honestly this could be my favorite thing to do on a rainy afternoon. Well, I sincerely apologies' for no step by step images of this, but I promise I will try and provide from the next time as much as possible. But what I would suggest is not to hurry the process. The dough needs some time to rest for sure to be more pliable. Also the crispiness of your Nimki, depends on how well you rub the ghee into your flour.

In case if you have vegetable shortening at home feel free to use that.

Nimki's are a part of the Bijoya boxes this year that I am curating for some clients and close relatives as Bijoya is going to be a super distant affair this year.  In case you make it, I would love to see photographs of your creation.

Stay safe.