This is a truly delicious evening snack from Andhra that is savoured with a strong cup of coffee elevating the holiday mood to such a supreme level. I so so so love this melt in the mouth, slightly tangy, lightly salty, gently spicy, wonderfully crunchy with a soft flesh, flavourful deep fried golden balls.

This time-honoured namkeen is sold by the street vendors in their bandis in the evenings in smaller towns of Andhra. Similar versions are the Mysore bonda typically made for breakfast and the Mysore bajji an evening snack.

Amma used to make these on holiday evenings as these must be had hot. But I used to love even the cold ones left after everyone’s share was fairly distributed. There used to be some snack every evening, something simple like roasted groundnuts, boiled sweet potato, a couple of murukku or a bowl of PKP (pidatha kinda pappu – andhra masala pori) when we return home after school. But pakodi, bajji or these challa punukulu are true treats.

I never bothered to know how amma prepared them as I did with all the other delicacies she devotedly made all the time. Later when I spent my time with ammamma in their house, I got interested in the art of cooking. She was passion personified (ok, so many other things also). Her attention to detail with the recipes was phenomenal.

At that time I was only an apprentice entrusted with prep work but no hard-core cooking. She so zealously guarded her trade secrets and tips and never allowed any of us (my other cousins) to cook anything. Eventually I was deemed sufficiently good with dosa making and also upma. Anyway though I resented the treatment as unfair then, I learnt quite a few nuances (which I will share in the course of my posts 😉). She used to have a systematic method for everything like most old-timers then, but she was exceptional. Her way of segregating the many levels of curd and buttermilk in those days of no refrigerator (they were there in the 90s but she chose not to use them) for use in meals, majjiga pulusu and these challa punukulu was amazing.

That is when I noticed how she prepared it with such care, but care and love for the project participants – the ingredients, utensils, stove and then finally the consumers were the constant factors in her formulae.

📝Ingredients:

• Maida – 1 cup
• Rice flour – 1 cup
• (sour) Curd – 1 cup (to soak the flours)
• Green chillies – 6 (roughly crushed)
• Coriander leaves – 1 tbsp
• Soda – 1/2 tsp
• Salt – to taste

👩‍🍳Method

1. Mix all together to a thick consistency similar to urad vada batter and let it stand for 10 min to 1 hr.
2. Due to sour curd and soda, the mixture aerates nicely and rises.
3. Wet your hands in water as you do for urad vada and take a small mass of batter and drop in hot oil.
4. Fry in medium to low flame so that inside cooks properly. If there is more heat, it colors fast but inside isn’t cooked.
5. Drain them and rest for a minute on a tissue laid plate and offer them to your loved ones 😁

Note:

1. Don’t let the batter stand after adding soda.
2. If the curd is sour enough, soda is not even needed. Ammamma used it very rarely.
3. Ammamma also didn’t add coriander leaves in this as essential ingredient, just nice to have.
4. As a variation, you can soak 2 tbsp regular sago for 2 to 3 hours and add to batter. Increase rice flour to half cup.
5. You can also roughly crush green chillies and coriander and add to batter.
6. Use fresh flours for crispy and softly fried punukus.