Diwali is less than a week away and festivity is in the air. Even the weather Gods oblige! Time to make fried sweet and savoury goodies and ghee laced mithais. It is Diwali after all!

Having been raised in a household where buying sweets and savouries from outside for festivals was considered blasphemous, I start my festive cook-a-thons a week before Holi and Diwali. Made these crunchy mathris/nimki/salted crackers yesterday in a variety of shapes.

You need

1 cup Maida/All Purpose Flour
½ cup sooji/semolina
1/2 cup Aata/Whole Wheat flour
2-3 tbsp oil (Sunflower or rice bran)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ajwain/carom seeds
Oil to fry the mathris
About a cup of water

Mix maida, sooji, aata and salt and add the oil slowly rubbing it in with your fingers. After adding half of it, hold a fistful of the flour. If it holds shape, it is ready to be kneaded, else keep adding till you get a bread crumb like texture and the fistful holds well. This is traditionally referred to as ‘mutthi bhar moyen’, moyen being the ghee/oil in the dough.

Knead a firm dough adding water slowly. Cover and keep aside for half an hour.
Heat a generous quantity of oil in a big kadhai/wok. Mathris need space to fry well. Start with a medium high flame and reduce it after putting the mathris in, else they will brown too fast and be uncooked inside.
Roll the mathris and pierce them all over with a fork. I like to roll them thin and small.Fry till done.
Cool and store in an air tight container. They keep for up to a fortnight easily.

I made some regular disc shapes, some diamond shaped namkeen pare and tried my hand at what I decided to call ‘Phool Mathri’. These are inspired by my friend Ruchita Tandon Chheda’s rosette bakes. Thanks Ruch ❤
Roll six small roundels. Roll them thin. Place them in a line one overlapping the other.

Roll them as shown in the picture and cut right through the middle to get two florets/rosettes.

Fry in low heat for slightly longer than a regular mathri. I haven’t tried baking them though I do bake these sweet sesame thins.
And this time I fried the sesame thins as mathris skipping the baking powder.