Nimki
Nimki also known as namak para or nimkin, is a crunchy savoury snack eaten in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Nimki is ribbon-like strips of pastry delicately seasoned with ajwain, cumin seeds, carom seeds, or caraway seeds and deep fried in pure ghee (clarified butter) or oil. Although this is a deep fried recipe of namkeen, you can also bake nimki in an oven if you don't want to deep fry them.
It requires approximately 10 minutes to prepare and 20 minutes to cook. The appearance, taste, and texture can be compared to that of samosa pastry.
Nimki is another evening time favourite snack. It's not only for a simple evening snack but many people use to make nimki during festivals like Diwali or Holi. Kids love this snack.
Recipe Servings: -
Cooking time: 20 Minutes
Ingredients
- All purpose flour (Maida) - 1 cup
- Ajwain (Carom seeds)- 1 tsp
- Baking powder - 1/2 tsp (optional)
- Oil (to make the dough) - 2 tbsp
- Oil (for deep frying) - as required
- Salt - to taste
- Water (to make dough) - as required
Preparation
- Sieve all purpose flour (maida) in a big bowl. Add ajwain (carom seeds), baking powder, salt and oil and mix everything well with your hand.
- Now adding little water in the flour and start kneading the dough for nimki. Add enough water to make a firm dough. Dough should not be too soft.
- Cover the dough and keep it aside for 10 minutes to rest.
- Divide the dough into small balls roughly the size of a lemon. Take one ball and roll it into a disc or a circle. It's thickness should be approximately 0.3-0.4 centimeter.
- Take a fork and prick all over the rolled circle/disc so that it would not puff while frying.
- Now cut the disc/circle into small diamonds using a pizza cutter or a knife.
- Heat enough oil in a frying pan and when it's heated properly, pour the nimki pieces one by one. Turn the flame to medium.
- Make sure that you put such an amount of nimki that you can turn them easily to fry other sides.
- Fry them until both sides turns light brown. Keep in mind not to cook them on a high flame otherwise they will be soft and not crispy.
- Take out the fried nimki on an absorbent paper to remove the excess oil.
- Repeat the frying process with the remaining dough.
- Crispy nimki is ready. Cool it completely.
- Once nimki gets cool down, serve it with tea.
- You may store it in an air tight container for up to 1 week and enjoy nimki anytime.
