Kachori () is a sweet and spicy

deep-fried Deep frying (also referred to as deep fat frying) is a cooking method in which food is submerged in hot fat, traditionally lard but today most commonly oil, as opposed to the shallow oil used in conventional frying done in a frying pan. Normal ...

snack, originating in

India subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographical region in Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian Ocean from the Himalayas. Geopolitically, it includes the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India ...

, and common in places with

Indian diaspora Overseas Indians (IAST: ), officially Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) are Indians who live outside of the Republic of India. According to the Government of India, ''Non-Resident Indians'' are citizens of Indi ...

and other

South Asian diaspora DESI may refer to * Desorption electrospray ionization * Drug Efficacy Study Implementation * Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument See also * Desi (disambiguation) Desi or Deshi is a self-referential term used by South Asian people. Desi may al ...

. Alternative names for the snack include kachauri, kachodi and katchuri.

History

Early known recipe similar to kachori comes from

Susruta Samhita The ''Sushruta Samhita'' (सुश्रुतसंहिता, IAST: ''Suśrutasaṃhitā'', literally "Suśruta's Compendium") is an ancient Sanskrit text on medicine and surgery, and one of the most important such treatises on this subje ...

which mentions deep-fried pastry made from flour, ghee and jaggery and stuffed with spiced mung dal or minced meat. Another recipe for dish known as ''"Kacchari"'' a puffy deep-fried pastry stuffed with lentils finds mentioned in Jain text dating back to 7th century. Similar recipes also finds mentioned in medieval cookbook Supa Shastra. Kachori is believed to have originated in the

Hindi belt The Hindi Belt, also known as the Hindi Heartland, is a linguistic region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern and western India where various Central Indo-Aryan languages subsumed under the term 'Hindi' (for example, by the In ...

region of India. In these states it is usually a round flattened ball made of fine flour filled with a stuffing of baked mixture of yellow moong dal or urad dal (Mung bean or Vigna mungo), besan (chickpea flour), black pepper, red chili powder, salt and other spices.

Banarasidas Banarasidas (15861643) was a Shrimal Jain businessman and poet of Mughal India. He is known for his poetic autobiography - ''Ardhakathānaka'', (The Half Story), composed in Braj Bhasa, an early dialect of Hindi linked with the region around M ...

, the author of biographical ''Ardhakathanaka'', has mentioned buying Kachoris in Indore in 1613. For seven months, he bought a

ser Ser or SER may refer to: Places * Ser, a village in Bogdand Commune, Satu Mare County, Romania * Serpens (Ser), an astronomical constellation of the northern hemisphere * Serres, known as Ser in Serbian, a city in Macedonia, Greece Organization ...

of Kachoris daily, and owed twenty rupees.Nathuram Premi, Kavivar Banarsidas viracit Ardha Kathanaka, Bombay, Hindi Granth Ratnakar, 1957

Variations

Kota Kachori from

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...

is probably the most famous kachori in the state. The

Pyaaj Kachori Pyaj Kachori ( raj, कांदा कचोरी, pronounced as kaandaa k-chō-rē) (Onion Kachori) is a kind of Rajasthani Kachori, a fried pastry filled with a spicy onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "on ...

(onion kachori) is also very popular. Another form of Kachori in

Jodhpur Jodhpur (; ) is the second-largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan and officially the second metropolitan city of the state. It was formerly the seat of the princely state of Jodhpur State. Jodhpur was historically the capital of the Ki ...

is the Mawa Kachori, invented by the late Rawat Deora. It is a sweet dish dipped in sugar syrup. In

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

, it is usually a round ball made of

flour Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many culture ...

and

dough Dough is a thick, malleable, sometimes elastic paste made from grains or from leguminous or chestnut crops. Dough is typically made by mixing flour with a small amount of water or other liquid and sometimes includes yeast or other leavening ag ...

filled with a stuffing of yellow moong dal,

black pepper Black pepper (''Piper nigrum'') is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, known as a peppercorn, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is a drupe (stonefruit) which is about in diame ...

, red chili powder, and

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices ...

paste. In

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

it is often served as

chaat Chaat, or chāt (IAST: ''cāṭ)'' () is a family of savoury snacks that originated in North India, typically served as an hors d'oeuvre or at roadside tracks from stalls or food carts across South Asia in North India, Pakistan, Nepal and ...

. Delhi also has another kind of kachori, called 'Khasta kachori' or Raj Kachori (fast) kachori, made with potato, coconut, and sugar. Kachoris are often served with a chutney made from tamarind, mint, or coriander. Another type is fried and stuffed with pulses (urad and moong especially) and is generally found in the Kutch region of Gujarat. In

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

and Bangladesh, a kachori (often pronounced kochuri) has a quite different variation. In West Bengal, kachori is softer and smaller. It is made mostly of white flour (maida) and asafoetida (hing), which are often added to make it extremely tasty. It is mostly eaten as a tea-time snack in the morning or evening often accompanied with tasty potato-peas curry and Bengali sweets. Also, a kachori stuffed with peas (koraishuti kochuri) is a winter delicacy in Bengal. Another variant in Bengal that exists mostly in sweet shops is the hard form (like in Delhi) with a masala inside called 'Khasta Kochuri'. Generally, no curry is accompanied by the khasta kochuri version. Some of the variants in

North India North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central ...

include a version similar to the Rajasthani one, accompanied by a curry made of potatoes and varied spices or even chana (chole) similar to one served in

chole bhature Chole bhature () is a food dish popular in the Northern areas of the Indian subcontinent. It is a combination of chana masala (spicy white chickpeas) and bhatura/puri, a deep-fried bread made from maida. Although it is known as a typical Punjab ...

Gallery

Dal ki kachoriyan.jpg, Dal Kachoris Club Kachori.JPG, Club Kachoris in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

Raj Kachori Street Food.JPG, Raj Kachori, popular street food Shahi Kachori.jpg, Shahi Kachori Raj Kachori Haldiram.jpg, Haldiram Raj Kachori

References

{{reflist Indian cuisine Rajasthani cuisine Indian fast food Uttar Pradeshi cuisine Bihari cuisine North Indian cuisine Desi culture Punjabi cuisine Bengali cuisine Indo-Caribbean cuisine Pakistani fast food Stuffed dishes