GOBI 65 - A POPULAR CRISPY SNACK !!! STEPWISE DETAILED POST

Chicken 65 is one of the most popular dish in South India.  The vegetarian versions are with Gobi (Cauliflower), Aloo, Mushroom and Paneer are equally popular in almost all restaurants. These are crispy snack made by dipping the main ingredient in the yogurt cornflour batter and adding some spices to make them very very tasty.  This is basically a kind of spicy fritters. Whatever it is Gobi (Cauliflower) 65, Paneer 65, Chicken 65, Aloo 65, Mushroom 65; all 65's are most favorite appetizer from adults to Kids.  This is also one of the requested and wanted recipes from many of my friends.  This is absolutely crispy, tongue tickling appetizer and offcourse appealing to eyes as well.  I think nobody needs much introduction about this anymore.. Without any further delay lets have a Visual treat for this exotic dish.

 

GOBI 65

Ingredients :

Cauliflower - 1 medium
Thick yogurt/curd - 1 cup
Good quality red food color - less then 1/4 tsp
Garam masala - 2 tsp
Red chilli powder - 3 tsp ( Mine is less spicy chilli powder so please add according to your taste)
Lemon juice - 2 tsp
Garlic - 7 pods
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Cornflour - Approximately you need 350 gm cornflour for the whole cauliflower, 3 to 4 tbsp approximately for each batch of florets.
Salt - 3 tsp approximately
Curry leaves - for garnishing
Chaat masala - To sprinkle at the end
Oil for deep frying

  

Method :

We really want thick yogurt, if you think the yogurt is loose just tie them in the muslin cloth so the water drips away.
Make a paste out of garlic and ginger. Wash the curry leaves and keep it dry.

Here comes the Step wise detailed instructions...
1.  Cut and clean the cauliflower, drain without any water. Add the curd in the bowl.

2. Add Ginger garlic paste, color and garam masala.

 

3. Followed by chilli powder, Salt and lime juice.

  

4. Whisk the batter, add the florets, mix well.

5. Check for salt, sourness and spice level in this stage.
6. While this ready.  Parallely heat oil in the deep pan.
7. Now add handful of cauliflower in bowl add 3 tbsp of cornflour mix well.. the whole florets has to be nicely coated with flour.

8. Add the florets in the oil ,  just add one by one, you can see the bubbles.   when it starts to disappear at this stage add few curry leaves.

9. Remove from the oil drain them and put it in the kitchen towel.
10. Serve hot sprinkling chaat masala and ketchup.

Note:

1.  When coating the florets with cornflour don't do for whole batch.  Dust them in batches.
2. The cornflour measurement is approximate, add less or more as you need.
3. The sourness , spice level all depends on your taste buds.
4. You can follow this below procedure for mushroom, paneer, Aloo and even with cauliflower . Instead of mixing them with the curd mixture first , make the batter by mixing the curd mixture and cornflour with the pinch of baking soda.  Mix like Bajji batter consistency and dip the mushroom or paneer or Aloo sticks in the batter and Deep fry them in the oil.  I do not prefer this method when making with cauliflower, as Cauliflower in US has so much of water content so I used to dust it with the cornflour to make more crispy.  If you are in India always parboil the cauliflower and aloo dip it in the cornflour ,curd batter and deep fry them.
5. After mixing the cauliflower in the yogurt mixture don't keep them for long time as it leaves water and the whole thing becomes watery.
6.If you want to do this for party, just keep the yogurt mixture ready, mix with florets and flour the next day.
7. The deep fried one will retain its crispiness at least for 1hr, you can also reheat in the preheated oven when needed.