Boondi / Crunchy petite balls made of gram flour

Boondi is an all time favorite with kids and adults alike. They are small, more like petite balls made out of besan aka. gram flour mainly bengal gram.
Besan is a main ingredient of many Indian sweets and savories. Not that all sweets and savories are made of besan, but many do carry this as the main ingredient. So not all Indians are unaware of this :))

And Boondi, yumms!....can be eaten just like that, or can be added to yogurt for 'Boondi raita', or added for a crunch on 'Dahi vada or dahi bhalla', can also be added into 'Mixture' (that's what I did), Or even this -- eat with rice!!!...In some south Indian weddings, they serve boondi or even mixture sometimes as a side dish, that's where I first tried it with rice or pulihora or even with daal rice and....mark my words-- Boondi gives a very good crunch and taste when eaten along with rice!!! And so from then, whenever I have Boondi or Mixture at home, I do eat it with daal rice, yogurt rice....Yummm!!
Ok to get back to the recipe...
Many people have different compositions as to how much of besan and rice flour should be used. But how ever it may be, all it has to be that the Boondi has to be crunchy!! So I used half and half of both and they do come out crunchy!

Only other requirement is the boondi ladle, which is like the regular holed spoon, but different because, it has high sides, and the holes have sharp or pinched botton edges so that the batter falls down easy. You can always try with the regular holed ladle.
Another thing is that the batter should be thick. If the batter is thin, you might not get perfect ball shaped. I never say that I can get perfect shape, I sometimes even do get tails on my boondi...but they are somewhats ball shaped...
So once you try for couple of times...You will get the hang of it.
Use a regular ladle to make the batter fall through the boondi ladle.

Ingredients:

1 cup besan
1 cup rice flour
salt to taste
1 tsp chilli powder
pinch of baking soda
warm water to make into batter

Oil for deep frying
bunch of curry leaves (optional)

Method:

Mix the ingredients together with some warm water into a thick batter.
When oil is hot enough, Use the regular ladle to spoon some batter onto the boondi ladle.
Use the regular laddle to make circular motions on the Boondi ladle so that the batter drops as balls into the oil.
The batter when in oil, will puff up into balls. Fry till golden and crunchy.
Remove onto paper napkin. Add some curry leaves to it, when the Boondi is hot.
Sprinkle some salt and chilli powder on the boondi. Mix well.
Serve as a snack, or in Boondi raita,or top on Dahi vada, or mix it up in Mixture.
Enjoy!!!