My Mom was born & bought up in Uttar Pradesh so the styles of cooking and recipes are predominantly from that part of India in her kitchen! I have been married into a typical Punjabi family, so it is also the marriage of 2 palates.

This dish is actually a speciality of my mom and forms the a festival delicacy of my house from times immemorial. I have seen my mommy starting to make preparations for these at least 1-2 days in advance, soaking the lentils, grinding it on the sil-batta for so-called texture, stuffing and deep-frying these. She used to make atleast 60-70
pieces of these on Holi or Diwali coz they were served to each and every guest who came to the house! No points for guessing that these taste totally yum and out of this world with a dash of tamarind chutney.
 
It’s basically a variation of the very popular item from Indian street food/chaat: A dryfruit/chillies stuffed dahi bada and instead of a ball, it is shaped in a gujia. These can be served for appetizers, side dishes or a evening snack.
 
For the Gujiyas: [Recipe make 6 gujias]
• 1 cup white urad dal
• 1/2 tsp asafoetida
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Oil for frying
 
For the Stuffing:
• 3 green chillies, chopped
• 1 tbsp chopped coriander
• 3 tbsp chopped nuts [cashews, almonds, soaked raisins, and soaked chuaras]
• 1 tbsp fresh ginger julians
• 1 tsp salt
 
For serving:
• 2 cups thick beaten plain yogurt mixed with 1 tbsp sugar and salt to taste
• Red chilli powder
• Roasted cumin powder
• Zero no. Sev( the one used in bhelpuri) or if you don’t get that then use dahi boondi.
• Chopped coriander
• Tamarind Chutney ( recipe give below)
 
Method
 
  • Soak the urad dal overnight or atleast 5-6 hours in atleast 4 cups of water.
  • Next day, drain all the water from the dal and transfer to the blender along
  • with green chillies,asafoetida and ginger.Do not add salt.
  • Grind the dal in no or as less water as you can use to a smooth paste.
  • Using liberal quantity of water while grinding will loosen the dal and make it unuseable. Transfer the ground dal to a bowl.
  • In a small bowl add all the ingredients for the stuffing and keep aside
  • Pour enough oil in the frying vessel to cover the gujiyas while frying.
  • Heat the oil on medium high.
  • To see if the oil is hot enough, drop a little dal into the oil, if it immediately
  • comes up to the surface of oil and does not turn brown, oil is ready.
  • Let the oil remain heated on medium flame.
  • When you are ready to make Gujiyas:
  • Whip the ground dal for few minutes by hands till it becomes fluffy. (TIP: To
  • check if the ground dal is airy, drop a little whipped dal into a bowl of water,it
  • should immediately rise up to the top. )
  • Mix the salt now to the dal.
  • Do not let the dal sit with salt mixed in it, it will make the gujiyas hard once fried.
  • Take a cling film sheet/plastic sheet and put a dollop of ground dal on the
  • cling film, using wet hand spread the dal into a circle.
  • Put a spoonful of stuffing in the centre of the circle and turnover the cling film
  • to make a semicircle.
  • Now, spread generous amount of oil on your hands, pick up the gujiyas and immediately transfer to the frying pan.
  • This has to be done within a span of 5 seconds else the gujiya will stick to your palms.
  • Fry on medium heat untill golden brown on both sides. Once done, transfer to paper towel to drain excess oil.
  • Soak the gujiyas in warm salted water for at least 20-25 minutes.
  • Once soaked, pick up ,gently press by hand to shake off water.
  • Dip the gujias in beaten curd and then place them in a serving dish.
  • Top up with beaten yogurt mixture. Garnish with chopped coriander, red chilli
  • powder,roasted cumin powder and tamarind chutney.

Tamarind [Imli] Chutney:

• 1 cup dried tamarind
• 1 cup jaggery/sugar
• 1 tbsp roasted cumin seeds powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tbsp red chilli powder
• 2 tsp black salt
• 1/2 tsp asafoetida [hing]
• 1 tsp oil
• 1/2 cup water
 

METHOD

Soak the tamarind in enough water for atleast 3-4 hours.
Once soaked , mash the tamarind until pulp is softened. Sieve the pulp into abowl and discard the seeds and thick fibers.
In a small sauce pan, heat the oil.Once heated add the cumin seeds, as soon as the cumin start to crackle, add all the ingredients listed above to the pan.
Simmer the chutney for atleast 20 minutes, till it starts to thicken.It will thicken more on cooling.
Remove from heat, let cool, transfer to a small bottle or drizzler.
This chutney prepared with this method can last for a month in refrigerator.
If not soaked in water, the gujiyas can last upto a week refrigerated.