ಗೋಲಿ ಭಜಿ/Mangalore Bhajji/Mysore Bhajji/Goli Baje

Me being from North Karnataka,I always knew this Bondas as ,'Mysore Bhajji'.I still do not know the story behind this name. I prepared this bhajjis for a friend of mine who is from Bengaluru(B'lore), she told me that these are also called 'Goli Bhaje'.Then I stilled researched on internet and got to know another name called 'Mangalore Bhajji'.This recipe is one of the specialties of Karnataka Cuisine.

Well,whatever the name is but,but what I know is these are just delicious and very cute ones.For a change,These bhajjis are little sweet in taste.These are soft and spongy bhajjis unlike all other pakodas or bondas which are always supposed to be crispy and spicy.

I am also going to let you the big mistake I once made while making these bhajjis at the end of this post.If you follow the method and steps exactly,they will definitely turn out to be perfect ones.
These Bhajjis are small in size.After frying,the Bhajji becomes almost double the size of dumpling you put to the oil.

 

The following measurement makes around 15 Bhajjis.

Ingredients : 

1. All purpose flour or Maida - 1 Cup
2. Sooji - 3 Table spoon
3. Yogurt - 2/3rd Cup
4. Baking Soda - 1/4th Tea spoon
5. Cummin seeds - 1  Table spoon
6. Green chilli,chopped - 1
7. Ginger,Chopped - 1 tea spoon
8. Sugar - 3 Table spoons
9. Salt to taste
10. Oil to fry the Bhajjis

Steps : 

• In a bowl,add Maida,Sooji,Yogurt,Baking Soda,Salt and Sugar.
• Mix the ingredients to make a dough.Keep adding water as needed to make a nice dough as you can see in the picture above.The consistency of the mixture should be like a 'Loose dough' or 'Thick batter'.Just like batter of Medu wada.Keep on stirring with hand so that yogurt and Baking soda combine well resulting into nice airing.You can see air popping out of the batter while stirring it well.
• Keep the batter for 10 minutes.
• Till then grind Cumin seeds,Green chilli,Ginger all together and mix it with batter.
• By now Batter is ready to go to oil.Keep Oil heating on medium flame.
• Wet your hands, make small dumplings of batter and drop into oil slowly.Fry them on medium to low heat.They start becoming like a ball within seconds and automatically attain a nice round shape
• Bhajjis are ready to be seerved with Coconut Chutney.

TIPS:

• Do not fry on high heat ever.They might get color but are not cooked well from inside.
• I would recommend to use yogurt with normal temperature.If possible,keep yogurt out of the fridge around 2 hours before you prepare the batter.
• The bhajjis are ready to be fired right away after batter is ready.Do not keep it to ferment for more than 1 hour.
• Sooji is added to make the outer layer bit crispyDo not add sooji more in quantity.It leads the outer layer to be hard rather than crispy.You can also add Rice flour with same quantity instead of Sooji.  
• Now comes the mistake I made:I had to make bhajjis in large amount and hence I prepared batter on the previous evening.In the night I kep it insise the fridge.Next morning again kept out of the fridge to get it to normal temperature.But to my shock,The bhajjis turned out very stiff.They were not hard but were not spongy and fluffy either.So next day I mean today,I again prepared a fresh batter which you can see in the picture.I took to make bhajjis within 10 minutes and to my pleasant surprise,they were really spongy,soft and were well cooked from inside.
• One small tip to know if your batter is perfect is,put a small dumpling into oil which is heated on medium heat.Within few seconds,he dumpling should pop up from the bottom of pan and start floating on oil there by becoming a nice fluffy ball.