Sarva Pindi / Savory Rice Flour Pancakes From Telangana Cusine

Sarva Pindi a circular shaped savory pancake is a traditional dish of Telangana. Made from rice flour, peanuts, chana dal and other flavorful herbs and spices this crispy and spicy pancake is served as a popular tea time snack in Hyderabad / Telangana parts of South India. It is referred to as Ginne appa in local language. Sarva Pindi is vegan and gluten-free and can also be enjoyed at breakfast time with lemon pickle or chutney. It can be stored in air-tight container for couple of days and hence preferred as a great travel foodas well. I have cooked this Sarva pindi on a skillet with little oil and served it with my oil-free lemon pickle.

I am posting here today after almost 3 weeks. We lost our young nephew just couple of days ahead of Diwali so we did not celebrate the festivity. Then after spending around 10 days with our family on our way back from Delhi Airport, we met with a horrifying car accident but thankfully survived miraculously . I am grateful to Almighty that He stood by us in that tough phase of life and even after a couple of broken bones and a dozen of sutures all around our body, all 3 of us are back to our normal routine within a week with the same positive attitude and hope. I am thankful and feel blessed to be surrounded by kind souls (friends and neighbors) who helped us to cope up through this difficult times. Anyways, I strongly believe that all's well that ends well.

I made this sarva pindi last month for one of our gourmet Facebook group, Shhhhh Cooking Secretly challenge. In this group, each month we select an Indian state depending upon the alphabetical order and partners are assigned for the challenge. The chosen partners then exchange a set of ingredients among themselves and cook a dish with those ingredients from the regional cuisine of that state. The other group members who are nit aware of the secret ingredients, the  take turns to guess the ingredients just by looking at the pic of the dish. Doesn't this all sound interesting? If you are interested in joining this exciting group, leave a message in the comment section below.

                                      
                                     
The post is a bit late for the challenge but i thought it is better to post late than never and the dish turned out really well so i had to share the recipe with my readers. The recipe is very simple. Only preparation we need to do ahead of making these delicious pancakes is to soak the Bengal gram (chana dal) in water for a couple of hours. When ready to make we just have to mix the rice flour with all the spice powders, herbs, lentil and other ingredients and knead a dough using little water. I patted the pancakes on a greased butter paper using my hands, made holes on them and then slowly transferred the pancake on a greased and heated skillet. Add few drops of oil into each hole of the pancake and allow it to cook from both sides until golden brown and crisp. I found this sarva pindi very similar to Akki Roti, a rice flour flat bread from the Karnataka Cusine.

For the October month, the bloggers of our Facebook food group had to cook a dish from the Telangana Cuisine. My partner for the theme was Swaty Malik who blogs at Foodtrails.com. Swaty's blog is a home to delicious recipes from around the globe. I like her food styling and photography very much apart from her writing style. Swaty gave me 2 secret ingredients and i decided to make these delicious sarva pindi. In return she made Makkajonna garelu or the corn vadas which serve as a perfect part starter from the set of ingredients i gave her. Do check out her recipe and blog for some wonderful shares.

Though Telangana is one of the newly formed states of India ( formed on 2nd June 2014) it has its roots dating back to thousands of centuries. Telangana food is typically spicy and ingredients such as tamarind, sesame seeds, red chilies and asafoetida are widely used in a variety of vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. Millet bread / roti is its staple diet. Hyderabad is the shared capital of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

                                       

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Serves: 5

Ingredients:

• 11/2 cup rice flour
• 1/4 cup Bengal Gram / chana dal (soaked for 1-2 hours)
• 2 tablespoon roasted, peeled and crushed peanuts
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 1 small bunch of fresh coriander, finely chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 2 green chilies, finely chopped
• 1 sprig curry leaves, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoon white sesame seeds
• 1 teaspoon red chilly powder
• Salt to taste
• Oil for shallow frying the pancakes.

Method:

1. In a large mixing bowl, take rice flour. Add soaked and drained chana dal, chopped onion, chopped coriander leaves and curry leaves, cumin seeds, coarsely crushed roasted peanuts, sesame seeds, chopped green chilies. salt and red chili powder. Mix well.

2. Adding little water at a time, knead the flour to a soft dough.

3. Divide the dough into equal portions. Now take each portion and pat it on a greased butter paper or plastic sheet using your hand fingers. Once you get an even thin circular shaped flat bread, make holes on it with your thumb or finger tip. Now carefully lift the flat bread on to your palms and delicately transfer it on to a greased and heated skillet.

4. Add few drops of oil into each hole of the pancake and cover cook it on low to medium flame. Flip it and cook from other side as well until it turns golden brown and crisp.

  5. Make all the sarva pindi similarly and serve as a delicious snack along with tea or serve it as breakfast with some coconut chutney or pickle. I have serve the sarva Pindi with oil-free lemon pickle.

                              

Recipe Notes:

• I have followed the recipe from here.
• You can use vegetables like spring onion greens or dill leaves also in this sarva pindi.
• You may skip chopped green chilies if serving to small kids or if you cannot tolerate too much spice.
• Make sure you soak the chana dal proir to making the sarva pindi or else they will remain very hard on cooking.
• Do not make fine powder of peanuts as the coarsely crushed pieces add to the typical texture of the sarva pindi.
• Do not skip peanuts and sesame seeds as they impart a lovely nutty flavor to the rice pancakes  apart from making it protein rich.
• You may add 1-2 tablespoon of fresh scrapped coconut also in these pancakes for extra flavor.
• Sarva pindi can be deep fried or shallow fried, the way i have made them on skillet.

If you ever try this recipe, do share your feedback with us in the comment section bellow. For more updates and new recipes, follow us on #Facebook, #Instagram, Twitter, #Pinterest and #Google+. 

For more Indian Flat breads from this blog, click on the following recipe links:

• Karnataka Style Akki Roti

                         

• Adai Dosa

                          

• Makki Ki Roti

                          

• Bhajaniche Thilipeeth

                          

• Sweet Corn Uttapam

                          

• Besan Dhirde

                          

• Pesarattu