Grandma's Hishom phaley ( teatime snack)

It feels comforting to finally be able to sit alone and blog after a month long holiday. The past month has been nothing but a great learning experience in the kitchen with my family. Over the holidays, I tried my best to photo document some traditional recipes .... hopefully I still have pictures of all the steps...sorry for leaving out a few steps since #throwback shall be the word of November!!

Grandma's Hishom phaley is one of the few deepfried items out there that tastes good even when they cool down, unlike most. This reason makes it a good bread option to carry on family roadtrips. Best enjoyed with a hot cup of tea or a tall mug of your favourite coffee.

lets start with a small batch (just make sure to use the same size cup for all measurements)

• 2 cups of wholewheat flour/atta
• 1 cup of powdered sugar
• one teaspoon of baking powder.(mix with flour when dry and use a sieve to mix well)
• 1 cup of clarified butter(ghee) or vegetable oil
• 2 eggs 
• Half a cup of water.
• 1 litre of vegetable oil for deep frying.
• one deep frying pan.

In a large bowl add the flour, powder sugar and baking powder. In another bowl mixthe oil, eggs and water. Then slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry and and knead it. Portion the dough into tennis ball sizes, put them aside and cover them .

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Take them one by one and roll them out into small discs making sure that they are around 4 to 5 inches in diameter and about 6mm thickness (maximum up to 1 cm). Do this as you heat your oil in a frying pan.

 Next take a knife and make two slits to prevent the phaley from puffing up and also because this is how it is always made!!!

Once the oil is hot, I usually throw in a small piece of the dough to check the temperature since I don't have a kitchen thermometer (very easy, don't panic....these things come gradually with more experience, don't forget -glorious feasts were prepared even before science and technology made life easy.) If the test dough bubbles up immediately to the surface, we are ready... if there is too much smoke just lower the flame and wait for 2 minutes and try again.

If the oil is too hot, the phaleys will burn on the surface and still be raw at the centre. If the oil is not hot enough, they will absorb all the oil and be very soggy and sad. 

remember:

• As they go into the pan, the flame is on high
• Once they turn to golden from white and you flip them, flame is on medium high
• Once they are brown in colour as shown below remove them and put the flame on high for the next batch again.

Enjoy them hot or keep them away( after letting them cool to room temperature) in an air tight container. They should last for about a week, like in Sikkim (temperature is usually about 27 degrees Celsius and low humidity).

These taste great with a variety of combinations sweet and savoury!!

All the best and remember to cook from your heart <3