Girmit recipe is a very popular street food from North Karnataka prepared from puffed rice or churmuri or murmura. This girmit snack recipe is extremely popular in the Hubli-Dharwad region of Karnataka, also known as masala puffed rice or north Karnataka mandakki upkari in other places. Serve it with Menasinakayi bajji.
What is Girmit?
Girmit is one of the most famous and sort after evening tea-time snack or street food in the Central and Northern regions of Karnataka, and you will get this in all the street side shops and temporary shacks. It's usually eaten with Mirchi bajji.
My husband and I grew up in Harihar, close to Davangere, and my husband remembers eating Girmit almost every day since his childhood till he passed out of Engineering and still craves like a baby for this amazing snack.
It's very easy to prepare at home and can be enjoyed eating in a Park, Potlucks or Train Journey. This resembles Bhel Puri, but the taste is entirely different and made with different ingredients.
You can also try other Karnataka recipes like Nargis Mandakki, Masala Puffed Rice|Spicy Garlic Puffed Rice, Karnataka Style Mandakki Usli Recipe|Puffed Rice Upma, Besan Masala Peanuts.
How to Make Girmit Recipe
Soak tamarind in warm water for about 15 minutes, squeeze out the pit, seeds and extract the juice. Keep it aside until ready to use.
Heat oil in a Kadai. Make a small slit, fry two green chilies, sprinkle salt, and keep it aside.
Add mustard seeds, jeera, and let them splutter in the same oil.
Then add crushed garlic, green chilies, curry leaves, turmeric, hing, and saute for a few seconds.
Next, add onions, salt and cook until onions turn soft.
Add tamarind pulp, sugar, and saute for another 2-3 minutes until the raw smell of tamarind disappears.
Girmit masala is ready. Cool it and keep it aside.
Take puffed rice/mandakki in a deep vessel, add onions, tomato, coriander leaves, fried gram powder, and girmit mixture (oggarane) and mix it all in a rotating motion so that puffed rice doesn't fly around and is well coated.
On a serving plate, put the prepared mixture and top it with some more coriander leaves, sev, fried peanuts, and fried chilies.
Girmit or north Karnataka mandakki upkari is ready. Serve it immediately else puffed rice becomes soggy.
Tips
- Mandakki puri or puffed rice should be fresh, it tastes better. If your puffed rice is not that crispy, you can crisp up the store-bought puffed rice in a heavy bottom pan on very low heat for about 5-10 minutes.
- If you do not have putani powder (fried gram) at home, grind whole putani (roasted chana) into a fine powder. Adding the powder not only adds taste but also absorbs moisture preventing the dish from becoming soggy quickly.
- Do not reduce the amount of oil and onion. More, the better and tastier.
- You can increase the items mentioned in garnish according to your preference.
Variations
- If you can find green byadagi chilies (long, slender, and less spicy variety than Thai chilies), use them. They make the dish very tasty.
- You can use 2 tablespoons of concentrated tamarind paste if it is store-bought, I have prepared tamarind paste at home in this girmit masala recipe. Also, if you dont have tamarind, dont worry replace it with the juice of 1 whole lemon
- I roasted peanuts at home, but store-bought dry roasted, salted peanuts will work in this recipe too.
More Healthy Snack Recipes
- Masala Peanut Chaat
- Makhana Chivda
- Corn Bhel
- Spicy Masala Makhana
- Mexican Style Golgappa with Fruit Pani
Girmit Recipe (Hubli-Dharward Style)
Ingredients
- 4 cups puffed rice/mandakki/churmuri/murmura [Measuring cup (1 cup = 250 ml)]
- ¼ cup oil
- 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
- ½ teaspoon jeera seeds(cumin)
- 2 sprig curry leaves
- 4 crushed garlic cloves
- 3 green chilies finely chopped
- ½ teaspoon turmeric(haldi)
- a big pinch hing(asafoetida)
- 2 medium onions finely chopped
- ¼ cup tamarind pulp (1 lemon sized tamarind soaked in water)
- ½ teaspoon sugar (optional)
- salt to taste
For Garnish:
- 2 tablespoon onion finely chopped
- 2 tablespoon tomato finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon coriander leaves
- 2 tablespoon fried gram powder/putani powder
- ¼ cup sev mixture
- 2 tablespoon fried peanuts
- 2-4 fried green chilies (Optional)
Instructions
- Soak tamarind in warm water for about 15 minutes, squeeze out the pit, seeds and extract the juice. Keep it aside until ready to use.
- Heat oil in a Kadai. Make a small slit, fry two green chilies, sprinkle some salt, and keep it aside.
- Heat oil in a Kadai. Make a small slit, fry two green chilies, sprinkle some salt, and keep it aside.
- Add in mustard seeds, jeera (cumin), and let them splutter in the same oil.
- Then add crushed garlic, green chilies, curry leaves, turmeric, hing, and saute for a few seconds.
- Next, add onions, salt and cook until onions turn soft.
- Add tamarind pulp, sugar, and saute for another 2-3 minutes until the raw smell of tamarind disappears. Girmit masala is ready. Cool it and keep it aside.
- Take mandakki in a deep vessel, add onions, tomato, coriander leaves, fried gram powder, and girmit mixture (oggarane) and mix it all in a rotating motion so that puffed rice doesn't fly around and is well coated.
- On a serving plate, put the prepared mixture and top it with some more coriander leaves, sev, fried peanuts, and fried chilies.
- Girmit or north Karnataka mandakki upkari is ready. Serve it immediately else puffed rice becomes soggy.
Notes
Tips
- Mandakki puri or puffed rice should be fresh, it tastes better. If your puffed rice is not that crispy, you can crisp up the store-bought puffed rice in a heavy bottom pan on a very low heat for about 5-10 minutes.
- If you do not have putani powder (fried gram) at home, grind whole putani (roasted chana) into a fine powder. Adding the powder not only adds taste but also absorbs moisture preventing the dish from becoming soggy quickly.
- Do not reduce the amount of oil and onion. More the better and tastier.
- You can increase items mentioned in garnish according to your preference.
Variations
- If you can find the green byadagi chilies (long, slender, and less spicy variety than Thai chilies), use them. They make the dish very tasty.
- You can use 2 tablespoons of concentrated tamarind paste if its store brought, I have prepared tamarind paste at home in this girmit masala recipe. Also if you dont have tamarind dont worry replace it with the juice of 1 whole lemon
- I roasted peanuts at home but store-bought dry roasted, salted peanuts will work in this recipe too.
Nutrition
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Poornima says
Very nice recipe u explain it in a good manner tku
Bhavana Patil says
I am so happy to hear, the instructions were helpful Poornima.. Happy Cooking!