Small town Shegaon kachori aims to step up to the big stage

There’s nothing better than a kachori or samosa when hunger demands a quick bite, and the waistline be damned. The kick is in the mix going into these snacks as the mind lists what the tongue samples — mashed potatoes, fennel seeds, ginger, garlic, onions, asafoetida, lentils, sugar and the zesty chutneys.


Of the two eats, the kachori has undergone region-wise experimentation with its ingredients to now come in a plethora of variants such as Indori, Rajasthani pyaz, Banarasi and even the sweet mawa.

A kachori-eating experience doesn’t begin till a jab with the thumb deflates the hollow inside of the puri. But this child-like pleasure isn’t reserved for Maharashtra’s famous kachori — the Shegaon variety from Buldhana — which is a flat disc defying puffiness when deep fried.

At his outlet near the Deccan bus stand, Manoj Sharma (51) sells around 600 Shegaon kachoris every day. Though the city is only now warming up to this version of the kachori, Manoj has been running his outlet for the past 14 years besides having four franchises. He prices his kachoris at Rs 10 per piece.

The kachori is the creation of Manoj’s grandfather, T R Sharma, who settled in Shegaon post-Partition and sold the snack from a stall at the railway station. The uniqueness and taste of the kachori ensured that trains mandatorily stopped at the station. Scores of passengers would descend upon Sharma’s stall for their fill, similar to the rush for the yummy batata wadas at the Karjat railway station closer home.

The kachori now even has ISO certification, acquired by Manoj’s cousin Gagan Sharma (59), who continues to run an outlet in Shegaon. Gagan prices his snack at Rs 6 and recalls his grandfather talking about it being sold for half an anna (2 paise) when he started out.

Wary of revealing a recipe that has stayed with the family, Gagan says his grandfather introduced his version of the snack by improvising upon the round moong dal kachoris made by Marwaris at weddings. The senior Sharma substituted the dal with besan (chickpea flour) and added spices, green chillies, ginger, garlic and coriander leaves, all mixed in a certain ratio. These were then stuffed into a maida puri, rolled out again and fried.

Today, Gagan also stocks pre-fried, frozen kachoris which are sent to places like Thane, Nagpur, Vadodara, Surat and Silvassa. Plans are afoot to export them too. “Our frozen kachoris have a shelf life of 3 months. Usually, without freezing too, a pre-fried kachori stays good for up to 36 hours. And the fried ones don’t spoil for 4 days. What’s more, you can eat half a dozen of our kachoris and not experience any heaviness or acidity,” he claims.

The Shegaon kachori is generally associated with the way the Sharmas make it, but there are some families from the town who have traditionally been preparing it using moong dal and spicing it up a bit in accordance with the ‘tikhat’ preference of the region.

Among them is Milind Shegokar (32), a mechanical engineer who gave up a corporate job after 11 years to start two incongruous businesses at Undri — a dining mess and a music academy. He is equally good as a vocalist in a band as he is with serving up kachoris in his mess, catering mainly to students from nearby colleges.

Shegokar roasts his batter of moong dal and spices in cow ghee before rolling out the puris to fry. It’s not an inexpensive affair — his input costs for a batch of 100 kachoris goes up to Rs 800 while the profit would be just around Rs 200.

But Shegokar won’t have his kachoris any other way. The joy of tickling taste buds with traditional fare overrides price concerns and a genial smile wreathes his face watching college students tuck into his snack.


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