This tasty snack is quite famous in India. You will find this as a staple in nearly every house. Whenever we went to visit relatives or friends or even attended marriages, this would always be one of the snacks served.
In marriages they would make huge quantities of this and pack them along with some ladoos in small packets to give as small favors to to all the relatives and friends attending the marriage.
I remember my grandmother would call over a pandit ( there are two kinds of pandits, one who conducts prayers and one who cooks food. In this case I mean the latter one ) during festival season to make all kinds of sweets and savoury snacks. He would set up some firewood in the backyard and a make shift kitchen and fry up all the various dishes under the watchful eye of my grandma and aunts.
My Auntie Dolly would have the pandit fry up some sun dried onions to add to this chivda, taking the taste of the chivda to another level. I phoned Dolly Auntie to ask her about this recipe and she said I was to dry sliced onions under the hot sun till all the moisture is evaporated and then store in an air tight container. When I want to add it to the chivda, I should just fry a cupful of it in hot oil and mix it in the prepared chivda. Since it is getting cold here, drying it under the hot sun is out, I thought about drying it in the hot oven. However, the lowest temp on my oven is 170 degrees F and that is too hot as I need about 100 degrees F. So I made my chivda without the onion part. Come summer I will make it her way. She is another great cook in our family and her recipes are always delicious.
I got this recipe from my mom. The addition of raisins provide a nice contrast in taste. One can eat this chivda as is or dress it up with some fresh chopped onions, tomatoes and cilantro. Mix these in the chivda and maybe a squirt of some lemon juice and enjoy it as a tasty snack.
