How to make Poori or Puri

Puris are Indian deep-fried bread made with wheat flour or maida (all-purpose flour). I have grown up helping my mom in the kitchen to fry the puris and i remember, i would get so excited if my puri would puff up in a perfect round. Yes, i could hardly get 1-2 to the perfection, while my mom would just know the right trick to get each of them puffed up. So, there are a few tricks that i have learnt which i would like to share with you all to get a perfect round puffed puri :

1. Make sure the dough is not too soft, not too hard to roll. Hence while making the dough, add water little by little so you know the dough consistency while you knead. If at all your dough gets a little sticky, add more flour but if your dough gets too hard, even kneading it with oil afterwards won't help that much. So knead a stiff but not hard dough.

2. While rolling the puris, try not to use flour but brush the dough-balls with oil instead, so it is rolled well.

3. The puri should be rolled into an even round shape. Many a times the middle portion remains thin and the outer portions are thicker. So make sure, you roll an even puri.

4. The oil for frying the puris should not be too hot or else the puris will brown immediately and will remain uncooked from inside. So, heat the oil well and then put the flame on sim while frying the puris.

5. This is the perfect tip to puff up the puris : While frying the puris, just press a little on the side of the puri gently. I don't know whats the logic behind this, but i have seen my mother doing it and it has worked with me too.

Puri-sabzi or Puri-bhaji is the best combination to have for breakfast. The bhaji is usually a dry or curried potato sabzi. Puri-bhaji is even served as a "prasad" ( offering ) to God at temples or at any auspicious occassion. A typical Maharashtrian meal at any pooja is Puri-bhaji-shrikhand. On festivals or ceremonies, puris are also eaten with Basundi or kheer. In North India, Puri-sabzi-halwa is eaten as breakfast. Puris are made in different versions - some add spices to it, some even add rava (suji ) to make them crispy, or some add flavouring or purees and sauce for colour, texture and flavour. Like masala puris or spinach puris or beetroot puris are quite common. There is also the Tiranga puris which are tri-coloured made with the use of spinach and beetroot. 

Last weekend was hubby dearest's birthday and our lunch menu was his favourite: Shrikhand-puri :)) I have already shared the recipe of Shrikhand before. Here's a pic from this time making homemade "chakka" from curd :

Let's get to the puri recipe -

Preparation time : 5 minutes
Cooking time : 30 minutes
Serves : 2-3 people
Makes : 15-20 puris
Recipe type : Breads

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour - 2 cups
Salt - to taste
Ghee/oil - 1-2 tsp
Water - to knead the dough
Oil - for frying the puris

You can add any spice like turmeric powder, red chilli powder, ajwaiin or any of your choice.

Recipe:

Mix together the flour and salt. Add oil or ghee. You can even heat the oil or ghee and then mix it ( known as "Mohan" in Marathi language). This helps to make the puris soft.

Add water little by little to knead a tight dough. 

Set the dough aside for about 10 mins covered.

Apply little oil on hand and now divide the dough into equal sized balls ( about 15-20 )

Roll each of the ball into small puris. Remember to roll it even. Dust flour if needed, but best is to apply little oil on the ball instead of flour.

Heat oil in a kadhai for frying the puris. When hot, lower the flame and fry puris one by one.

Press the puri gently and it will puff up, now turn it and fry the other side till golden brown.

Remove the puris on a tissue paper to drain excess oil.

Your puffed puris are ready :))

Happy Cooking :))

Shrikhand

Tomorrow is Akshay Tritiya, a holy day for Hindus. I had already explained about Akshay Tritiya in my last year's post of Dudhi Halwa. As it is said, that Akshay Tritiya is a good time to purchase gold, experts had a different view published in Economic times. Low inflation and rising interest rates are bad news for the metal, they say. The dollar prices might rise, and hence the gold prices would drop down by 10 % by the end of year. So, all my friends who are wanting to purchase gold tomorrow, just buy a token. For people like me though, purchasing kitchen items is as good as buying gold :) (All my blogger friends here would agree, won't you?) So i have treated myself to a new Mixer-grinder on this Akshay Tritiya. My old mixer started showing tantrums two days ago (Guess it knew some festival is coming!!!)

No auspicious or holy day is complete without a sweet. So, here i am posting the recipe of Shrikhand. A simple meal of homemade Shrikhand, puri and batata bhaaji (Aloo sabzi) completes a Maharashtrian festival for me. Shrikhand-puri is a match made in heaven. I have stressed on the homemade, because the store bought Shrikhands are way too sweet these days. Shrikhand has a lot of Maharashtrian charachter to it, i feel, and has mixed flavours of sweet, sour, smooth, rich and yet simple to make. My hubby almost finishes 2-3 vaatis of shrikhand at one go, so i have gone easy on the sugar addition here. 

Shrikhand is basically saffron infused yogurt. I normally make yogurt at home, but you can use thick readymade yogurt too. If you get Chakka (Yogurt cheese) readymade, then this dessert is ready within minutes. I couldn't find Chakka near my place, so i made it at home the traditional way. When we were kids, there used to be a machine(Puran Yantra) which would have to be operated manually to uniformly mix the chakka and sugar. So me and my brother would take rounds to turn the knob round and round to see the thin noodle like shrikhand coming out of the yantra. In the end our hands would pain, and mom would always end up cleaning the mess :) Nostalgia!!!

For a fruity version of Shrikhand, check my recipe of Aamrakhand - Mango Shrikhand .

Ingredients:

Milk - 1 and half litres of whole milk (You can't eat shrikhand if you are calorie conscious. This dessert will not taste good with skim milk or any kind of toned milk)

Yogurt - 1 tbsp

Sugar - 1/2 cup (Adjust according to taste)

Saffron strands - 4-5 

Nutmeg - 1/4 tsp

Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp

Nutmeg and Cardamom powder is optional. You can use both or one or omit them altogether. Traditionally, Charolya or chironji is used too, but i didn't have them handy.

Recipe:

To make yogurt: Boil the milk and let it cool to room temperature. Pour the milk in a wide bowl.

Add the yogurt to this milk and stir it along with the cream on top. Cover with a lid.

Let the yogurt set in a warm place undisturbed till firm. If the place is warm, it should set in about 6 hours or so.

You can set this yogurt the previous day and refrigerate and prepare the shrikhand the next day.

To make Yogurt Cheese/Chakka: Place a muslin cloth (pancha as we call in marathi) in a strainer (or colander) over a bowl. Make sure you take a big cloth, so you have enough space on the side to tie it later.

Pour yogurt in the cloth. Now bring the sides of the cloth together and tie a knot tightly just above the yogurt. It looks like a firm ball. The whey starts draining out of the cloth.

Now you can either put some weight on this and let it drain or tie it to a place from where it keeps dripping or draining. The whey can be used to knead doughs or make gravies.

After about 4-6 hours, the ball of yogurt would look dry. 

To make Shrikhand: Remove the chakka in a bowl. You can refrigerate the chakka in an air tight container for upto 2 days.

Now, beat the chakka well till it becomes smooth.

Grind the sugar to powder.

Warm about 2 tbsp of milk, add saffron to it.

Make a coarse powder of cardamom seeds in a mortar and pestle.

While beating the chakka, add the powdered sugar little by little and keep mixing it well.

Now add the cardamom powder, nutmeg powder and saffron milk to it. Add more milk if you require a thinner consistency. The shrikhand should not be runny. It should be as thick to remain on a plate. 

Mix everything well till smooth.

Tastes best when served cold, but even at room temperature. 

Happy Akshay Tritiya to all of you readers and May you be blessed with peace, happiness, success and satisfaction :)

Happy Cooking :))