“Vatana- Pudina- Bajra Poori/ Green Peas- Mint- Pearl Millet Poori” … when it’s the season of vatana there is nothing more appealing than trying out various dishes including them … so, it’s all hot puffed delicious flavorful and spiced poori’s after a very long time, this time I served them with simple Bhendi Gajar Masala Bhaji/ Lady’s Finger Carrot Spiced Stir Fry, an excellent combo that will be loved by young and old alike for sure … Yummilicious …
** Poori as I always love to mention are a delight to relish hot and puffed up especially during winter. In fact during winter or monsoon season everybody loves deep fried dishes as somehow it spreads warmth to the body. For a long time now I resisted preparing my favorite poori as I am trying to avoid deep fried dishes for health sake, but then there are times when the tongue rules the mind and the heart wins over and here they are so tasty that I regretted having prepared only a few to satisfy the taste buds, maybe next time once again with some other combo of side dish I will try out the same one to satisfy myself.
** Here is my simple recipe for “Vatana- Pudina- Bajra Poori/ Green Peas- Mint- Pearl Millet Poori” which I served with simple bhaji as side dish ….
** Wash and drain off all the water from one cup of fresh vatana/ green peas. You need to cook these a little bit for which you can either do so in a vessel or microwave the same. I used the microwave method and cooked it just for 3 minutes and allowed to cool.
** Put cooked and cooled peas in mixer grinder and grind to a coarse paste without water. Add in a handful each of fresh picked, cleaned and washed mint (pudina) leaves and coriander leaves (dhania/ kottambari pallo) and once again grind it for a minute or two.
** Lastly add in 5-6 green chillies (tarni mirsanga/ hari mirchi) cut into pieces, 5-6 fresh curry leaves (kadipatta/ karbevu), 1 inch piece of ginger (adrak/ alle’) cut into pieces and grind to a paste. You can sprinkle some water if necessary here to get the mixer going.
** Note : Do not add too much water to avoid adding in excess flour later on. Also the lesser the water you will get better ground mixture which need not be too fine in texture.
** Add paste into bowl along with ¼ tsp of ajwain (bishops weed/ vonvo) after crushing it a bit between palms, ½ tsp of cumin (jeera) powder, ¼ tsp of hing (asafoetida) powder, ½ tsp of haldi (turmeric) powder, salt (namak/ meeta) to taste and mix well.
** Add about 2-3 tblsp of water into mixer grinder to mix in any leftover paste, add this to the mixture along with 1 tblsp of oil (tel/ tela) mix well, then add 1 cup of bajra (pearl millet) flour and 1 cup of wheat flour (atta/ gonva peeta) and mix well to form a stiff dough.
** While kneading the dough if you can add more water if needed only or if you need to add in more flour then add both bajra and wheat flour in equal quantity to maintain a ratio of 1:1. The dough needs to be kneaded well to a stiff consistency always for preparation of poori.
** Roll the dough into a long roll and then with the help of a knife cut them into equal size. Apply some oil on hand and spread a light hand on the cut pieces of dough. This ensures they do not dry up and also helps in rolling without dusting.
** For rolling of poori you can follow the dusting or non dusting method. Today, I have applied oil to the poori balls and not dusted while rolling. For this method, just apply a little bit of oil to the rolling pin and roll the poori as to a circle of about 3.5 to 4 inches.
** Note : Do not roll all the poori in one go, If you have more poori's to be rolled then after a few, say about 6-8 poori's are rolled, fry them and then continue rolling by once again slightly apply oil to the rolling pin so that the dough does not stick to pin.
** If using dusting method, roll out each ball evenly into a 3.5 to 4 inch dia circle after dusting them evenly on all sides with flour. The poori should always be rolled evenly. They should not be too thick nor too thin, as both will not give desired results.
** Heat oil in a kadai/ pan to smoking point, then lower the heat to medium, wait for a few minutes before you add poori, coz. if the oil is too hot then poori will burn and turn crisp instead of evenly getting fried, also keep the heat constant throughout frying process.
** Note : To check if the oil is hot enough, just add in a pinch of dough into the oil, if it hits the bottom and comes back sizzling the heat is right for deep frying. If the dough does not bounce back and takes more time, it means the oil is not hot enough.
** If the poori bounces back immediately turning dark or burnt that means the oil is too hot. Always remember to maintain the correct heat level throughout deep frying of poori is very important to get well puffed and well cooked poori which you will with practice.
** To Deep Fry Poori : Slide in one rolled poori gently into the hot oil, when it comes back sizzling, keep pressing it gently on sides with little pressure with a spatula that has holes in it, this enable the poori to blow up from within and puff up evenly and nicely.
** Once if puff up, wait for a few seconds and then gently flip it to cook on the other side. Wait for a few seconds for the other side to be cooked too, then again flip it back and after just 1-2 seconds gently remove it allowing excess oil to drain back into the kadai.
** Place the poori on an absorbent paper for excess oil to drain off and repeat the process with remaining rolled dough by frying them exactly as before till they are done. Roll out the remaining dough and deep fry all in similar manner till you have required poori.
** “Vatana- Pudina- Bajra Poori/ Green Peas- Mint- Pearl Millet Poori” is and ready to be served. You can serve them as it is too as they are spiced or you can serve it with any side dish like chutney, bhaji, shrikhand, curry etc. of your family choice.
** Remember to always serve poori fresh and piping hot direct from kadai when they are all puffed and nicely blown up which will be loved by your family and friends. Children love piercing the poori and relishing them with glee seeing the hot steam escape.
** I served it with “Bhendi Gajar Masala Bhaji/ Lady’s Finger Carrot Spiced Stir Fry” a delicious bhaji I tried on my own to serve along with these poori and it was a wonderful tasty combination. I am sharing a link below which you check out on for recipe ….
** Sharing a common link to all "Poori” recipes in blog below. There are some lovely recipes with different combinations and some of them include step by step methods which will help you understand the procedure better if novice, do check it out in leisure ….
** Plz. Do Check out on an Article written by me on Poori, on the given link below …
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