According to me, my mom makes the best pani puris. She manages to do every thing from scratch and there were a lot of fans among my brother's friends. She used to make puris to fill big jars and they will be completely finished on a single day. Nowadays, as her health is not good, she doesn't do any elaborate work in the kitchen. I really miss the pani puris a lot. When ever I visit a chaat centre, I usually try pani puris and to my disappointment they never taste good. So I decided to make it myself. I called my mom and asked for the recipe, I bought a chappathi press and set to prepare puris yesterday. I was so happy with the result. I have a jar full of puris begging to be used up in chaats. So you will be seeing all kind of puri chaats in the week to come.
Ingredients:
Sooji-1 1/2cups
Urad Dhal Flour-1cup
Maida/ All Purpose Flour-1/2cup
Salt-to taste
Oil- For Deep Frying
Procedure:
1. Use fine sooji. If it is not available, grind the sooji to a fine powder in a mixer grinder.
2. Add sooji, flour, urad dhal flour and salt in a bowl.
3. Add enough water and prepare a soft dough.
4. Cover the bowl with a towel and keep it aside for 30minutes.
5. Now knead the dough in batches. If the dough cracks, wet your hand and knead.
6. The dough should be soft and crack free.
7. While working on a portion, keep others covered.
8. Pinch small balls out of the dough. The balls should be slightly bigger than a soaked chole.
9. Grease a chappathi press, place a ball in the middle and press slightly.
10. Flip the disc and press it hard to make thin discs.
11. Heat oil and fry the puris until golden and crisp on both sides.
12. When cool store in an airtight jar until further use.
P.S: The temperature of oil is very important to get nice puffed up puris. If the temperature is low, they will never puff up. Have the oil very hot, drop the puri inside and press it down with the ladle until it pufs up. When brown, flip it and fry. There should not be a bubble left while frying. You can reduce flame to medium once it puffs up. This will control the browning of puris. If there are a few flat puris, do not worry. They can be used in stuffing and in masal puris.
Knead the dough and set it aside for 30minutes.
Knead the dough in batches after the resting period.
The dough must be smooth and soft.
Divide it into small balls.
Place a ball on the press.
Press twice to get a thin disc.
Deep fry both sides.
Cool and store in air tight jar.
Labels: CHAT, FLOUR, SOOJI, URAD DHAL
