I never thought blogging would introduce me to wonderful people around the globe. One such person is Kankana who writes a bold and beautiful food blog ‘Sunshine & Smile‘. I still remember when I first landed on Kankana’s blog. It all started with her lip-smacking post Chilly Bhajji. We exchanged mails, then had a chat on facebook/twitter and even before I knew we were talking over phone. Her warm and amiable personality reflects through her blog. If you have not visited her blog already do it right away. Before that see what she has brought to the table today. You don’t want to miss this delicacy from Eastern Indian. Zillion thanks to you Kankana for accepting my request to guest post in Food for 7 stages.
Radhika is one of my very close blogger friend and what I love the most about her is her warm and friendly attitude. Our interaction started over twitter which then moved to Facebook and even before I realize, we were chatting non stop , sharing similar ideas and thoughts. When we were about to talk on the phone for the first time, I was wondering how it would be.. well, it felt like I knew her for ever, that’s the kind of comfort level she gave me! She told me that she likes savory vegetarian dishes and I hope she enjoys these pooris.
We Indians are used to eating a lot of flat breads. In most of the Indian kitchens, it’s prepared every day and paired with some side dish or lentil soup. Having said that, if you are from eastern India, we are more used to eating rice in our daily meal.
It’s only after my marriage that I started to cook and eat paratha or roti on a regular basis. One of the most common flat bread preparation is stuffed paratha, which I am still struggling with, but stuffed poori with lentil is something I managed to learn faster.
Poori is puffed up bread that is deep fried and very commonly prepared at home for Sunday breakfasts. It goes perfect with any curry, pickle or even with tea for snacks.
Today I am sharing with you a simple ‘daal poori’ recipe which I had made especially for her.
Daal is an Indian soup made with pulses (dried lentils). I used ‘toor daal’ to make the stuffing but you can use any other kind of lentils. These pooris are usually prepared with left-over lentils that are slow cooked to dehydrate it completely. Cooking the lentil soup for long hours will eventually make it dry and crumbly and that’s the texture we need for this recipe. These dry crumbs are then used as stuffing inside the poori.
When plain pooris are fried in hot oil, they puff a lot but these pooris will not puff as much and that’s because of the stuffing inside. Just fry it to golden color and enjoy these hot with some curry or just pickle.
Step 1 For making the stuffing, heat 1 tbs oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds, asafoetida and ginger to the pan.
Step 2 Once they start to splatter, pour the boiled lentil and start cooking in low heat.
Step 3 Add rest of the spice mix (turmeric, coriander powder, chili powder), chopped green chilies and tamarind paste. Cook in low heat and keep stirring in between until it becomes dry and all the water is absorbed.
Step 4 Then, keep it aside and let it cool completely. Once it is cooled, the filling will become more dry and crumbly.
Step 5 For the poori, mix flour with carom seeds, salt and oil. Add some water and start kneading.
Step 6 Once the dough is ready and the stuffing is completely cooled, you can start the making the pooris.
Step 7 Divide the dough in equal tiny balls.
Step 8 Roll the balls a little, pour 1 tsp filling in the center and wrap it to form a ball again.
Step 9 Using a rolling pin, roll it to a 2 inch diameter circle.
Step 11 .In a deep pan or wok, heat enough oil for frying the pooris.
Step 12 To test if the oil is at the right temperature, drop a tiny piece of dough in the oil and if it rises up immediately, you are ready to fry the pooris.
Step 13 Drop just one poori in the wok at a time. With the back of your spatula, press the poori very lightly and it will start puffing up.
Step 14 Remember that these pooris will not puff like normal pooris as they have stuffing inside.
Step 15 The poori should take about 30 seconds on each side and should turn golden in color.
Step 16 Take it out of the wok, put it in kitchen towel and let it drain the extra oil.
Step 17 Continue frying rest of the pooris and serve immediately with your choice of side or pickle.