Monsoon special - Home-made Paani poori!!!

Hey all, here follows the lip smacking recipe of home-made paani puri. I got the inspiration to make paani pooris at home from one of my ex-collegues. Also, I insist that you try this at home - cos everything starts from the scratch - so no tension of gastroentritis....

Poori:

Rava or semolina - 1 and 1/2 cup
Maida - 1/2 cup
Salt - half tsp
Club soda - half a bottle (I got the pet bottle)
Oil - to deep fry

The Cook's Way Mix the rava, maida and salt evenly and add the club soda and make a semi-thick dough (not so smooth as for chappathis). Add little oil while making the dough. Now, keep the dough aside for 20 mins - cover it with a wet cloth.

Make cigar like rolls of the dough and cut small pieces from them - flatten them evenly using the chappathi roller, but dont make them too thin and also take care not to make the pooris so big!!

Deep fry them and keep dripping hot oil on the top of the puris so that they become cute golden brown spheres. and turn them and its beetr to keep the flame normal so that the oil and puris don't get burnt.

After frying the pooris, spread them on a paper tower to remove the excess oil and then store them in an air-tight container.

Spicy and Yummy Paani:

5 cups of water

1. Ready made Paani puri masala (Baadshah or everest) - 2 tbsp

Powdered Jeera - 1 and 1/2 tbsp

2. Gud (Jaggery) - 1 tbsp

Sugar - 1 tsp

Coriander leaves - chopped - 1 cup

Mint leaves - chopped - 1 cup (optional)

Green chillies - 7

Tamarind pulp - 2 tbsps

(In case u are not having the ready made paani poori masala, dont forget to use 1 tbsp black salt (kala namak -very important ingredient) )

The Cook's Way Mix ingredients no.1 in 1 cup of water. Grind ingredients no.2 using a grinder. Now blend both these mixtures and all the remaining water and taste for spiciness. Strain this and keep the filtrate aside, dicard the residue.

Sweet Chutney !!! :P

1 cup of water
Powdered Jeera - 1 and 1/2 tbsp
Gud (Jaggery) - 1 cup

Tamarind pulp - 1/2 cup (depends on the "khattaness" u need)

Dates -1 cup (deseeded)

Red Chilli powder -half tsp

The Cook's Way Mix all the ingredients and heat in a deep sauce pan till they melt and reache the desired consistency.

(I loved this chutney - in fact, it was little thick (jammy) and even went well with bread and chappathis)

Other ingredients

Boiled dal (I used a normal thick dal curry for a change)

Boiled black chickpeas - 1 cup - mixed with salt and chopped onion
Boiled potatoes - boiled and chopped finely - mixed with chilly powder and salt
Boiled mung - 1 cup - mixed with salt and chopped onion
Onion - 2 nos - finely chopped
Tomatoes -2 nos - finely chopped
Mint leaves - 1 cup - finely chopped

How to serve Paani pooris:
Crack the top of the poori with yur thumb or spoon and put some dal, mung, onion and i tbsp of paani with a few pieces of potato and gulp it down - and lo!!! a blast of flavours :P

You can try a sweet poori in between by adding sweet chutney :P

Also, use lemon juice as the drink.. A perfect combination!


My verdict: A must try this monsoon!!!