Poori

Puffed Poori

Ask any Indian Kid for their favorite break fast item, I bet, most of them start with Poori, dosa and on goes the list. My generation had grown up on this as a favorite and now it is my kids  generation favorite too…It is amazing how recipes stay favorite as they travel generations and generations. Kudos to who ever came up with the recipe.

I used to cook it infrequently before having kids. But now, I cook it at least once every week or every other week.

If any one notice, making poori is much easier and faster than chapathi. The skill is all in kneading the dough and having the right temp of the oil to make them puff. The dough should not stick to your hands but should be comfortable enough to work. If the dough sticks to hands then it is little soft and will sip some unwanted extra oil. Dust some more flour and knead it until it is no more sticky. If it is too tight , it will be flaky and will be real hard to work through, just sprinkle 1/2 tsp at a time of water/milk and work through for the right consistency.

TIP- When doing deep fries, Add a little salt to hot oil, it will prevent foods from absorbing oil. Make sure that the salt doesn’t stick to pooris otherwise they will be salty.

Ingredients

• 2 cups chapathi/wheat/aata flour
• 1/2 cup water/milk
• 1/2 tsp salt

Directions

1. Take flour in a big comfortable mixing bowl. Add salt and mix it well.
2. Add water / milk and mix it well to form a non sticky dough (if it is too tough, it will be flaky and will be hard to work with, just sprinkle 1/2 tsp of milk and knead)
3. Rest the dough for at least 15 min.
4. Make small key lemon size balls out of the dough. keep covered to prevent from forming a cake.
5. Add 2 drops oil on the rolling pin.
6. Take a ball and roll it with the pin to form a thin even disc.
7. Note-If the dough is too soft, it will stick to the rolling pin. If it is too hard, just rub couple drops of oil on it and start kneading.
8. In the mean time, add oil to a deep frying pan (never deep fry in non stick pans, it will release toxins) and put it on a medium high heat as we are working with the dough.
9. Once all the dough is rolled up. It is time to do pooris.
10. Make sure the oil is hot enough (when the oil is hot, we see little strikes moving at the bottom. now, drop a small dough, it will sink and should rise right upwards. If it takes a few sec to rise, oil is not hot enough. When the oil is not hot enough, pooris don’t puff up) and add one rolled out dough.
11. When the pooris are raising to the top, with a slotted spoon, gently push them downward to create little pressure which will make them puff. When one side is light gold color, turn them to the other side and fry till the other side.
12. With a slotted spoon take the fried puffed poori out and continue with the process with all the remaining dough.
13. Enjoy it with punjabi chole or Andhra poori koora that I will post latter.

Poori Served With Chole