Pani Puri

Pani puri is a  fried crisp street snack. This recipe is my evergreen favourite. I remember my old days, where I used to go out with my dad to eat pani puri in a roadside shop. They will give the puri filled with the spicy tamarind water (called as Pani). The size will be small enough to fill the mouth and can eat at one time without biting in pieces Wow !! Slurping now !!


Those are memorable school days. My betterhalf is not avid lover of chat foods. But he loves this puri together with sweet chutney. We had yummy snack and would like to post this recipe today.

Ingredients :

To prepare Puri :

Rava (Semolina) - 3/4 cup

Wheat flour - 2 tbsp

Maida (All purpose flour) - 5 tbsp

Baking soda - 1/4 tsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Water

Oil 

To prepare Pani :

For stuffing :

Potato - 2

Red chilli powder - 1/4 tsp

Chat Masala - 1/4 tsp

Oil - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Mint chutney :

Mint leaves - 1/2 bunch

Corriander leaves - 1/4 bunch

Green chilli - 1 or 2 (depends on taste)

Ginger (grated) - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Sweet chutney :

Tamarind - a small lemon sized

Dates - 5 or 6

Jaggery - 1/4 cup

Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp

Chat Masala - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Method :

Puri preparation :

In a vessel, mix Rava, maida, wheat flour, baking soda and salt. Use warm water to knead dough. The consistency should be same as normal puri dough. Cover the vessel with damp muslin cloth and keep it aside for 30-45 minutes. 

Make small balls of the dough. Roll out them to thin rotis. Use cookie cutter or lid of any container to cut into your desired shape.  In meantime, heat oil in a pan. Make sure the oil is hot enough to deep fry the puris. While frying, gently press the centre of puri so that it will puff up.Flip them over and make sure both sides of puri are fried completely.

Store the fried puris in an airtight container.

For stuffing :

Boil the potatoes in a pressure cooker. Once it cooked completely, mash them into small pieces. Take 1 tsp of oil in a pan, add a pinch of fennel seeds & 1/4 tsp of red chilli powder. Saute the things for a while till the raw smell of chilli powder go off. Now add the mashed potatoes and cook it for a while in a low flame. Adjust the salt to taste. Now the stuffing is ready. Lets go for chutney preparations.

Mint chutney :

Wash 1/2 bunch of mint leaves and 1/4 bunch of corriander leaves throughly in a running water. Grind the mint leaves, corriander leaves, grated ginger,  green chillis and salt to a fine paste. Transfer the contents to a bowl and refridgerate until use. This chutney goes well with sandwich and samosa also.

Sweet chutney :

Soak tamarind and dates in a hot water for 40 minutes. In a pan, dry roast jeera (cumin seeds) and powder it in a mixie.  Squeeze the tamarind extract and keep it aside.

In a mixie, add the soaked dates and jaggery, make it to a fine paste.

Take a pan, add the tamarind extract and let it boil for 1-2 minutes till the raw smell goes off. Now add the dates-jaggery paste and jeera powder and cook it in a low flame for 4-5 minutes until it becomes thick. Now add chat masala and bit of salt. Turn off the flame. Once  it become cool, refridgerate until use.

Serving :

Make a hole on the puri using the thumb. Fill potato stuffing in the centre. Top up with the green chutney followed by sweet chutney. Now add chopped onions and garnish with corriander leaves. Enjoy homemade pani puri !!