With Gudi Padwa on March 25, Chef Irfan Sayyed shares the the recipe of the Indian sweet flatbread.
Puran Poli
Ingredients:
For the sweet filling:
- 1 cup powdered jaggery
- 1 cup chana dal (skinned spilt Bengal gram)
- 3 cups water for pressure cooking the chana dal
- 2 tsp ghee
- 1 tsp fennel powder
- ¾ to 1 tsp saunth (dry ginger powder)
- ½ tsp cardamom powder or 4 to 5 green cardamoms crushed finely
- ¼ tsp nutmeg powder
For the poli:
- 1.5 cups whole wheat flour + ½ cup all-purpose flour (you can also use 2 cups whole wheat flour)
- 4 tbsp oil or ghee (clarified butter)
- ½ tsp salt or as required
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder to give a faint yellow color to the poli (optional)
- water as required to knead the dough
- oil or ghee as required for frying the puran poli
Method:
For preparing the puran:
- Rinse the chana dal well in water. You can also soak the chana dal for 30 minutes to an hour and then drain the water.
- In a pressure cooker, cook the chana dal for 6 to 7 whistles. If you soak the chana dal, the cooking time will be reduced. Once the pressure settles down on its own, strain the cooked dal. The dal has to be strained well.
- Keep the stock aside. This stock can be used for making kata chi amti (thin tempered dal) or you can just add it to your veggie dishes or rotis.
- Heat ghee in a pan and add the dry ginger powder, nutmeg powder, cardamom powder and fennel powder. Saute for a few seconds.
- Add chana dal and jaggery. Stir and let this puran mixture cook on a low flame till the mixture becomes dry. Keep on stirring the puran mixture at intervals.
- Once the puran stuffing become dry and thick, switch off the flame.
- Let it cool and then mash the puran mixture with a potato masher. You can also use your mixer to mash the puran mixture very well. Keep aside.
Making the dough:
- Take the whole wheat flour, maida and salt in a bowl. Mix well.
- Add a little bit of water and ghee and mix. Begin to knead the dough by adding water as required.
- The dough should be smooth and soft. Cover and keep the dough aside for 15-20 minutes.
Making the puran poli:
- Take a medium or large size ball from the dough. Roll it 2-3 inches in circumference on a dusted rolling board.
- Place a portion of the puran mixture in the center of the rolled dough.
- Bring the edges together towards the center. Join all the edges and pinch them.
- Sprinkle some flour and start rolling the dough.
- Make a medium or large circle (poli) depending upon the size of the dough and puran filling you took.
- On a heated tawa or griddle, spread some ghee. place the rolled poli/dough circle on the tawa.
- When one side gets browned, turn over and cook the other side till you see some brown spots.
- Once the second side gets browned, then turn over and apply ghee. If everything is done properly then the puran poli will puff up. The poli should be cooked well with brown spots and should be golden in colour.
- Make all puran polis this way and stack them in a casserole or in a kitchen napkin.
- You can serve puran poli warm or at room temperature with milk, ghee or yogurt/curd.
Tip: While rolling the puran poli, be careful as it might break a little. If it does, just add some dry flour to that part. Instead of whole wheat flour, you can also make the dough with all purpose flour or half-half of both.
Irfan Sayyed is the chef de cuisine at Renaissance Mumbai.
