Puran Poli
As a rule, I prefer eating to cooking. Anyday. But some stuff in the fridge could not be ignored any longer, and my atta (flour) needs to be finished quickly before it goes bad. So some pumpkin parathas are to be attempted this evening. The dough needs to be *really* soft and pliable. As I kneaded it, I realised that making parathas might not be such a bad idea when stuck on a research paper you’re trying to write quickly for a deadline. All day I’ve tried to write to articulate an argument that is not blindingly obvious and lame; kneading some dough really allows you to work out your irritation without physical damage to self, computer or family members. I think I might even have thought of some decent sentences.
But this kneading also reminded me of the last time such a dough was made, and a dish that is simply out of this world, was prepared in my kitchen: Puran Polis. These are polis (Marathi for layered roti/bread, for non-Ghatis reading this) stuffed with puran (lit. stuffing, but in this case made of cooked chana dal/Bengal gram, jaggery, cardamom and nutmeg) and rolled out, roasted and then eaten with ghee and, if you like it, milk. The idea is to mash it all up and slurp and lick it off your fingers. If some dough is leftover, you can always stuff it with mashed potatoes and have aloo parathas the next day. My mum was here then and made them for Ganesh Chaturthi; I remembered to take some pictures for my foodie friends at Another Subcontinent:
The dough, followed by the puran stuffing (pressure cooked and mixed with the melted jaggery)
Then the delicate task of stuffing the elastic dough with the puran and rolling it out:
The final product folded in half, before ghee is poured over and massive
gorging causes it to instantly disappear.
For those who know about him, this is reportedly Sachin Tendulkar’s favourite dish. Not that this means anything, of course, but still.
Anyway, back to more pedestrian pumpkin parathas and papers….
Oh, I am absolutely drooling over these photos! Looks fabulously delicious…
Aha! so this is what the lovely lady is at… great! I totally agree with your ‘punch bag=dough’ theory. It is! And the smoothness of the dough is directly proportional to your frustration! And as a rule, I too prefer eating to cooking:=)
hey shyama and lobstah, thanks for visiting and ooohing at the pictures! keep coming back to visit…
Your foodie friend in CO likes the pictures, too!
I’m commenting here, because I have no progress to report on your demands over on my blog! I’m thinking big thoughts today, apparently, not knitting. Except that they’re not big thoughts that help me at all with the writing I’m supposed to be doing, sadly!
i had once made puran pulli. i am northindian so i got the recipy from jat pat kahana — a TV show aired lonngggg back. one boils gram seds and make a paste of it and then cook it in condensed milk!!!!, tjm use thst as a filling:)
as it is i love short cuts but the taste was not so original as my mom’s marathi friemd use to make
shruti
shruti, it tasted different probably because the sweetener has to be gud, not sugar. that’s what gives it the right colour also. it’s actually not that difficult, if you can manage aloo parathas, this one is not too far off.
Hey, you be absolutely spot on kneeding dough (me and Sepoy also like SQUASH to our frustrations out on a poor soft, squash ball) but generally cooking too be a great time to re-think lame arguments we make in our papuhs.
photos be gorgeous. process.
We make these too, and call them bobbatlu. The stuffing can be either toor dal or moong dal. Yummy.
Remembered that you had pictures and came for illustrated tips. Sigh – so thin and beautiful. Mine were nowhere as nice. Didn’t stop the gorging though.