Yours Sincerely.. Puri and Aloo Bhaji

My last day of vacation, am sort of depressed, that is a reason I use to cook, something I know is heading towards gluttony and not health food. The person I have missed the most since I am in London is my house help Chaya. She really pampers me with back to back cups of tea, a lovely breakfast and when I take off to work, she makes me tasty lunch and dinner. Me and Sandeep were missing her lovely puri bhaji, so I thought I will try and give it a go. I have always been nervous about puris, since they can really really tricky if not made properly. 
   This blog is for Chaya and my mother who taught me to make the world's most tasty Aloo (potato) bhaji and Chaya who gave me tips to make nice fluffy puris. Without further ado here is the way of making it totally hassle free, trust me if I can make it anyone can :-)
It took me about an hour to finish the Puri Bhaji, juggling things in-between, while potatoes were boiling I kneaded the dough. When the Potatoes finished boiling I started making the bhaji immediately, give some time for the dough to rest. For making Puris, a tip, if you are making them all along, roll them out first, place a damp tea towel or cling film over them so that they do not dry out. Frying puris requires the oil to be really hot and up to a level where the puri is fully immersed in oil, this fries the puris evenly and they puff up to the fullest.
 Things you need to make Potato Bhaji:

1. 2 Tables spoons oil.
2. Some curry leaves.
3. 4 large potatoes, avoid using new potatoes, I personally don't like the taste of new potatoes. The taste of the bhaji depends on the kind of potatoes used to make it.
4. 1 red onion.
5. 2 cloves garlic
6. 1 inch garlic grated or chopped very finely.
7. 2 Green chillies finely chopped
8. Half a lemon.
9. 1/2 teaspoon of mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Both together give a very unique flavour.
10. Freshly chopped mint leaves.
11. Freshly chopped coriander
12. Turmeric
13. Salt and Sugar to taste.

Thing required for Puri

1. 2 cups of wheat flour
2. 1/2 teaspoon of salt
3. 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
4. A good pinch of turmeric powder
5. A good pinch of coriander powder
6. 1 tablespoon oil for the dough
7. 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
8. Oil for frying
9. A glass of warm water

This is how its made:

To make bhaji:

1. Boil the potatoes until they are tender, peel then and cut hem into small chunks. Do not cut very fine pieces since the potatoes are boiled, they can get mashed if finely chopped.
2. Heat up a saucepan and add the oil to it.
3. Toss the cumin and mustard seeds, wait till they sputter and then turn down the heat.
4. Add curry leaves, chillies and coriander leaves, these also sputter quite a bit, so please stand a little away from the stove. Wait till they turn crisp.
5. Toss the onions, garlic and ginger together. Cook till they are tender, don't brown the onions or garlic, the garlic flavour will be stronger than any other spices in the vegetable. Garlic when lightly cooked renders sweetness.
6. At this point keep the flame at the lowest and add turmeric, salt and sugar. Turmeric burns easily in hot oil, so either take the pan off the heat while adding turmeric or make sure the flame is turned down.
7. Stir everything nicely together and then add the boiled potatoes.
8. Shake them in the pan, this will bruise the potatoes and they will take in all the spices nicely. The stir them in very carefully so that they do not break.
9. Cover the pan with a lid for 5 mins.
10. Let the potatoes cook for 10 mins to 15 mins on low flame this is more to allow the potatoes to soak in all the spices.
11. Squeeze the lemon juice and mix evenly.
12. Garnish the bhaji when ready with freshly chopped mint leaves.

Moving over to puris:

1. Make a well in the flour and add salt, turmeric, coriander powder and chili powder.
2. Heat up a table spoon of oil and add the cumin seeds.
3. Add the hot oil and cumin seeds mixture to the dough.
4. Start mixing the dough.
5. Keep adding warm water till the dough comes together. Make sure the dough is smooth and firm. The dough needs to nice and firm for the puris to puff up. I the dough is too soft or has a lot of water content, the puris might turn out hard.
6. Let the dough rest at least for an hour for good results.
7. After you have give some time for the dough to rest.
8. Pich out smal dough balls and roll them out in small circles.
9. I cheat and use an easier method. Take a big chunk of dough roll it out in what shape you want. Take a small bowl with a good edge and cut out smaller circles from the shape. This way its easier and they look all even! I personally don't care of the even part, but for those who are big at presentation, this can help.
10. I rolled out all the puris first since I was making them all by myself and placed a cling file on the try that held them, this will help them retain moisture till the time you start frying them.
11. Once all the dough is rolled out, heat up a deep fry pan and pour in oil generously. You can use any kind of oil you like. Olive oil for frying and rapeseed oil if you feel like being a little healthy even while frying. However a regular vegetable, sunflower or groundnut oil is good for frying puris
12. Make sure the oil is really hot by testing a small piece of puri. If the pieces fries and floats up to the surface, the oil is at a perfect temperature.
13. Frying can get quite smoky, make sure to turn the exhaust on full blast, do not turn down the flame till all the puris are fried. Puris turn hard if they are fried on low heat.
14. Deep Fry all the puris and place them over thick paper towels to get rid of as much as oil possible out of the puris.
15. Enjoy them while they are piping hot with the bhaji you just made and a nice mango or lime pickle.
16. Puris can stay upto a week and the more stale they get the more tastier they are.

If you want to enjoy making the puris involve kids in cutting out the small circles out of big shapeless rolled out dough, they enjoy a lot and feel they are helping you cook :) It always fun to cook with kids.

For me I am really excited that I could finally make puris and not mini poppadom :-)