Tag: Maharashtra

Peas puff (Mutter Karanji)

Peas are rich source of protein. They are called mutter in Indian languages. We commonly use it in vegetable gravy, snacks and rice dishes.
Ingredients
For covering
All purpose flour 1cup
Salt
Oil (hot) 1spoon
Ajwaein in hindi (bishop’s weed or carom in English) few seeds crushed
Water

For stuffing
Blanched Green peas 1cup
Grated coconut 1/4 cup
Freshly chopped Coriander leaves 2tbsp
Finely chopped Onion 4 tbsp
Garam Masala powder 1tsp
Coriander seeds powder 1tsp
Jeera masala 1tsp
Cumin seeds powder 1tsp
Amchoor powder 1tsp
Salt
Green chillies (optional)
Garlic, ginger (optional)
Tomato sauce 2tbsp
Asafoetida 1/4 tsp
Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
Red chilli powder (according to taste)
Oil
Cumin seeds

Oil for frying

First start by making the dough for the covering. Mix all the contents to form a soft yet firm dough.
Now take a pan and add oil. Add Cumin seeds, asafoetida, turmeric powder. Before the cumin seeds turn black, add onion and fry them till they turn soft. Now add the blanched peas and all the different masala powder mentioned above. Fry them till peas get soft further. Now add tomato sauce and salt. Stir fry for few more minutes. Finish the stuffing by adding grated coconut and coriander leaves.

Now make small balls of the dough, roll them, add the stuffing as shown in the image below.

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Fold this to form a semi circle of dough with all the contents. Fold the sides. Use a dab of milk on the edges to form the covering. I lightly pressed the folds with fork to get some design.

Deep fry till they golden brown. They are ready to eat.

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Appearance
Looked pretty decent.

Taste
They tasted real well. The taste of the stuffing will matter, it should be strong enough that the covering doesn’t make it a bland or boring to taste.

Puran poli

Puran poli is a dessert which is specially made during  festival of colors called Holi in India. It is actually one of my all time favorite comfort food. It tastes wonderful!! The word Puranpoli consists of actually two words Puran is the sweet filing we insert in the dough to make poli (roti) which means the Indian bread in Marathi language.

It is usually made by the mothers of any household, as it is complicated and gets perfect only after years of practicing making it. I tried it for the first time this year.

Ingredients

For stuffing
250gm Bengal gram (Chana dal) soaked in water and cooked in pressure cooker
250gm jaggery crushed in to small pieces
Cardamom powder 2tbsp
Nutmeg powder 1tbsp
Powdered sugar (optional)

For poli (roti/bread)
Wheat flour 3cups
All purpose fine flour 1cup
Salt
Water

For making the puranpoli or this sweet roti, We have to start with the stuffing. First, we cook Chana daal in pressure cooker till it is sufficiently soft. Transfer it to glass bowl and add jaggery. Keep the oven at maximum power (that is how my microwave works: different percentage of power). Do not Cook the chana dal above 15-20 minutes. Remove the glass bowl and mix the contents at regular intervals. T he jaggery should melt in the cooked dal. In the last few minutes of cooking add cardamom and nutmeg powder. It should look like the picture below. I have adjusted sweetness content with powdered sugar (2tbsp) and saffron syrup (1tbsp)

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Now make a dough of the flour mixture, salt and water. It should be extra soft, use oil drops of necessary to make it soft.

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Now take a small ball of dough and roll it in small circle. Fill the circle with Puran/ stuffing ball and close it. Now slowly roll it into a roti or paratha manner. Dust it with rice flour while rolling, so that it doesn’t stick. Now cook the roti on dry heat in a pan.

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Puran poli can be served to eat hot with ghee or milk.

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Appearance:
Satisfactory. It should have these brown spots and yellowish color.
Texture:
It was soft as required. They harden if stored in fridge.
Taste:
Awesome!! Everyone loved it 🙂 My experiment was successful