Monday, April 26, 2010

Pani pooris or Golgappas - Indian street food



Pani pooris or golgappas are one of my favorite street food. When I was in India, there were few places where we used to go specially for these yummy treats, one being golgappas, other aloo tikki chaat and other mirchi bajjis. Now a days almost every galli or street has these cartwallas who make it all the time. But still they all taste slightly different and nothing tastes better than the fresh made ones. Here I crave to eat these and when I think that whenever I make a trip to India, I will have them in lots...it never happens. The whole trip I might get to eat only once or twice. I remember the days when my mom, my dad and us kids, used to go to the special cartwallahs at the end of Parklane in Secunderabad, India to eat them!! Now there is so much pollution and traffic in that area, can't even stop!!
Here I have made pani pooris before from scratch but, many a time, just bought them from the store. Its been a long time since I have had them so made them at home again. I tried a different recipe a few days back in my friend's house (for pooris), they came out looking good but somehow they weren't staying crispy on the top. This time I omitted a few ingredients and tried it again. They came out better this time, much crispier too. They stayed crispy for almost a week.
With a cup of ravva, lot of pooris can be made, but it depends on the size. Choose a size which will easily fit into your mouth without any difficulty. I used a cookie cutter which was slightly smaller than the usual pani poori size.
Serve with spicy pani poori water, tamarind - date chutney, green chutney or coriander - mint chutney and aloo - channa mix.
Prep time: about an hour

Ingredients:

1 cup of ravva / sooji / coarse semolina flour
1/2 cup warm water
salt to taste
just enough all purpose flour / maida

Oil for deep frying





Method:

Add salt to semolina flour. With the warm water, knead into a rough dough which is not too soft or hard. Dust just enough all purpose flour / maida to knead it into a smooth dough.Let it rest for about 20 min to 30 min.
After resting, roll it out thin roti shape or like a pita. Using the cookie cutter or any other round shape whichever you choose, cut out the small rounds. When the oil is hot enough (should not be fuming hot), drop in the small rounds and fry them. They will puff up immediately or try to puff them like pooris with a long spoon. Turn over to give them an all around golden brown color. Remove and drain on a napkin. Serve along with date - tamarind chutney, coriander - mint chutney, pani - poori water and aloo channa mix.



Aloo Channa mix:

Ingredients:

1 cup of boiled channa or chick peas
1 big boiled and mashed potato
1 red onion, chopped
1 tsp chilli powder
salt to taste

Method:

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and serve.


Pani for the pooris, Spiced up water

Ingredients:

2-3 cups of water
lemon sized ball of tamarind, squeezed
3-4 green chillies
1/2 cup coriander leaves
1/2 cup mint leaves
2 tbsp pani poori masala powder (from store, optional, otherwise add black salt)
some chaat masala powder (from store)
1/2 tsp jeera (cumin) powder
1/2 tsp dhaniya (coriander) powder
lemon juice to taste
salt to taste

Method:

Grind green chillies, coriander leaves and mint leaves together. Mix all ingredients in the water along with tamarind juice and serve.

Break the poori on the top, stuff it with the goodies and the spiced up water and Enjoy!!!

 Puffed up golgappas!

 Golgappa filled with Pani and all the good stuff!

Topped with sev!

Tip: All the flattened pooris, don't throw them away, use to make papdi chaat.


2 comments:

  1. Yummy and mouth watering.Simply delicious.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wish I would go İndia and eat the street foods..hımmm

    ReplyDelete

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