Pani Puri

I’ve tasted pani puri only 2 times in chaat corners and my MIL tried it once long time back.. I don’t remember how she made it. But it was very good. From then I had an eye on this and last week I tried on my own by referring a chaats special book which I bought in a train journey:).  In most of the blogs and websites i’ve seen the recipe of pani puri with a minimum of two chutneys.. I think this is the authentic way of making it. But in my book only one chutney is given. I found it easier and I made some changes to it. It came out very well.  My hubby liked it so much and asked for more.

The only part which I felt little time consuming is the making of puri. I told this to my husband and my sweet hubby bought some ready puris from a shop. So If you want to make the process very simple, you can buy the ready made puris which are available in stores.. But what I personally feel is that the store bought puris are harder and is of no salt.. These kind of puris degrades the taste of this yummy snack. May be the puri (unbranded) i bought  here is not good.. So I am not sure about this. Check in your place. Okay..now coming to the recipe and pics.

Ingredients
For puri:

• Fine Rava/semolina – 1/2 cup ( Chiroti rava)
• All purpose flour/Maida – 1/2 tsp
• Salt & water – as  needed
• Cooking Oil – to deep fry

For sweet & sour chutney

• Coriander leaves – 1 handful
• Mint leaves – 1 handful
• Seedless Dates – 5-6 nos (soak in little warm water)
• Tamarind – 2 seeds(-do)
• Green chilly – 2-3 nos
• Jaggery – small gooseberry size
• Black salt – 1 tsp
• Red chilli powder – 1/4 tsp
• Dhania powder – 1/2 tsp
• Cumin powder/Jeera powder – 1/2 tsp
• Chat masala powder – 1 tsp
• Lemon juice – few drops
• Salt – little
• Water – 3-4 cups

For stuffing the puri..

• Big onion – 2  nos (finely chopped)
• Coriander leaves – 1/2 bunch (finely chopped)
• Sprouted green gram – 1/4cup (optional)
• Boiled and mashed potato – 2 nos
• Red chilly powder –1/2 tsp
• Jeera powder – 1/4 tsp
• salt – a pinch.

Method:

• Mix maida , rava with required salt. Mix well, add required water little by little and make a non-sticky dough. Knead well for 2 minutes.Set aside for half an hour covering with a wet cloth.. (In the mean time you can prepare chutney)
• Again knead for sometime to make it soft and smooth..
• Roll it into thin chappathis (shouldn’t be too thin or thick)and using a round shaped mould cut the single chappathi into small puris..Take the puris and keep it on a polythene sheet by covering with a wet cloth..The puris should not be dried.

• Heat oil in a wok-Deep fry these puris in batches on both sides.. As soon as you put the puri in the hot oil, press it with a ladle ,the puri puffs up bubbling on sides. Once the bubbles ceases, turn it over and repeat the same. Cook in medium flame for long time to get crispy poori. Arrange it in a serving plate.!!

Chutney :

• Grind all the items given under “for chutney” to a smooth thick paste by adding little water.The lemon juice should be added while grinding because it helps to retain the color..(if you want, you can omit the tamarind seeds and add more lime juice.)
• Transfer this chutney into a bowl and you can keep this chutney for 3-4 days by refrigerating it.
• Now take the required amount of chutney and dilute it with water, strain it and your pani is ready!! Check for salt, spice and sweetness. If anything is less, you can add it.. 
• For spice, you can add red chilly powder and for sweet you can add powdered jaggery.

Stuffing:

• Take the boiled potato in a bowl and mash it well without any lumps..
• Add the redchilly powder,jeera powder and salt to it..

Take a puri…make a hole on the top side of the puri with ur thumb and stuff it with the mashed potato  mixture,sprouted grams,onion and coriander leaves in the same order.

Finally fill it with pani and serve immediately!!  ENJOY!!

Some puris dint puff up well as I expected . So I just crumbled those puris and took in a plate. I added little chutney, finely chopped onions, grated carrot and coriander leaves into it. Mixed it well and poured little pani over it!! It was very nice and tasty. It tasted more like papdi chaat. But Iam not sure wat is papdi chat. Friends, please let me know about it.