Puranpoli

 Puranpoli ( a festive dish):

'Holi re holi- purnachi poli'- is the famous saying in Goa and Maharashtra. Holi is the festival of colors, festival of spring and festival of love celebrated since ancient times with great pomp among all Hindu community and different sweet dishes are prepared all over India on this auspicious occasion.

As per my knowledge, in Goa and Maharashtra, this is only the common dish prepared in both states to celebrate holi- the puranpolis. In some other states, gujiya, matris, malpuas, gulabjamuns, rasmallai or other regional delicacies are prepared on this Holi festival. However in Maharashtra and Goa Holi is incomplete without the preparation of the famous sweet delicacy- puranpolis. 

Puranpolis are actually kind of stuffed sweet paratas wherein refined flour or wheat flour rotis are stuffed with chanadal puran made with Chana Dal and jaggery. Puranpolis are very tasty but very hectic to prepare as always while you roll the chapati, the stuffing comes out. Preparation of the stuffing also drains your energy and make you exhausted in these hot climate. I have learnt the recipe from my mother in law and also from many good expertise on this stuff and for the first time, have tried my hands on it from the scratch till the end. I shall give you the recipe along with some tips so that you can also try out this awesome delicacy on your Holi festival.

So let me quickly take you to the recipe.

Here the measurements are quite important at least for the new learners.

Ingredients:

500gms Chana Dal 

750 gms maida ( refined flour)- approx 7cups 

(Note: some add equal quantity of refined flour and wheat flour, you can use half the quantity of wheat flour if you wish to. Addition of wheat flour gives some stiffness while rolling your polis and makes your puranpolis healthy)

4-5 tablespoons of oil for dough preparation

2 tsp of salt

1 tsp of haldi

500gms jaggery

1 cup of sugar

( Addition of sugar increases the shelf life of your puran, it remains good for 2-3 days)

1 tsp of jaiphal/nutmeg powder

1 tsp of cardamom powder

And required water to make dough.

More 2-3 tablespoons of oil for resting of dough.

Ghee for roasting puranpolis and serving.

Method:

Preparation of puran:

Soak Chana Dal for 5-6 hrs or overnight. Pressure cook for 6 whistles with water just to dip the dal. Once the pressure is released, open the cooker and drain the water if any and put the cooked dal on a plate and mash it with the masher. Then transfer the mashed dal in a utensil, add jaggery and sugar and on the flame. Keep stirring till jaggery and sugar melts and then thickens. It will take approximately 15-20 mins.  Now add nutmeg/jaiphal powder and cardamom powder and mix well.

Off the flame and let it cool. Once cooled completely make balls out of it.

Preparation of dough:

Take maida or combination of maida and wheat flour, add salt, haldi and oil. Mix well everything with your fingers. Then add water little by little and make a smooth dough. Add remaining oil and nicely knead the dough and at last apply oil on top surface of dough and keep aside in air tight container for atleast 1 hr.

Preparation of puranpolis.

Make balls out of dough, stuff the ball of puran inside and close. Press delicately equally on all sides and then roll out into a chapati using flour on both sides. (Note: when you press the stuffed ball equally on all sides before rolling, your stuffing does not come out while rolling)

Heat a tawa, place the rolled puran Poli and fry on both sides using ghee.

Serve with ghee.

You need to pour ghee on top of your puranpolis and have them!! It's just yum!!

Note:

 1) More oil in your dough and more kneading and resting time leads to soft puranpolis. Also your puranpolis should nicely puff up on tawa, which make them nice spongy.

2) You must roll out your puranpolis very delicately and do not press so that your stuffing don't come out.

3) some people who hate ghee,can use butter while serving. Puranpoli with butter also tastes awesome.

4) Always fry on low to medium flame and allow some time for your polis to puff up.

5) Lastly above measurements yield 36 puranpolis ( 3 dozens😜). After 3 yrs of practice I could become well trained under hands of my mother in law to make such successful puranpolis. 

So friends! Try out and enjoy!!

Happy Holi to all my blog readers!!

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