Pani Puri / Gol Gappe - Indian Cooking Challenge

Having skipped last month's Indian Cooking Challenge, I was looking forward to making it up this month. It was a delight that Srivalli chose Gol Gappe/ Pani puri. Being one of my favourite street foods, I usually make the puris at home and assemble them as desired. I had made Bhel puri for my husband's birthday last year and not made them since. So this was an opputunity to treat him to these. ( I had to watch him enjoy as I am to strictly follow low on oil, no spices diet having recovered from a bad infection very recently).

The following is the recipe given by Srivalli. I had used a 1/4 cup measure (60ml) and made about 20 puris.

Ingredients:

For making Gol Gappe
Semolina 1/2 cup
Plain Refined Flour/ All Purpose flour 1/2 tbsp.
Cooking Soda 1/2 teaspoon
Salt to taste
Oil for Frying

For Spicy Pani or Spicy Water
Chopped Mint Leaves 1 1/2 cups
Chopped Coriander Leaves 1 tablespoon
Tamarind 1/3 cup
Ginger 1"
Green Chillies 4 to 5
Ground Cumin Seed (roasted) 1 teaspoon
Kala Namak (Black Salt ) 1 1/2 teaspoon
Salt to taste

For Filling
Potato Filling
1. Boiled Potato, finely chopped /mashed and mixed with salt and red chilli.

Lentil Filling
Cooked Channa or Peas - 1 cup
Salt to taste
Chili powder 1/2 teaspoon
Turmeric powder 1/4 teaspoon
Garam masala powder 1/4 teaspoon

Cook the channa or peas till tender. Then drain and cook with the masala till aroma comes out.

For Red Tamarind Chutney
Tamarind 1 cup
Jaggery 1/2 cup
Sugar 2 tablespoon
Red chilli powder 1/2 teaspoon
Dry Roasted cumin powder 1 teaspoon
Kali Micrch (Black pepper) powder 1/4 teaspoon
Cloves 2
Warm water 2 cups
Oil 1 tsp.
Salt to taste

Method to prepare:
For Gol Gappe or Puri:
Mix semolina, plain flour, cooking soda, salt, 2 tablespoons of oil in a bowl and knead well to make a stiff dough.
The dough should be stiffer than those for normals puris and chappathis.
Cover it with a wet muslin cloth and let it rest for 15 mins.
Once again knead well until quite elastic. I use the hand mixer fitted with kneading hooks, if making a larger quantity. But with this small quantity, I ran them in the small chutney jar of the mixer- blender for a few minutes until dough was elastic.
Then pinch out very small balls and roll them into small circles. Ensure that you roll them out neither too thick nor too thin.
Since these are popped into the mouth as wholes, they should be bite size puris.
Put the rolled out circles back under the muslin cloth while you are rolling the rest and before they can be fried. If making large quantities, make in small batches.

The puris will puff well only if they are moist.
Heat oil in a thick bottomed pan, deep fry the puris on medium heat ensuring that they puff well and become crisp.
Remove from oil and place on kitchen tissues to absord the excess oil.
Allow the puris to cool before storing in airtight containers.

I follow Mallika Badrinath's recipe for making puris and they turn out excellent. I have given that recipe in this post.
For making spicy water or Pani
Soak tamarind in water and extract the pulp.
Grind mint leaves, coriander, ginger, chillies and dry roasted cumin seed to a smooth paste using the tamarind pulp.
Add salt and black rock salt to taste.
Leave this in the fridge to chill.
Add more water as required.



Making Red Tamarind Chutney
Soak and extract the pulp from tamarind.
In a pan dry roast the cumin seeds and the cloves. Pound them into coarse powder.
To the tamarind pulp add jaggery, sugar, red chilli powder, black pepper powder, roasted cumin powder, cloves and salt.
Heat the mixture in a pan for 5 minutes on medium heat.
Remove from heat and let it cool down.
This will tend to thicken up, so add warm water if it becomes too thick.
Once it cools, blend the contents in a blender to a smooth paste.

Assembling the Pani Puri / Gol Gappa
Make a finger size hole on the centre of the top of the puri.
Add a tsp of mashed boiled potato and / or channa in the middle of the puri.

Add a little of the red tamarind Chutney. Dip it in the spicy water or pour some spicy water in the hole.
Swallow as whole.
Enjoy them as evening snack.