Tuesday, June 15, 2010

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.






34 comments:

  1. One of my absolute favorites - the puris look perfect! Love it!

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  2. Lataji,

    Pani puri looks really crispy and yummy.

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  3. I luv these. It has come out really well and worth the pains

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  4. Wow, the puris have puffed up well. Beatiful presentation. But sad that you could not eat it.

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  5. Lataji ..great pics mouthwatering pics with gr8 presentation loved it

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  6. Pani puri looks really crispy and yummy. One of my absolute favorite. Love it!

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  7. Wow they turned out super prefect, its really sad to know that u couldnt eat it..

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  8. mouthwatering pani puris, lookling at them makes me feek hungry

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  9. This is my favorite street food too! Yours turned out really excellent! I know it's hard to control from eating goodies.

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  10. Wow,
    I liked it. Planning to try this method in one of my next times of making Pani Puri

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  11. Green chutney looks so yum, perfect ICC entry!:)

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  12. So perfect and delicious..yummy yumm!!

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  13. Dear Lata,

    Superb n delicious...I have bookmarked.

    Hope you would love to participate in the event
    " I Love My Dad " . Do check out my space.

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  14. This is one of my favorites and just looking at those pictures is giving me a serious craving for pani puris ! They have turned out just perfect....

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  15. Looks delicious.Your puris have puffed up so nicely.

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  16. Pani puri is V's favorite. This is the default chat he orders whenever we visit a chat shop. I absolutely love the clicks and hoping to make them soon at home.

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  17. Thank you so much for visiting my blog and ur comments
    Ur puri looks awesome

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  18. Hey first time to ur blog and u have a lovely space...really very nice clicks yaar....and these pani puri's are looking very yummy and nice...came out really perfect too....tempting one...
    Glad to follow u... :)

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  19. Pani puri looks yumm..specially the puri..very crispy..so how was the dal that you were going to try out as soon as you shut off your laptop.??

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  20. Came to your blog from Rajani's site. Better late than never! Shall visit it often for the mouth watering recipes.

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  21. Lovely your gol gappe. I have never made them at home, lazy as I am :-)

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  22. i want to have this now..am drooling even after a heavy dinner sometime ago..looks great..

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  23. Wow! Perfect puris to fill in some spicy pani and gobble. Love the color of ur pani. Looks like the pani from roadside chaat walahs.
    I just imagine how it would feel, if all the bloggers get together at ur place, have those pani puris and a cuppa chai. Hope we all could get together at chennai, sometime.

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  24. yummy pani puri's...i can't miss eating pani puri's whenever i go to Hyderabad...they taste good there..and your pani puri's are looking yummy like the one which i eat...

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  25. OMG so tempting Lata missing the challenge....

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  26. hmmmmmmmmmmm! tempting and inviting golgappas my hot favourite. Lata I was on vacation for personal work cum pleasure trip. Mumbai is our destination, we were there for quite some time and took off from the sweltering heat of Mumbai to coimbatore, Coonoor and Ooty for a cool atmosphere and had a nice time there.

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  27. Hello Lataji,
    I came across your blog couple of months back but this is my first comment.
    Your blog looks great and love all your authentic south indian dishes...loved the kai murukku!
    The pani puri looks delicious...your puris have turned out perfect!

    I'm relatively new to blogging. Do check out my blog when you a get a chance.

    Thanks
    Rachana

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  28. Thanks everyone!
    @ Thakkudupandi...Been to both your blogs. LOL! I love the thamizh manam in there.
    @ Rachana, please let me know the blog name, I would love to look up.

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  29. They look so perfect! I use to buy the pani puris flour and make those puris.

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  30. wow!!! wow! i would have never made this at home! looks perfect... i am inspired!

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  31. Whoa!!! They look wonderful. I dont know why it never struck me that puris could be made at home!

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  32. Thanks for providing recipe. Its amazing. South Indian recipes are also there in indianrecipes.co.in

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Hello,
Welcome and thank you for taking time to drop by.
I appreciate your valuable comments and tips.
I sincerely hope to improve with them.
Hope we shall interact often.
Thanks once again,
Lata Raja.