Ghari

A puri dough closed round a mawa filling and coated in ghee.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (ghee), dairy (khoa).

Ingredients

• 300 g maida, plain white flour
• 3 tablespoons ghee, for the dough
• about 120 ml water
• 300 g mawa, or khoa
• 150 g caster sugar
• 40 g almonds, ground
• 40 g pistachios, ground
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• ghee for deep frying
• 150 g ghee, melted, to coat

Method

1. A PURI DOUGH CLOSED ROUND A MAWA FILLING AND COATED IN GHEE. Its article is short and the composition is all of it: ghari is MADE OF PURI BATTER, MILK 'MAWA', GHEE AND SUGAR -- MADE INTO ROUND SHAPES WITH SWEET FILLING. Four things and a shape, and the ghee appears twice over: in the frying and on the outside.
2. SO THE TIMINGS AND THE PROPORTIONS BELOW ARE MINE. The article gives no order, no temperature and no resting. What it fixes is the puri dough, the mawa, the round shape and the ghee.
3. THE OUTER COAT OF SET GHEE IS WHAT PEOPLE RECOGNISE. Melted ghee brushed over the fried, cooled sweets and left to go opaque and white. It is not a glaze of syrup and it should not be confused with one.
4. MAKE THE DOUGH FIRM AND REST IT. Maida, ghee rubbed through, water. Stiffer than a chapati dough; twenty minutes under a cloth.
5. COOK THE MAWA WITH THE SUGAR AND NUTS UNTIL IT HOLDS TOGETHER. Eight minutes over a low heat, then cooled completely and rolled into ten balls.
6. WRAP AND FLATTEN TO A DISC ABOUT A CENTIMETRE AND A HALF THICK. Pinch the seam off, press gently, keep it round. These are thick, not thin.
7. FRY THEM AT A LOW HEAT FOR TWELVE TO FIFTEEN MINUTES. They should be barely coloured -- a ghari is pale. Started hot, the dough blisters and the mawa inside stays raw.
8. COOL THEM, THEN BRUSH WITH MELTED GHEE AND LEAVE IT TO SET. Its article records that a priest, Nirmaladasji, referred Devshankar Shukla to make ghari in 1838, that Shukla prepared it in 1857 for Tatya Tope's soldiers TO PROVIDE EXTRA STRENGTH, and that it is eaten at Chandani Padva.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes