Puri bhaji

Deep-fried rounds of flour with a spiced potato that may be dry or in gravy.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 300 g wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons oil, for the dough
• about 170 ml water
• oil for deep frying
• 700 g potatoes, boiled and roughly broken
• 2 onions, sliced
• 2 teaspoons mustard seeds
• 1 tablespoon urad dal
• 20 curry leaves
• 3 green chillies, slit
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, for the bhaji
• 300 ml water, for the bhaji
• a handful of coriander leaves

Method

1. DEEP-FRIED ROUNDS OF FLOUR WITH A SPICED POTATO THAT MAY BE DRY OR IN GRAVY. That is the whole of what its article fixes, and it fixes it precisely: the dish is OF PURI (DEEP-FRIED ROUNDS OF FLOUR) AND ALOO (POTATO) BHAJI (A SPICED POTATO DISH WHICH MAY BE DRY OR CURRIED). Two forms, named exactly, with the choice between dry and curried left open.
2. AND THE SPICING IS NOWHERE IN IT, SO THE SPICING BELOW IS MINE. The article names no spice at all -- only SPICED. The mustard, urad dal, curry leaves, chilli and turmeric are the tempering a South Indian aloo bhaji is built on, and they are a choice, not a fact read from the source. This version is the curried one.
3. THE PURI DOUGH IS STIFF, AND THAT IS NOT A DETAIL. Flour, salt, two tablespoons of oil and as little water as it takes. A slack dough absorbs oil and the puris come out heavy instead of hollow.
4. KNEAD IT TEN MINUTES AND REST IT TWENTY. Then roll each round without any dusting flour -- grease the board instead. Loose flour burns in the oil and blackens the next batch.
5. FRY THEM ONE AT A TIME AND PRESS THE MIDDLE DOWN. Hot oil. The moment a round goes in, hold it under with the back of a slotted spoon for two seconds: the trapped steam has nowhere to go and the puri balloons. Turn once, thirty seconds in all.
6. TEMPER THE BHAJI IN THIS ORDER AND DO NOT RUSH IT. Mustard seeds until they pop, urad dal to gold, curry leaves, then the onions and chillies until soft, then the turmeric for ten seconds.
7. THE POTATOES GO IN BROKEN, NOT MASHED, WITH THE WATER. Three hundred millilitres and a lid, ten minutes, until some of the potato has dissolved into the liquid and the rest is still in pieces. That is what makes it a gravy without any thickener in it.
8. SERVED TOGETHER AND EATEN AT ONCE. Its article notes it is a breakfast dish, that some serve it for lunch with dahi and salad, and that it is served on railway platforms and as a packed lunch on trains with pickle.

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