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Tan ngang

A puri made with curd instead of water.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (curd).

Ingredients

Method

  1. A PURI MADE WITH CURD INSTEAD OF WATER. Its article names two ingredients and both of them are the point: tan ngang IS MADE WITH REFINED FLOUR, COMMONLY CALLED MAIDA, AND CURD, and it IS SIMILAR TO THE INDIAN PURI. A puri's dough is flour, water and salt; this one replaces almost all the water with curd, which makes it softer, slightly sour, and quicker to colour in the oil.
  2. AND IT IS SERVED WITH A PARTICULAR CURRY, WHICH THE ARTICLE NAMES. It IS OFTEN SERVED WITH CURRIES SUCH AS SANA THONGPA OR KELI CHANA, PARTICULARLY FOR BREAKFAST. Sana thongba is on its own page here, and the pairing is worth keeping: a slightly sour bread against a milk gravy.
  3. USE THICK CURD AND ADD WATER ONLY IF IT WILL NOT COME TOGETHER. Two hundred millilitres to four hundred grams of flour is usually enough. The dough should be firm, not slack -- a wet puri dough drinks oil.
  4. KNEAD IT TEN MINUTES AND REST IT AN HOUR. The acid in the curd softens the gluten as it stands, so a rested dough rolls far more easily than a fresh one.
  5. ROLL THE ROUNDS ON A GREASED BOARD, NOT A FLOURED ONE. Loose flour burns and blackens the oil. About three millimetres and the size of a saucer.
  6. FRY THEM HOT, ONE AT A TIME, HELD UNDER FOR TWO SECONDS. The back of a slotted spoon on the centre as it goes in; the trapped steam has nowhere to go and the bread balloons. Turn once.
  7. THEY COLOUR FASTER THAN A PLAIN PURI, SO WATCH THEM. The sugar in the curd browns. Twenty seconds a side is often enough, where a plain puri takes thirty.
  8. DRAIN THEM ON A RACK AND EAT THEM AT ONCE. A puri of any kind is a bread with a ten-minute life.

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.

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