Pani Puri: The OG Indian Street Food Continues To Charm
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Whether it’s summer, winter or any other season, Pani Puri is an all-time favourite and can be served at any time. Pani Puri has two main ingredients which are pani (water) and puri which is also known as golgappa in many regions of India. Golgappa is a crispy small ball which is filled with pani. To get the best flavours of Pani Puri, Puri should be crispy and fragile and it should be stuffed with boiled potatoes, cooked chickpeas and sweet red sauce.

Coming from the streets of India, Pani Puri has a special place in everyone’s heart. Atta Puri or Sooji Puri, are the two main variants of puri which are served widely in India. Also, there is a large variety of pani (water) such as khata, meetha, hing vala and many more which are served with Golgappa.

The dish is served in every other street in India and is considered one of the prime street foods. Many foreigners visit India just to try street food here. Let’s check out how to prepare puri at home.

Here’s the recipe for Pani Puri.

Cooking Time: 1 hr 15 mins

Servings: 60

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup rava/suji 
  • ¼ cup maida 
  • 1 tsp salt
  • Cooking oil

Method:

  • Take a big bowl and put all the three ingredients - fine rava, flour and salt into it. Now, mix all the ingredients. 
  • Add ¼ cup of water to the bowl to knead a stiff dough. Initially, the dough will appear to crumble but after kneading it for a while, it will become stiff dough. 
  • Now, cover the dough with a damp cloth and keep it aside for approximately 30 minutes.
  • Once done, take the dough and knead it again for a while. 
  • If needed, sprinkle little water so that the dough doesn’t get dry. 
  • Next, divide the dough into 60 small marble-sized balls and cover them with a damp cloth again
  • In the next step, roll each ball to make a thin poori and put them in a wide tray one by one. Take a wok and put some oil on it. 
  • Now, heat it and drop the rolled puri one by one. Once they get puffed up flip it to the other side 
  • Once the puris become brown, take them out from the oil and transfer them on a tissue paper. 
  • Repeat the procedure with all the rolled puris. 

Points to remember:

  • Do not add maida in excess as it makes puri soggy, not crispy. 
  • Always add chiroti rava as that keeps the puri crispy for longer.
  • Knead the dough properly and stiffly.
  • Do not let the dough balls get dry as it will make the rolling process difficult.  
  • Sprinkle a very little amount of water if there’s difficulty to knead the dough
  • Keep the wok on the medium flame while deep frying the puris.

These puris can last longer and their crispness can be retained, if they are kept in an air-tight plastic cover.