Pani Puri / Gol Gappe -ICC Cooking Challenge May 2010

Pani Puri / Gol Gappe- ICC Cooking challenge May 2010- A famous chaat commonly found in the streets in India. Food vendors serve these little pani puris making as fast as you can devour them. Spicy, tangy with a wonderful crunch, these little snacks are amazingly delectable .


The recipe is provided by srivalli of spicing your life .

Ingredients:

For making Gol Gappe / pani puri

Sooji (Semolina ) 1/2 cup

Maida ( Plain Refined 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 tbsp.

Tamarind 1/3 cup

Ginger 1"

Green Chillies 4 to 5

Ground Cumin Seed (roasted) 1 tsp.

Kala Namak (Black Salt ) 1 1/2 tsp.

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 tsp

Turmeric powder

Garam masala powder 1/4 tsp

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 tbsp.

Red chilli powder 1/2 tsp

Dry Roasted cumin powder 1 tsp

Kali Micrch (Black pepper) powder 1/4 tsp.

Cloves 2

Warm water 2 cups

Oil 1 tsp.

Salt to taste
Method:

For Gol Gappe or Puri:

1.In a bowl take semolina, plain flour, Cooking Soda, salt, 2 tablespoons of oil and knead well to make a stiff dough, leave it bit stiffer than normal.
2.Cover it with a wet muslin cloth and let it rest for 15 mins.
3.Then pinch out very small balls and roll them into small circles.
4.Remember you will be eating these as whole, so make small circles
5.Put the rolled out circles back under the muslin cloth while you are rolling the rest and before they can be fried.

6.Heat oil in a thick bottomed pan, deep fry the puris

7.The idea is to puff them and fry them till golden brown.
8. Take them out and put them on kitchen paper towel, to get rid of the extra oil.
Notes: Allow the puris to cool before storing them in an airtight container. Else they will become soggy.

For making spicy water or Pani:

1.Extract pulp from the tamarind

2.Add mint leaves, coriander, ginger, chillies and dry roasted cumin seed to the tamarind pulp. Add little water and blend to a smooth paste.
3.Add salt and black rock salt to taste.
4.Put it in the fridge to cool down.
Add water as required.

How to make Red Tamarind Chutney:

1.Extract the pulp from tamarind.
2.In a pan dry roast the cumin seeds and the cloves. Pound them into coarse powder.
3.To the tamarind pulp add jaggery, sugar, red chilli powder, black pepper powder, roasted cumin powder, cloves and salt.
4.Put the mixture in a pan and heat for 5 minutes on medium heat.
5.Remove from heat and let it cool down.This will tend to thicken up, so add warm water if it becomes too thick.
6.Once it cools, blend the contents in a blender to a smooth paste.

Assembling the Pani Puri / Gol Gappa:

1.Poke a small hole in the center of the Gole Gappa/ Puri
2.Add a tsp of mashed boiled potato / Channa in the middle of the puri. Add a little of the red tamarind Chutney. Dip it in the spicy water / pour some spicy water in it
3.Gulp it down.

Notes: Alternatively you can mix small quantity of Tamarind Chutney, Spicy water and pour this on stuffed puris and gulp down too.

Few changes I made were that I used bottled mint instead of fresh and also I diced the potatoes instead of mashing them  and mixed them  with the chana prior to serving.

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