Poori Bhaji

I studied in Solapur till my 12th standard and then joined Engineering College in Mumbai. I stayed in hostel for 4 years and those were the best days of my life! I relate Poori Bhaji more with my hostel because we were served Poori Bhaji for breakfast twice a week. Those were my favorite days of the week.

During study leave, we studied all night and had breakfast in morning and slept all day.It sounded really cool then but now the thought of staying awake kills me. We waited for the Canteen to open so that we could eat and sleep. The canteen guy 'Anna' served us one poori more as we ate there very often unlike other girls.

I was craving for some fried food and the Hostel wala Poori Bhaji came to my mind.

Ingredients for Poori:

Whole wheat flour - 2 cups

Salt – 1 tspn

Yogurt – 1 tbspn

Water– 1 cup

Soda - ¼ tspn

Oil to fry

Ingredients for Bhaji:

Potato – 3 medium-sized

Onions, sliced – 1

Green chillies – 3

Ginger – ½ tspn

Haldi/Turmeric – ¼ tspn

Kadipatta /Curry Leaves – 5-6 leaves

Hing/Asafoetida – ¼ tspn

Rai/Mustard Seeds – 1 tspn

Jeera/Cumin Seeds – ½ tspn

Cilantro – 5-6 strands

Salt

Procedure for Poori:

1. Mix all the ingredients except oil and knead to make soft dough
2. Add some water if the dough is not soft enough. Make sure you do not make it too soft or watery. In that case, add some flour to it.
3. Now knead the dough for 2-3 mins with 1tbspn oil.
4. Now make 8-12 egg-sized balls of it and roll each ball with rolling pin into a 2” diameter poori.
5. Heat some oil(Enough for frying) in a wok and when the oil is very hot, fry the pooris on high heat. Never fry them on low heat.
6. Fry them till they are golden-brown in color.

Procedure for Bhaji:

1. Boil and peel the potatoes and make small cubes/pieces of it.
2. In a wok, heat some oil and put hing, rai and jeera and wait till they crackle. Now put the kadipatta , green chillies and onions in the given order.
3. Sautee the onions for 2 mins and then add ginger paste to it. Lower the flame when onions turn translucent and add haldi and boiled potato pieces.
4. Add some salt and water and cook it for 5 mins on medium flame
5. The ‘Bhaji’ is ready to relish.

Variations: 

You can add jeera or chilli powder to the dough to make variations of Pooris. 

You can serve Poori bhaji with some Coconut Chutney.

Conclusion:

Want to relive the hostel life again. How I wish I was in india!!