Cooking with Shail

Hey guys! Puranpoli is basically a Marathi classic dish but we gujratis have a completely different way way of making it and the raw banana subji and khandvi are classic gujrati dishes and go really well with purapoli and if you are a foodie and love some gujrati food do try out these three items. I have posted the gujrati thali before. Puranpoli is a kind of roti with sweet dal stuffing and just melts in the mouth. Raw banana subji tastes just like a potato sabji and I have made this with some stuffing. Khandvi is made using gram flour and buttermilk. The combination of three tastes is so delicious with the Puranpoli being sweet, Raw banana being slightly spicy and Khandvi being tangy due to buttermilk and makes a great appetizer (specially for us gujjus). All the three items can be eaten separately and individually also with many other combinations. They are all easy to make and very tasty and additionally they are all no onion no garlic recipes. So lets get cooking.

I) Puranpoli:

Ingredients:

Wheat Flour – 2 cups

Tur dal – 1 and 1/2 cups

Sugar – 3/4 cup

Oil – 2 tbsp

Water – 1 and 1/2 cups

Salt as per taste

Water for kneading the dough

Ghee/ Clarified Butter for greasing

Method:

1) Sieve the wheat flour, add the oil and mix it well into the flour. Now add some salt to it. Knead it into a soft dough using water. Cover the dough and keep it aside for rest.

2) Wash the tur dal and pressure cook it with the 1 and 1/2 cups of water till 4 whistles. Let the steam off and open the pressure cooker.

3) Take a wide wok add the tur dal to it. Keep the flame on medium and keep stirring the tur dal continuously. The tur dal will start to thicken. Now add the sugar to it once it becomes little thick and again keep stirring. The dal will become thick and like a dough. It will stop sticking to the pan. This entire process will take around 15-20 minutes. Once done spread the dal a little in the wok so that it cools down and apply ghee to the edges so that the dal does not fry up. Let it cool down completely.

4) Once it has cooled completely knead the dal into a dough with soft hands and make small balls out of it. Make small balls out of the dough and roll them into approximately 3 inches discs. Place the dal ball in this and seal it completely. Now roll the balls into thick rotis.

5) Take a tava and place the roti on it. Let it cook for a few seconds on the lower side, you will see small bubbles on top. Now turn the roti and let it cook on the other side. Once done turn again and let it cook on the upper side, which was par cooked before. Once done on both sides take it off the tava and apply ghee on it. Cook all the rotis this way.

6) Serve warm or little cold also tastes really delicious.

II) Raw Banana Subji:

Ingredients:

Raw bananas – 4

Oil – 2 tsp

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp

Cumin seeds – 1 tsp

Asafoetida- 1/2 tsp

Gram flour/Besan – 1/4 cup

Peanut powder – 1/4 cup

Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp

Red chilli powder – 2 tsp

Coriander Powder – 1 tsp

Cumin Powder – 1 tsp

Garam Masala – 1 tsp

Coriander Leaves (finely chopped) – 1/4 cup

Water- 1/2 cup

Salt as per taste

Method:

1) De skin the raw bananas or leave the skin on as you like it. Cut them in half. Then slit them vertically upto 3/4 of the base to stuff it with the stuffing in it.

2) In a bowl take the gram flour, peanut powder, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, garam masala, coriander powder, cumin powder, coriander leaves and salt and mix it all well together.

3) Take the raw bananas and stuff it with the stuffing. Now take a pressure cooker. Add the oil let it become warm. Add the mustard seeds and cumin seeds and let them crackle. Once done add the asafoetida. Now add the stuffed raw bananas to this. Now add the water and pressure cook it for 5 whistles.

4) Serve it hot with puranpoli.

III) Khandvi:

Ingredients:

Gram flour/besan – 1 and 1/2 cups

Buttermilk (sour) – 3 cups

Water – 1/4 cup

Turmeric powder – 2 tsp

Asafoetida – 1/2 tsp

Salt as per taste

Oil – 2 tbsp

Cumin seeds – 1 tsp

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp

Grated coconut – 1/4 cup

Curry leaves a few

Coriander leaves (finely chopped) – 1/4 cup

Method:

1) Sieve the gram flour. Mix together the water and buttermilk. Try to take sour buttermilk as that gives khandvi its typical tangy flavor. Mix together the gram flour and buttermilk till there are no lumps.

2) Take a wide wok. Add the gram flour and buttermilk mixture to this. On low flame keep stirring this mixture continuously till it becomes thick. Once it starts becoming thick bubbles will start to break out. keep stirring till the bubbles stop and the mixture will become like a paste. To check if the khandvi is ready take a little spoonful and spread it on a plate and roll it out, if it leaves the plate and rolls well without breaking the the paste is ready. It should not be too runny or too thick or it will break while spreading out.

3) Once done spread out the paste on oil greased plates evenly. Make vertical cuts across and keep for a few minutes to cool down. Once done roll them out along the vertical lines. Place them in a plate.

4) For the tempering take the oil. Add the cumin seeds and mustard seeds and let them crackle. Now add the curry leaves and pour this over the khandvi. Sprinkle the grated coconut and coriander leaves and serve it.