Puran Poli

Before leaving Bangalore in 2008, I visited one of my ex colleague Sree. She has invited me for breakfast. That day she served me hot puran polis topped with generous amount ghee. I dont remember the exact count or puran polis I had. It was absolute heaven!!!

That was the first time I had hot puran polis. Puran polis are also known as holige or obbattu in Karnataka. In Kerala we call it Boli. I was not a fan of this particular sweet dish. But the hot version is absolute yum. I never got a chance to ask Sree the recipe.

When I moved to Qatar, one of my neighbor and kind friend who is from Maharashtra taught me to make the stuffing of puran poli. There was time I could never make aloo paratha. After obtaining the the skill of paratha making from my ex-PG mate Vidhi, making puran poli was very easy.

You need,
For Stuffing

• Split Bengal gram (chana dal) – 1 cup
• Jaggery grated – 2/3 cup
• Green cardamom powder – 1/4 teaspoon
• Ginger grated – 1 tbsp

For dough,

• All purpose flour (maida) 1 1/4 cups
• Salt a pinch
• Pure ghee 1/2 cup

You have to,
For stuffing

• Wash and boil chana dal in an  open pan till it is done (it should be powdered if you press it)
• Drain and add grated jaggery, grated ginger , cardamom powder stirring till it dries up.
• Allow to cool. Now put mixture in a flat surface and powder it with roller pin
• Divide the stuffing into sixteen to twenty equal portions and roll them into balls.

For dough

• Mix flour and salt in bowl
• Add three tablespoons of ghee and sufficient water to make a soft dough.
• Cover and keep aside for sometime.
• Divide dough into sixteen to twenty equal portions and roll into balls.

Stuffing and cooking

• Flatten each flour ball in your palm
• Place one portion of stuffing, cover and seal the edges.
• Dust it with flour and roll out in medium thickness.
• Heat a tawa or pan and cook puran poli until done on both sides.
• Serve with ghee or kheer or any spicy bhaji or eat as it is… 🙂

Now I try making puran polis every Diwali. And taught my mom as well… 🙂 .

Trying the sweet puran poli with some spicy bhaji was introduced to me by one of my Gujarati friend. And that was an interesting combination. 🙂

Happy Diwali!!!

Few old pics