Shankarpoli

Diwali Day 2
ROTFL. I spent the whole of the previous day, ok am lying, 2 hours the previous day googling for the word- Shankarpoli and I must admit I found it even if only in one food blog. I used to laugh everytime I heard that name and I somehow felt that my mom might be getting it wrong. What could a God's name be doing alongside the rhyme for "koli" (chicken in kannada)? :) As it turns out what you get down from generations is never usually wrong, I found out that many people in the party I went to actually knew the sweet ! Inspite of my wisecracks this was something I have loved as a kid. A bowl full of Shankarpoli, tv and a cloudy day...heaven!

What you need to make Shankarpoli

• Maida (all purpose flour) - 1 cup
• Wheat flour - 1 cup
• Ghee/Butter - 2 tbsp
• Water - 1 cup
• Sugar - 1/2 cup
• Oil

Preparation to make Shankarpoli

• Mix the maida and the wheat flour together in a bowl.
• Add the ghee/butter to this (a little at a time) and knead well.
• Add water if required, and little by little, we dont want a flood in the bowl.
• At the end of the process you must have well kneaded dough ball (non sticky). Keep aside for ten minutes
• Powder the sugar in a mixer

Method to make Shankarpoli

• Flatten the dough till its a thin base. You could do this with hand (like u do pizza base, I did this for lack of a rolling pin) or with a rolling pin.
• Use a pizza cutter to cut this thin base into 1/2'*1/2' pieces.
• Get the pieces put and layout on a tray.

• Heat some oil in a heavy bottomed vessel.
• Deep fry the pieces till its golden brown. Do not make it too brown or crisp.
• Remove when fried and put it in the tray layered with the tissue paper.
• Immediately sprinkle some powdered sugar on the fried pieces. This way the sugar sticks to the pieces. (If you wait for it to cool down, the sugar does not stick.)
• Your Shankarpoli is ready to be eaten. And this one is not too sweet either so spice lovers will also like the crunchy semi sweet taste.

My fundas

1. Incase the sugar did not stick to the fried pieces, no need to fret, there is another way to make the sweet stick - Mix sugar in water and boil in a heavy bottomed vessel till syrup like consistency is reached. Spread the syrup on a bowl of the Shankarpoli pieces and eat.
2. This could also be made into a "Puris in milk" sweet which I will outline in my next post.