Jihva for Ingredients (JFI) - Toor dal

This was like the simplest event I could take part in. Which humble south Indian would not use toor dal in everyday life to make that humble yet scintillating rasam or sambar. But I remembered an earlier post about a gori kayi (cluster beans) curry that I had in north Karnataka style and felt it was the recipe that I would submit. You can view the recipe post here

Puri Pal (Puris in milk)

I came across WYF-Dessert/Sweet on SnackORama so decided that this would be my contribution to it.

Diwali Day 3
This is another favourite of mine. Sigh I love all sweets! This particular dish is also a favourite with my grandma. She loves it when my mom makes this at home. I dedicate this post to my grandma who we all fondly call Manni.

What you need to make Puri Pal
For the dough

• Maida - 1 cup
• Wheat flour - 1 cup
• Ghee/Butter - 2 tbsp
• Water - 1 cup

For the sweet gravy

• Milk - 6 cups
• Sugar - 1-2 cups depending on how sweet you want it, can add as you progress with dish
• Cardamom - 2
• Saffron - 4-5 strands
• Cashewnuts - 10
• Raisins - 10

Preparation to make Puri

• 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

Method to make Puri
There are two ways of doing this :

First (Shankarpoli)

• Flatten the dough till its a thin base. You could do this with hand (like you 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.

Second

• Make regular palm sized puris
• When cool tear the puris into small pieces and keep aside.
• Heat some oil in a heavy bottomed vessel.
• Deep fry the puris 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.

Method to make Puri Pal

• Heat the milk in a heavy bottomed vessel.
• This is one of those "patience" dishes.
• You need to allow the milk to boil on simmer till it condenses to 3/4 its quantity and starts thickening.
• Add required amount of sugar to it.
• Add the puri pieces to this milk and allow it to boil for some time till the puris soften (you should be able to break the piece with least effort).
• Add the cardamom, saffron, cashewnuts and raisins and get it to a final boil.

My fundas

• In case the milk does not thicken add a handful of Rava (Semolina / cream of wheat).

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.