Poori, Hyderabadi Chole and Chennai Potato

Namo Narayana 

Thank you all for this 250th post. We shall write more for you to cook and celebrate even more. 

On a personal note, a very happy 1st wedding Anniversary to Neeharika and Manoj Kasyap. 

Pooris are the most popular Indian bread for both the north and south Indians. Pooris are the ideal ‘tiffin’ for all occasions. No south Indian Thali is complete without the four small and crispy pooris in any south Indian restaurant. Here, we complement the poori with some of its most popular combos across India and in particular south India. Each recipe in this post is a cheer to those who made our poori experiences exciting. 

Poori 

Most of our relatives in Bengaluru would serve pooris to us whenever we visited them. We have had round ones, semi-circled ones and even triangle pooris. The Poori recipe is dedicated to all of them. Thank you Kamal Kiran for the puffy pooris and crispy clicks. 

Ingredients: 

Wheat flour 1 cup 

Refined cooking oil 1 cup 

Pinch of salt (optional) 

Method: 

Add a pinch of salt to the wheat flour (optional). Add a few spoons of oil, water as required and knead to smooth dough. 

Take small lumps of the dough and bail flat and round. Do not dust too much flour while bailing, else the pooris absorb a lot of oil. 

Deep fry in pre heated oil, one at a time pouring hot oil over the poori for the poori to puff up. If more than one is fried at a time, then the pooris turn crisp and don’t puff. 

Remove onto a tissue to drain off excess oil. 

Hot and yummy pooris are done. 

Hyderabadi Chole 

The Punjabi chole is quite popular, but for us Hyderabadis there is nothing that can beat our Hyderabadi chole, especially the one at the St. Ann’s canteen, Mehedipatnam. It was one of the major attractions for us to attend college and all the plates were polished clean every time. This one’s to the st. Anns canteen and all our classmates who enjoyed the chole with us. 

Ingredients: 

Chick peas (kabuli channa/chole channa) 1/4th kilo 

Onion 1 

Green chillies 2 

Onion paste 2 tsp 

Tomato paste 2tbsp 

Cloves 2 

Cinnamon stick 1 

Cardamom 2 

Refined cooking oil/Butter 1 tbsp 

Tea bag 1 

Red chilli powder 1 tsp 

Chole masala/Garam masala 1-2 tsps 

Fresh coriander for garnish 

Method: 

Wash and soak the chickpeas overnight. Drain and wash again and pressure cook to 6-7 whistles/ Boil until soft and mash able. Set aside to cool. 

Take a handful of chickpeas from this boiled ones and grind to a fine paste. 

In a cooking pot/vessel, add the remaining chickpeas and a teabag and leave to boil. 

Heat the oil and add cloves, cinnamon stick, green chillies, chopped onions and onion paste. Cook until the onions turn transparent. Add tomato paste and cook thick. 

To this, add the tea bag flavored chickpeas, chickpea paste, red chilli powder, garam masala/chole masala as available and salt to taste. Add water as required, mix well, and leave to cook to smooth gravy. Sprinkle some chopped coriander while the chole is cooking for the flavor and aroma. This should take around 5-8 mins. 

Serve hot and spicy Hyderabadi Chole with the hot pooris or savor it as is. 

Potato Curry 

“Oru poori potato”.. This is something every person in Chennai and surrounding areas would have often heard and said at the restaurants. The best available at Palm grove, Nungambakkam. A bite of the crispy poori with soft and dissolving potatoes spiced with onions and dipped into coconut chutney is sheer bliss. This recipe cheers all the Chennai restaurants where we enjoyed this bliss, Palm grove in particular. 

Ingredients: 

Potatoes (Aloo) 2 

Onion 1 

Green chillies 2 

Red chilli 1 

Refined cooking oil 1 tbsp 

Mustard seeds 1 tsp 

Cumin seeds 1 tsp 

Black gram 1 tbsp 

Curry leaves 4-5 

Chopped coriander 1 tbsp 

Chopped ginger 1 tsp 

Pinch of turmeric 

Pinch of asafoetida 

Salt to taste 

Method: 

Pressure-cook the potatoes without peeling them to 4 whistles/ boil until soft. Set aside to cool. 

Finely chop the onions, green chillies, ginger and coriander. 

Peel the potatoes and cut into small cubes. (Some of them are mashed in the process, but not a worry, we add the mash too to curry). 

In a pan/kadai (bandli/mookudu), heat oil and add mustard seeds and a red chilli. As they pop, add cumin seeds, black gram, curry leaves and a pinch each of turmeric and asafoetida. 

Add the chopped onion, green chillies, coriander and ginger. Sauté until the onions are transparent and the raw smell is lost. 

Add the potato cubes along with the mashed portions, salt to taste and around half to three fourths cup of water and cook to a soft, dry and semi-liquid curry. When left for a couple of minutes, this liquid will absorb into the potatoes resulting in a softer curry. 

Enjoy a bite of the yummy poori potato and say ‘aha’! 

And hey! Three Cheers to our blog readers, viewers and followers!