PURAN POLI RECIPE | POORAN POLI MAHARSHTRIAN HOLI SPECIAL RECIPE

Puran poli /pooran poli  is a classical Marathi dish, which is a dessert served during auspicious occasions and during important festivals such as Holi, Padwa in Maharashtra. Although it resembles like a roti, a poli is actually very different. It is similar to the Paratha except that the stuffing is sweet. It is made from jaggery (molasses or gur), yellow gram (chana) dal, plain flour, cardamom powder and ghee (clarified butter).  .Sometimes toor dal is used in Gujarat. In other places, even moong dal is used, even a mix of different lentils is used in some recipes.

There are a very few dishes that we are proud of and Puran Poli is one of them. It's just one of those things, which we seek pride in and for anybody to be called a 'Sugaran' (expert cook).  It is made mostly during holi when the bonfire is lit. The stuffing is known as puran and the outer cover is known as poli.

People of Maharashtra have their own grand style of celebrating Holi. Puran Poli has great importance on this Holi day. In fact each Maharashtrian festival and occasions are incomplete without Puran Poli. It is a eaten after meals or as a snack and is present in almost all maharashtrian festive occassions.

The poli is in itself a delicious sweetmeat and is often eaten as such. It may be served with a spoonful of ghee. Poli is often served with milk, which may be sweetened or flavoured with almonds and pistachio. In certain areas, polis a tangy, tamarind-based sauce (similar to the base of pulihora) is served with the poli, to enhance the experience by combining very disparate flavours. In Maharashtra, the tangy sauce is called katachi amti.
.In Goan cuisine and the cuisine of the Konkani diaspora in Karnataka and Kerala, punn-poli or Holgi, is generally served with coconut milk flavored with nutmeg and sweetened with jaggery.

.In other parts of Karnataka, holige or bele obbattu is served with ghee and hot milk. A variant of the bele obbattu is the crunchy kai obbattu that is prepared with jaggery and coconut. This is usually eaten dry with ghee.

.In the Vidarbha region of eastern Maharashtra, the puran polis are soft, since the stuffing is made with jaggery. In western Maharashtra, the powdered white-sugar version is preferred, resulting in a crunchy puran poli.

Ingredients :
For the Puran /stuffing
Chana dal - 1 cup

Jaggery - 1 cup

Cardamom powder - 1 tsp

Nutmeg powder (jaiphal) - 1 tsp

For Outer cover
Maida - 1.5 cups

Oil / Ghee - 1 tbsp

Salt - a pinch

Water / milk - as required for kneading

Oil - as required for toasting

Method:

Puran (Stuffing)
1.Soak chana dal in water for atleast 1 hour .Cook Chana Dal with twice amount of water,  in a pressure cooker till very soft but not mashed. (about 2 whistles and ~15 mins on low flame thereafter.)

2.Drain and remove water from the cooked Dal and reserve the water for making katachi amti later..

3.Heat a kadhai and add the dal and on a low flame dry out all the moisture from the Dal.
4.Add the jaggery, to the dal.
5.Cook and stir till the mixture is completely dry. (take care not to burn the mixture)
6.Add the nutmeg powder & elaichi powder mix well.
7.Remove the mixture from the heat ,cool it  and pass it through a Puran maker (puran yantra)/ Food Mill. You can even grind the mixture in a mixer(Pulse the mixie on & off )
8.Keep aside till you are ready with the covering dough. This filling can be made 1-2 days in advance and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

 Covering :
1.Sift the  all purpose flour and pinch of salt through a fine mesh sieve.

2.Add oil (2-3 tbsp) and water / milk  and knead into a soft elastic dough. (You may need to add more water/ oil to get very soft dough)

3.Add about 3/4th Katori  oil  &  Keep the dough covered for about an hour to make it more soft.

Assembling puran poli
1.Take a lemon sized ball of the dough. Flatten it using the finger tips with the help of the Rice flour .You can even roll with the help of rolling pin.

2.Take a bigger ball of the Puran/stuffing mixture.

3.Place it on the flattened dough,seal and cover it with the dough such that the Puran gets stuffed inside the dough.

4.Roll out the stuffed dough using the Rice flour for dusting into a round chapatti (as thin as possible), taking care that the Puran/stuffing does not come out and the chapatti does not stick to the surface. Place a newspaper / platic sheet on rooling board (polpat) while rolling.Roll poli as thin as possible.

5.Heat a non-stick tava/griddle..
6.Once rolled out, use the rolling pin to transfer the Puran poli to the  tava.Cook on both sides till golden brown.

7.Remove from the tava.
8.Serve hot Puran Poli’s with a generous drizzle of hot melted ghee and Katachi Amti & cup of milk.

Tips :

1. Use milk instead of water for making the maida dough to make pooran polis very soft.
2. Use Toor dal along with chana dal to make them more thin and soft.
3. If the chana dal mixture becomes too dry and cannot be made into balls, add  1 spn rice flour to it.
4. While grinding take care not to make the channa dal to a paste consistency. It should be coarse with one or dals popping out.
5. Rolling thick or thin is purely your choice.Serve hot/warm with butter - tastes divine!
6. You can add a pinch of turmeric powder to maida flour as in store bought ones but I dont prefer doing so.
7. Maida can be replaced with wheat flour or you can use maida : wheatflour in  1:1 ratio.
8. You can also add milk while mixing the maida dough but again shelf life is less.
9. It keeps well in room temperature for 2-3 day.
10. Fresh puran {filling} may be stored in the refrigerator for a week