Pani Puri / Gol Gappe - Indian Cooking Challenge for May

Pani Puri or Gol Gappe or Mini Pooris are always great hit in our home and whenever we go to hotel, the starter dish my kids order is Pani Poori. We just try to find out shops that offer real good Pani Pooris where the Pani is not too hot or too sweet. Pani given with the poori should be of the mixture of both with an extra tinge - Comment by daughter. Though we love to eat it in chat shops or road side ones, still the best is to make at home (trying to be highly hygenic!!!! uh!!!). Many a times, my husband gets the pooris alone and I make the paani and within seconds I find the packets empty.

But whenever I make Pani Puris at home, its just my daughter Surabi and Shrawan come to help me (by rolling the dough to balls and eating a few small pieces too). And cutting the spread out dough to small puris using the small tiffin box lid (which is used to take pickles to office and school). This time it was a big competition  between my son and daughter as to who will cut out how many number of puris. (Obviously daughter won).

Eating these puris is definitely an art and I have to say that my daughter mastered it for sure.

Got the recipe for Pani Puri from my mom and here I am adding it with a few of my additions.

Ingredients for Puri:

Maida - 1/2 cup
Wheat flour or all purpose flour - 1/2 cup
Urad Dal - 1/4 cup
Rawa (Fine one) - 1/4 cup
Salt - A pinch

This quantity will make almost 18 to 20 puris.

How to make Puris:
     Mix all the ingredients together and knead well to a fine dough by adding water little by little. Let the dough set for about 1/2 an hour. Flatten the dough into chappatis and cut into small puris using the lid of small tiffin box. (If it is possible one can also make small puris and fry it out).



Fillings:
1. Channa Dal (prefrebly the brown ones which is also known as chick peas) - 1/2 cup
2. Potato - 4 nos (medium sized)
3. Sev - (better get in sweet shop, if you dont have at home) - 1/2 cup

These are the three types of fillings one can have along with finely chopped onions, coriander leaves, Bhoondi and Pani. These can be either had separately or mixed together to get a different taste.

How to make Pani for Pani Puri
Mint leaves - 1/2 cup
Coriander Leaves - 1/2 cup
Pepper - 6 nos
Jeera - 2 tsp
Clove - 4 nos(optional)
Dry Mano Powder /Amchur Powder - 1/4 cup
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Green Chilly - 1 or 2 nos
Table salt - to taste
Water - 1 litre (add more if the pani is a bit thick)
Tamrind Paste - 2 tbsp
Dates - 4 nos.
Jaggery - 2 tbsp

I normally make Pani which will have both hot and sour and sweet taste. I make only one single Pani. But in general in all shops, two types of Pani are given. Sweet Paani made of dates and tamrind and hot and sour pani made of Mint leaves.

For both the paanis to use the tamrind paste, add 1 cup of water to 1 tbsp of paste and either microwave for 2 mins or keep in stove and let it bring to a boil. Remove from flame and let it cool.

Keep 1 litre of water in fridge and let it cool.

Sweet Paani
Soak dates in hot water for about 1/2 an hour. Grind it along with jaggery and seive it to remove the waste. Add tamrind water and mix well.

Hot and Sour Pani
Mix the dry mango powder in 1/2 cup water for about 1/2 an hour. Drain it to remove the dust. Grind Pudina, Jeera, Clove, Pepper, Ginger, Green chillies to a fine paste. Add salt and cold water to the ground paste and Amchur powder. Again keep the mixture in fridge and take it out just before serving.

To make the fillings 
Channa Filling - Pressure cook the channa dal and add salt and a pinch of chilly powder to it.
Potato filling - Pressure cook and mash the potatoes. Add salt and chilly powder to it and mix in a kadai along with a spoon of oil.

How to serve Paani Puri at home
In a square or triangle plate (this is better for drinking the paani that have fallen to the plate after finishing off the puris) arrange the puris along with either or the mixture of all the filling. Add paani to the puris slowly. It is better to fill the puris after one with paani is eaten.

(Want to know who won the maximum number of Paani Puri eating Competition? There was a tie between my husband and daughter and at last daughter won by eating two more)