An Invitation to Indian Cooking - Madhur Jaffrey [107]
½ cup whole-wheat (not coarse, stone-ground) flour
½ cup all-purpose white flour
1½ tablespoons vegetable oil
Oil for deep frying, enough to have 2–3 inches in skillet
About ½ cup finely ground whole-wheat flour to keep on the side for dusting
Place whole-wheat and white flour in a bowl. Pour the oil over it. Slowly add up to ½ cup water and mix until all the flour adheres and you can knead it. (You will probably need a little less than ½ cup water.) Knead it well for 7 to 8 minutes. Form into a ball, cover with a damp cloth, and leave for 1½ to 3 hours. (If you wish to leave it longer, cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and refrigerate. It will keep up to 24 hours.)
Heat the oil in the karhai, wok, or skillet over a medium flame. Give it time to get smoking hot. I wait 10 minutes before I put the first poori in.
While the oil is heating, knead the dough again. Divide the dough into 14 balls, keeping those you are not rolling covered with damp cloth. Flatten the balls one at a time and roll them out this way: first dip the flattened ball in the whole-wheat flour that you have on the side. Now roll it evenly, sprinkling the surface and the poori with flour when you need to, until it is about 3½ to 4 inches in diameter. Do not allow it to stick to the surface. Whenever it does, dip it in the dry flour.
Test the hot oil by dropping a poori in it. It will first sink to the bottom. Then, within a few seconds, it will rise and sizzle. Now you can do one of two things. Either keep pushing the poori down gently—with swift but soft pushes, using the back of a slotted spoon—or, with swift strokes, baste the poori with the hot oil. In basting, what you actually do is push the hot oil toward and over the poori. Or you can do both of these things. But do it fast. Within half a minute, the poori should puff up. Turn it over with a slotted spoon, and cook another 30 seconds. Remove with slotted spoon, drain on paper towel, and serve immediately. If the first poori comes out hard, you are cooking it too long, or the oil is not hot enough, or both.
If you do not wish to serve the puffed-up pooris right away, deflate them as they come out of the karhai (watch out for that steam!) by pressing down on them; wrap tightly in a large sheet of aluminum foil. (Do not crush them, though.) As the pooris get done, lay them one over the other, and keep wrapping the lot with foil. This will keep them soft. If they are served this way, at room temperature, they are known as baasi, or “stale,” pooris. If you wish to reheat them, place the foil bundle in a 300° preheated oven for 10 minutes.
To serve: Pooris go well with Kheema, with Lamb Cooked in Dark Almond Sauce, with Chicken Moghlai, and nearly all the vegetable dishes.
Paratha
SERVES 4–8
A paratha is cooked on the griddle but with butter or ghee rather like a pancake. In Delhi and Uttar Pradesh it is often triangular in shape, flaky, and very delicate. It can be made with whole-wheat flour or with an equal combination of whole-wheat and all-purpose white flour.
1½ cups whole-wheat (not coarse, stone-ground) flour
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
½ teaspoon salt
About 4 tablespoons melted butter or usli ghee
½ cup whole-wheat flour to keep on the side for dusting
Place the 1½ cups of flour in a bowl. Pour the oil over it. Add the salt. Slowly add about ½ cup water (you may need a bit more), and mix until all the flour adheres and you can knead. Knead the dough well for 8 to 10 minutes. Form into a ball. Cover with a damp cloth and set aside for 30 minutes. (If you wish to leave it longer, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. It will keep up to 24 hours.)
Put a tava or griddle or cast-iron skillet to heat over a medium flame. Knead dough once again for a minute. Divide dough into 8 balls. Keep balls covered with damp cloth. Take one ball out at a time and flatten it slightly. Dip it in the extra flour and roll it out evenly on a floured surface until it is about 5 inches in diameter.