Soft And Fluffy Wheat Poori

Wheat Poori, Image by Author

This is my husband’s favorite dish and he loves to eat this any time of the day.

The secret behind fluffiness is how well you should knead your dough and, of course, combines with resting time.

There is no easy way to make this, but you can make nice poori’s if you follow my method.

Poori is a deep-fat fried bread made from unleavened whole-wheat flour that originated in the Indian subcontinent.

This is a dish served for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or even as a snack. When it’s warm, you can eat as it is even without any side dishes.

But I would like to eat this with the creamy chicken stew. Totally irresistible. There are some standard side dishes for this item but I am breaking the norm.

The most important element you need to make a poori is Poori Press. This can be made without poori press, but you will end up good for nothing.

You can individually roll out each small dough but requires a huge amount of energy and time.

You might not have heard about Poori Press, but I am sure you are familiar with the term Tortilla press.

A tortilla press is a traditional device with a pair of flat round surfaces to flaten the dough ball in order to obtain a round shape. It is usually made of cast iron, cast aluminium or wood.

Photo by Dennis Schrader on Unsplash

Tortilla Press

Ingredients

1 cup Wheat Flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoon Semolina

1/4 cup tap water + 2–3 Tablespoon water

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

1 and 1/2 Cup Cooking Oil for frying

Preparation

1. In a bowl, mix 1/4 cup water with salt well, then add olive oil and stir it a few times.
2. Gradually add flour and semolina into the oily water, stir the mixture using a spoon or fork. Combine it well.
3. Using hand, combine the flour mixture into a dough ball. If needed, add water little by little to make it into a dough.
4. Knead the dough for few minutes until it is soft, smooth. The dough should be bouncy when you gently press it. It’s pretty much the same as the dough we make for rolls. The longer you knead would result in a softer dough.
5. Wrap the dough with a damp cloth and let it rest for 10–15 minutes.
6. Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan or wok on low-medium flame. This would take a while.
7. Meanwhile, make small balls about the size of a table tennis ball from the dough and set it aside.
8. Grease the Poori press and flatten the dough and flip the dough, press one more time to flatten it further. Flatten dough should not be too thin but not too thick.
9. The oil will be sizzling hot now, fry each dough at a time. The frying process is very quick if the oil is hot enough.
10. The dough will puff up the moment you place it in the hot oil and turns it into a golden brown color. Flip and let it fry the other side. This would only take a few seconds. Let the excess oil drip using a colander with a handle and place it on a paper towel to remove the excess oil.
11. Enjoy warm poori with creamy chicken stew.

Notes

• Poori can be stored in a tight container at Room temperature for up to 24 hours.
• Advisable to refrigerate it if leftover is not consumed within 24 hours.
• Leftover poori will be a bit soggy and becomes hard, so I suggest either steam it or close it with a lid if you choose to microwave it.

Originally published in Medium

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