Bedmi Poori
Lentil and whole wheat flour pooris (puffed flatbread). A popular street food from Delhi & Uttar Pradesh. These pooris are traditionally served with spicy potato curry and sweet & sour pumpkin.
Ingredients
- ¾ cup split & skinned urad dal
- 2.5 cup whole wheat flour (atta)
- 1.5 inch fresh ginger roughly chopped
- 2 indian green chillies (hot)
- 1.5 teaspoon fennel seeds
- ½ teaspoon nigella seeds
- 1.5 teaspoon cumin seeds
- ½ teaspoon red chili powder
- ¼ teaspoon hing
- 1.5 teaspoon salt adjust to taste
- 2-3 tablespoon oil while kneading the dough)
- Oil for frying
Instructions
- Wash the urad lentils 2-3 times. Soak the lentils in excess water for at least 4-6 hours.
- Once soaked, drain the water completely.
- Add lentils to a grinder/blender along with ginger, green chilies, cumin, fennel, nigella, red chili powder and hing. Grind the dal to a coarse paste. If needed, add little water (1-3 tablespoon).Dont make a fine paste.Tip - A thick, slightly coarse dal paste is essential for the right texture. We want that little bits of spices are visible in the ground dal(pitthi).
- Place the atta in a large mixing bowl. Add ground dal, oil and salt. Combine the atta and dal using your hands. The atta will feel a bit sticky.
- Start adding a little water at a time and mixing. Once the flour has moistened, start knead using your knuckles into a firm tight dough. I used about ? cup water. Add water slowly while kneading. Knead the dough for about 8-10 minutes to make as smooth as possible. The dough should be firm and not too soft. It should be firmer than regular poori dough. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and let rest for 20 minutes.
- Pinch equal portions from the stiff dough depending on how large/small or thin/thick you want to make pooris. Roll the dough portions into small balls.
- In a kadai/wide pot, pour oil and place on a medium flame to heat up. We want hot oil but it should not be smoky.
- Without using any dry flour, roll the dough balls one by one into to a small circle (3-4 inch). You can use little oil while rolling if needed.
- Oil Temperature should be medium-high. When you add the pooris, they should sizzle and puff up immediately. If the oil is not hot enough, the pooris will become greasy. You can check the temperature of oil by adding a small pea sized portion of dough into hot oil, it should sizzle and rise immediately.
- Slide the rolled poori into the hot oil and deep fry till golden brown from both the sides. Gently press the pooris while frying so that they puff up.
- Drain them on a plate lined with paper towel. Repeat till all pooris are fried up. Serve.
Notes
- Dont use unsoaked lentils. This helps in even grinding the dal. However, no need to soak the lentils for more than 4-6 hours. This is a little tip of my mom - who says that this way the pooris don't absorb a lot of oil. I swear by it.
- You can use yellow mung or chana (bengal gram) lentils instead of urad dal.
- Go light handed on spices or green chilies. Certainly, spices make the pooris really tasty, however, they should not cover the taste of lentils.
- You can add a little bit of sooji (fine semolina) to the dough for added crispness.
- While rolling the pooris, make sure to roll them of uniform thickeness. Too thin and they may become too crispy, while too thick may not cook evenly.
- Have patience. Such traditional recipes take a lot of practice to master. Don't be discouraged if your first attempt isn't perfect.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!