Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Pani Puri

Pani Puri is a favorite street food in India. In lots of "chaat" stalls around the cities, you can see people standing around carts popping little pieces of deliciousness into their mouths! This is my absolute favorite Indian snack (well...um... okay One of the many!).

It consists of 3-4 components - a deep fried puri, a sweet chutney, a spicy chutney and a stuffing for the puri. You first make a little hole in the puri, add a teaspoon of the stuffing, add a spoonful of each stuffing and pop it in your mouth before everything starts falling out! Its fun to eat!


Pani Puri
(recipe from Bhavani @ Snap Eat Burp)

Sweet Chutney

100 g Dates, boiled
1 marble-sized ball of Tamarind
1 tsp Chilli Powder
1 pinch Black Pepper
1 pinch Salt

Grind all ingredients together in a food process and keep aside.

Spicy Chutney

1 cup Cilantro Leaves
1/2 cup Mint Leaves
5 Green Chillies, coarsely chopped
4 cups Water
2 Cloves
1 small Cinnamon Stick
2 Cardamom
1 tsp Cumin Powder
3 tbsp Jal Jeera Powder (available in most Indian grocery stores)

Grind the cilantro, mint and green chillies together with the water and salt.
Roast the cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and cumin on a medium heat in a saucepan. Grind to a fine powder.
Mix the roasted and ground spices and the jal jeera powder with the ground cilantro mixture.

Stuffing for the Puri

1/2 cup Green Moong Dal/ Green Lentils, soaked in water until tender
1/2 cup Garbanzo Beans/ Kabuli Channa, soaked in water and then boiled
5 small Potatoes, peeled and boiled
3 tbsp Channa Masala (available in all Indian grocery stores)

Combine all ingredients together with a little salt to taste.

Puris

2 packets Puris (available in some Indian grocery stores)

OR

you could make your own puris. Priya @ Food for Bliss has a lovely recipe for making your own puris at home. She has some great photos of the pani puri too!

To Eat:

Crush the top of the puri a bit. Stuff the puris with the veggie stuffing, add a little bit of the sweet chutney, dip into the spicy chutney and eat in one bite. Enjoy!

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi I love going through your blog....nice recipies!

But this one.. Pani Puri is incomplete without Jal-Jeera :(

Arundathi said...

you're right, of course. I seem to have left it out - I've amended the post. Thanks for pointing it out!

Finla said...

Crush the top of the puri a bit. Stuff the puris with the veggie stuffing, add a little bit of the sweet chutney, dip into the spicy chutney and eat in one bite. Enjoy!

I am imagining doing all these. They just looks superbly delicious.
DROOL DROOL

Deepthi Shankar said...

yummy yummy .. its been ages since i ate pani puri ..

Ranjani said...

I'm soooo hungry now, I've been dreaming of eating aloo tikki chaat, and gol gappas for the past 3 nights..this post is now pure torture:(
Looks sooo good...crave crave!
That's it, I'm making chaat tonight too!

Mansi said...

Hi arundhati - pani puri looks lovely!

as for the other issue, I apologize for the mistake, I am in the process of rectifying it right now!

anudivya said...

I have been looking for the sweet and hot chutneys recipes... perfect! I am bookmarking it, might end up with a huge bowl of it this weekend.

Unknown said...

Looks perfect..I am waiting for our Indian trip to have these beauties..

Bharti said...

oh man...! I agree with Ranjini..this is pure torture. Looks awesome.

Arundathi said...

Happy cook - :) I hope you enjoyed the "virtual chaat"!

Deesha - Thanks! :)

Ranjani - :) Wish I could send some over, babe!

Mansi - Thanks Mansi for the prompt action.

Anudivya - Enjoy!

Divya Vikram - I hope we can meet up when you're here!

Bharti - Wish I could send it over to you too!

Vanamala Hebbar said...

hi

Panipuri looks lovely...

Bhavani said...

hey hey :):) nice to see the recipe on your blog :):) got me remembering our chaat party. :)

Arundathi said...

Vanamala - thanks!

Bhavani - :D :D just had to post it for you - such a fantastic recipe! can't wait for you to get here and we can have a chennai chaat party!

amna said...

just realised that i have been bookmarking practically every recipe that you come up with of late. so instead, decided to just to come over when i am in the mood to try something new.

Sunshinemom said...

Your version looks great esp. the khata meetha paani! My all time favourite - low calorie yet tasty!

Priya Suresh said...

Am drooling on ur panipuri...love them like anything...tempting me a lot..

Vidhya said...

I love pani puri and your recipe looks really neat. Thanks for sharing.

Vidhya said...

Btw r u interested in foodbuzz publisher program? if yes just mail me at viyer79@gmail.com

Arundathi said...

Nags - Come over anytime!

Sunshinemom - Hmm Low calorie - you're right! we should promote pani puri as diet food! :-)

Priya - Uh oh - I know abt those chaat cravings - I hope you get to eat it soon!

Vidhya - Thanks for stopping by. I am a member of foodbuzz - thanks!

Srivalli said...

That of course looks great...

Arundathi said...

yeah chaat always looks fabulous huh? :-)

Anonymous said...

So this is what those things are called. I thought pani puri was the rice krispy-like snack.

TBC said...

Yay! pani puri- it was one of my fav street foods when I lived in Bombay.


BTW, is there an e-mail address I could reach u at? Saw something just now and this does not seem an appropriate place to mention it...

Mallika said...

Looks too good. I have to say Pani Puri is the BEST on the roadside. Sadly my tummy can't uite stomach that any more.

Arundathi said...

Jude - those are called bhel puri...

TBC - have emailed you

Mallika - yes it definitely does taste by the roadside and from the street carts!