My Secret to Perfect Poori and Incredible Potato Masala

How to make perfectly fluffy pooris and incredible potatoes to match...

Poori or Puri (used interchangeably.. by me usually) is a puffed up (by deep-frying) flatbread made very simply with wheat flour. Sounds greasy but anyone who has eaten a puri ever in their life knows how delicious they can be. The secret to a great Poori lies in a couple of simple things: moisture (or lack there-of) in the dough AND temperature of the oil. Atleast primarily. There are few runner-up VIPs that one should consider. Similarly, for the potato masala there are literally 3 key ingredients that make/break this dish. But more on these later. First, a list of Ingredients and then a recipe and then all the accoutrements (per usual).

Ingredients

Poori:

Wheat flour (atta) – 2-3 cups
Lukewarm water
Salt – 1 tablespoon
Sugar – 1 teaspoon
Set aside ~1/2 cup of wheat flour for dusting
Neutral oil – To fry the pooris – ~500ml

Potato Masala:

Yellow/golden potatoes – 4-5 whole
White/Yellow onions – 3 (peeled and sliced thinly)
Green Chilies – 4-5 (whole)
Turmeric powder – 1 teaspoon
Garlic – 4 cloves (peeled, whole)
Ginger – 1-2 inch piece (peeled, cut into small cubes)
Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp
Urad dal (split) – 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds – 1/2 tsp
Sugar – 1/2 tablespoon
Salt – To taste
Neutral oil – 2-3 tablespoons
Fresh Cilantro – washed and chopped – 1/4 cup

Method

Making the Pooris:

First, in a wide bowl, place the whole wheat flour, salt and sugar and mix well.
Gradually add warm water and bring the dough together.
The consistency we are going for is a somewhat dry dough that stays together without crumbling into pieces. Hold the water as soon as you hit this stage. (One of the keys to great pooris is to have a lower moisture content in the dough!)
Once the dough is ready, let it rest for ~5-10mins. Then, portion the dough into balls the size of limes.
Dust a flat surface or a clean cutting board with the remaining wheat flour that was set aside. Place a dough ball in the center and spread it out using a rolling pin. Dust with flour as you go to avoid sticking.
Once the dough has been spread out to ~2-3mm thickness, set aside to fry up later.
Repeat the process with all the dough balls.
Keep the flattened dough covered under a damp cloth or damp paper-towels to prevent excessive drying out.
Heat up neutral oil (canola/vegetable works well) in deep, heavy-bottomed dish.
Test out the oil temperature by dropping in a very small pinch of dough. If the dough bubbles around the edges and rises to the top, the oil is ready to start frying. If the dough settles at the bottom and takes a long time to rise up, wait a few more minutes and try again. This step is critical to prevent the flatbreads from absorbing excessive oil and also for the pooris to puff up correctly!
Once the oil is ready, drop in the flattened dough pieces one at a time. Using a slotted spoon, continuously bathe the top of the pooris with hot oil as they fry up. This helps the poori puff up in one consistent sweep.
Once fully puffed up or after 1 minute on one side (whichever happens first), turn the poori over to cook the other side fully.
When the bubbles have subsided around the edges of the poori, the cooking is mostly done. At this point, you can remove the poori from the oil and drain onto a rack/bowl lined with paper towels to catch excess oil.
Repeat this frying process with all remaining dough pieces.

Let the pooris rest while you make the potato masala.

Potato Masala

Place the potatoes (washed and scrubbed well) into a pot of water. Bring to a boil. Add ~1 tsp of salt.
Let the potatoes boil for ~7-8 minutes. Check to see if they are cooked (fork-tender).
Remove from the heat and drain. Add some cold water to the potatoes to cool them down and peel all the potatoes.
Chop the potatoes into small cubes. Set aside.
In a clean pan/pot, add neutral oil (~1.5 tablespoons) and heat up.
Once oil is hot, add the mustard seeds, urad dal and cumin seeds. Let the mustard seeds crackle.
Then, lower the heat and add the sliced onions. This step should not be done on high heat. The goal is to keep the onions translucent and colorless.
While this is cooking, in a mortar and pestle, place the peeled garlic and ginger pieces with the whole green chillies. Mash into a rough paste.
Add this to the pot of onions and saute for ~1 minute.
Add salt and turmeric powder to the pot. Give it a good mix.
Add about 3 full cups of water. Bring to a simmer. Cover and let cook for ~10mins.
At this point, add in the chopped potatoes and check seasoning. Adjust salt as needed.
Increase the heat to bring everything together. The consistency should be semi-gravy i.e. not too soupy but not too thick either.
Sprinkle the 1/2 tablespoon of sugar and chopped cilantro. Stir and remove from heat.
Potato masala is ready to serve!

Chef Notes:

For the pooris:

Some pointers on how to get the best tasting pooris…

The moisture in the dough matters (a lot!). Try to get the dough as dry as possible without it crumbling into itself. This is the opposite of what we would do when making chapathis or other flatbreads where a more – moistened dough yields softer chapathis. In this case, since we are frying them up, the opposite holds true.
Temperature of the oil is important. The process of frying up the pooris calls for some level of patience and it starts with waiting for the oil to heat up. Trying to fry up pooris with lukewarm oil NEVER works. Just wait another 5 minutes. Have a cup of tea or listen to a song or do some push-ups. Whatever it takes to wait for the oil to get to temperature. Skip this and you’ll have oil-laden, messy, heavy pooris that no one will want to eat.
Flavoring the dough: Sometimes, if I’m adventurous, I’d mix in some cayenne or garam masala. This is optional. Flour + Salt + Water = Great dough. However, if you so feel inclined, go ahead and add the things you want. Remember: The consistency of the dough does get impacted by what you add. Keep this in mind when you bring the dough together. For example: Adding whole cumin or ajwain seeds will add another layer of flavor but can prevent your dough from puffing up fully (sometimes). Alternately, if you added say.. cooked spinach puree, moisture content needs to be monitored to avoid a sloppy dough. It still needs to be dry enough to fry up well. These are things you can try out and experiment with to perfect over time.

For the most scrumptious potatoes...

The step with the garlic/ginger/chillies in the mortar and pestle is the single most important one to get the right flavor profile into the masala. Don’t ask me why you couldn’t just chop these up and throw them in or use a blender. I don’t know why but it just isn’t the same. So if you want the authentic taste, don’t skip this step.
Also, some common additions to the masala include: chopped tomatoes, a squeeze of lime/lemon in the end or a handful of roasted cashews. These are all optional and can be used as you please. The basic recipe above works incredibly well. But do what suits you!

And there it is.. your path to this incredible breakfast meal. Have it with some Rava Kesari and a cup of coffee or masala tea (recipes for these are coming soon!) and that will add a whole layer of awesomeness to your breakfast you didn’t think you needed.