Suruttai Poli - Indian Cooking Challenge, Feb 2011

Suruttai poli, a traditional sweet preparation of South India, was chosen by Srivalli as the recipe for Indian Cooking Challenge for the month of February, 2011. This recipe is suggested by Nithya of 4th sense cooking, who stated her mother�s traditional, tried & tested recipe.

I had never heard about this dish so it was a real challenge to attempt. When I searched the net for pictures, I came across Pavithra's recipe on how the final dish will look.

Suruttai means rolled up and poli, generally refers to the sweet poli. It somehow resembled patisapta (a traditional sweet / savoury preparation in Bengali), stuffed with fillings of khoya & kheer / grated coconut, mixed with jaggery and rolled tightly.

Here the outer covering should be thin, like a papad. It came out nicely and everyone enjoyed this delicious sweet treat. The only addition I made, I added some raisins in the filling mixture�.

Ingredients:

For filling:

• Roasted gram: 1 cup
• Sugar: 1 cup
• Cashews, chopped: 3-4 tbsp
• Raisins: 3-4 tbsp
• Cardamom powder: 1 tsp
• Coconut, grated: 2 tbsp
• Ghee: 1 tsp

For dough:

• All purpose flour: 1 cup
• Salt, a pinch
• Water, to knead dough
• Oil, for frying polis

For garnishing:

• Sugar, powdered: � cup
• Cashews, chopped: 5-6
• Raisins: 10-12

Preparations:

Method for filling:

1. Dry roast the gram and powder the roasted gram and sugar together in a mixer.
2. Heat ghee and roast the chopped cashew, add grated coconut and saut� them till golden brown. mix well.
3. Add the powdered gram & sugar mixture, mix thoroughly by stirring continuously and switch off flame. Pour the mixture in a bowl and keep aside.

Method to prepare dough for Polis:

1. Sift flour and salt in a bowl, add a little water and knead to prepare a soft dough (like chaapati consistency). Ccover and set it aside for 10-15 mins.
2. Powder sugar, sprinkle on a plate and keep aside.
3. Make small balls from the dough, flour the rolling surface and roll the dough into very thin circles. (like papad consistency) (You can prick the rolled dough with fork on the surface to prevent them from puffing while frying). After rolling, keep aside for 10 mins.
4. Heat oil in a kadhai. Gently release the rolled dough in the oil. Turn and lightly fry on both sides and ensure that it do not change colour (It should be flexible and should not turn brown or crispy).
5. Drain oil and place the fried poli on the plate, coated with the powdered sugar. Carefully and immediately add 2-3 spoon fulls of filling on one side and roll tightly to form suruttai poli.
6. Keep aside face down in a flat surface. (The polis should be soft when hot but once they cool down they will become crispy).
7. Repeat with all the dough balls and prepare a whole batch of suruttai poli.

For serving, arrange the polis on a serving plate. Sprinkle some powdered sugar, garnish with cashews and raisins and serve.

Khandvi, Indian Cooking Challenge, Dec 2010

Gujarati cuisine mainly consists of vegetarian recipe and have unique culinary traditions of India. Gujarati cuisine is also distinctive in its wide variety of Farsans or side dishes served with the main meal. Some Farsan are eaten as snacks / light meals.

Gujarati food mainly comprise of 4 major regions, North Gujarat, Kathiawad, Kachchh and South Gujarat. North Gujarat is popular for its traditional Gujarati thali consisting of rice, dal, curry, vegetables, sprouted beans, farsan, pickles, chutney and raita. Some of the popular farsans, popular for their tastes are Pathara, Khaman Dhokla and Khandvi.

Khandvi is a delicious savoury made with gram flour (beasn) and curd, tempered with sesame seeds and mustard seeds and served with fresh grated coconut and chopped coriander leaves.

Srivalli chose Khandvi as the recipe for the Indian Cooking Challenge for the month of December. Preparing Khandvi is an art by itself and requires lot of practice to perfect the dish. I have never prepared Khandvi before and had to try 2-3 times, before I got a perfect rolled Khandvi.

Srivalli provided two recipes for khandvi, I followed Lataji�s recipe, only difference is that, I used only mustard seeds for tempering�

Ingredients:

• Gram flour / Besan: 1/3 cup (heaped)
• Sour Curd / Yogurt: 1/3 cup
• Water: 1 cup
• Ginger & Green Chilli paste: 2 tsp
• Turmeric Powder: 1/4 tsp
• Asafoetida: 1/4 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Cooking Oil: 3 tbsp

For tempering:

• Cooking Oil: 2 tsps
• Mustard seed: 1 tsp

For Garnishing:

• Grated Coconut: 2 tbsp
• Fresh Coriander Leaves, chopped: 2 tbsp

Method:

1. Grease a flat plate and keep it ready before proceeding to cook Khandvi.
2. Beat curd and keep aside. In a bowl, add gram flour, salt, ginger-chilli paste, beaten curd, turmeric powder, asafoetisa and water and mix well to form a smooth batter (Ensure that the batter is thin and free of lumps).
3. Heat oil in a thick bottomed kadhai and add batter. Stir the batter continuously till well cooked. (You will know that the batter is ready, when the batter take a light brown tinge & glaze from the oil and do not stick to the walls of the kadhai).
4. The batter should still be in a semi liquid state, tipping more towards solid state (Over cooking will result in a solidified mass which will not spread evenly).
5. Transfer the cooked batter onto the greased plate and spread uniformly into a thin sheet over the flat surface with a ladle. (Do this quickly or else the batter will thicken as it cools and become difficult to spread.)
6. Using a knife, make strip marks on the sheet. Carefully roll each strip into spirals and place the khandvi rolls on a serving platter.
7. Heat the rest of the oil in another kadhai, add mustard seeds and let them splutter. Pour the tempering over the rolled khandvis.
8. Garnish the Khandvis with grated coconut and chopped coriander leaves and serve.