Hello everyone! Today I'm going to share how to make some pani puri at home. Pani puri is a very famous Indian snack that is savoury and is consumed with a beautiful mix of flavours. I have been craving to eat some and constantly watch the videos. Buying some would be nice but they're usually quite pricy so I end up waiting for the next wedding to eat a set of them as these days people have a little pani puri stall for guests in their weddings. I know I sound silly, but it does cost a lot like a full meal or even more. So I decided to make some on my own.
I didn't want to make it from scratch because that will be time consuming. I just got this pani puri kit from the store and decided to give it a try before I attempt to spend a chunk of my time making them from scratch. If this one is good enough, I can just keep making them with this kit instead of buying all the raw ingredients and making all the preparations. The kit I got is called the Aachi pani puri kit. It came with the puri pellets that we will have to fry ourselves, the mint chutney mix, sweet tamarind and some seasonings.
First of all, we need to make the filling for the pani puri. Boil about 2 potatoes and mash them after they cool a little. Then dice some onion, maybe half or 1 but not too much and add them to the potatoes and mix them up. After that, add in the seasoning that came in the set. However, don't add all of them unless you like your pani puri spicy. Add only half of the seasonings because they seemed spicy to me. Mix them all up and we have the filling ready.
Then we need to fry the pellets. This is how they look like. They're like tiny papadams. But when I deep fry them in the oil, they start expanding. We need to quickly turn them around with a spatula so all sides are fried. Only then they take the perfect round shape. Otherwise, they may fry into semi round shapes looking like rugby ball. Also the oil temperature shouldn't be too hot as that too causes them to fry too fast and hence gives them a flattened look.
When they seem to be round and turn into a crispy looking brownish colour, use the spatula to bring them to the side of the wok and drain the oil before transfering them to a bowl.
I also recommend to prepare the bowl or plate beforehand, by placing a kitchen towel on it to absorb excess oil. Let them all cool.
In the meantime, prepare the condiments. These are the ones that were included in the kit. One is sweet tamarind dates chutney and the other is mint powder. Pour the contents into separate bowls. We can use the sweet tamarind as it is while the mind powder needs some water to be added.
This is how the sweet tamarind dates chutney looks like. It was thick in consistency. I gave it a quick mix with a spoon and it was ready to use.
This the mint condiment. After adding 200 ml of water, it was ready to use. The consistency was watery.
The fillings were all ready. I could not wait to try them as I wanted to do this for a long time.
There are four of us so we prepared four little puri first. Use your finger to pop the puri and make a hole. You can use a spoon too but it might make the hole too big. It's best if each person break their own puri. This is so the filling can be added in later on.
We brought everything to the living room so there will be more space for everyone and better lighting as well as we were all taking pictures and videos. You can also pop more puris if you like, as we did here, so you can eat them faster, one after another without stopping to prepare more of them.
Start adding the filling into the puris. Add the mashed potato in first however amount you like. Usually we only take a small teaspoon or so. If you add it too much then you won't be able to taste the other flavours. Next, pour a small amount of the condiments. You can mix them both or make only one type for each puri. I tried them in both ways.
I did not like the sweet tamarind taste much. It was too tangy for my liking. I only added a tiny amount of it initially and I still couldn't stand it so I stuck to the mint condiment. By the way, I took the first picture while the second picture was taken by my father. Which one is better? I don't know why his phone has this orangy tint. Maybe because it's from a better brand.
Here are some close up pictures of the beautiful round pani puris, taken by my father. My final verdict about them is that, they are tasty but not as yummy as the one I ate in my cousin's wedding. I think it's because the one served at the wedding were made from scratch with raw ingredients and fresh mint and tamarind. Next time I will just buy the puri pellets and make everything else from scratch. Perhaps that will appeal to my taste buds more.
That was my snack day summarized. Thank you for dropping by and I wish you a great day ahead.
