Holi is the festival of colours. It makes us feel refreshed and we welcome Spring. Holi is celebrated all over India within each society. Holi is a social gathering for joy. People enjoy bonfire, music, food ( puranpoli and mawa gujiya) and colours.
Holi is one of my favourite festivals. Though we didn't follow any rituals but had a delicious meal at home. Preparing puranpoli and playing with colour is our joy of Holi.
This year my twins witnessed Holi for the first time. We dressed them very well and took them down to our society to see what Holi is? They didn't understand anything but both were very happy and ran all around the ground. Both of them wanted to touch that bonfire. Mr. hubby and I were running behind them to drag them from that bonfire ( Poor us)! And this way we enjoyed our Holi .
As per the rituals I made the puranpoli. we had simple thali with Puranpoli katachi Amati and Rice.
Anyway, back to the post,
Holi is known as SHIMGA for us who belongs to KONKAN region. We are Maharashtrian and PURANPOLI is the main attraction of every Marathi household. Generally puranpoli is served with milk, katachi Amati, rice, any leafy vegetables, pickle and kurdai - one kind of papad.
Very few are able to prepare this puranpoli as it requires lots of patience and hardwork.
Since I was a kid I saw how my aai prepares puranpoli. It was quite hard to grind that purana on stone. (Pata and varavanta). I also liked to grind. Though my tiny hands was paining after a small portion 😇 but tried to help Aai little bit as per my capacity. My wish when I was small was to grind the puran and learn to make delicious puranpoli without tearing it. 🤣
And guess 😄
I didn't like to eat puranpoli at all when I was a kid. But I enjoyed the preparation of the puranpoli. We generally made it on Holi only once a year and so it was special to me. As I grew and became adults I started to like it. I especially like to eat stale puranpoli ( shili poli) it tastes awesome with ginger tea rather than milk. ( My choice 😁) I always asked my Aai to keep at least 3, 4 puranpoli to eat in the morning. Till date my Aai kept it for me whenever I went there for holi. Blessed to have her in my life.
I haven't liked milk since my childhood. I feel yuk when my family eats puranpoli by mixing it in milk. (Dudhat churun Ani Varun tup takun khane) Pouring ghee on top of that. I hated it. But to my surprise when I grew I like to have it only with ghee. Puranpoli loaded with ghee is my special dish. I still don't like to eat it with milk.
Yes!
I love to eat now. I learnt how to make pouranpoli And over the years I made it very well ( Mr. Hubby feedback) 😎
They said, once you become a mother you can do anything for your kids - here ( in terms of feeding the kids). I am blessed that my kiddo loves to gobble it too.
So what were the difficulty levels?
1) Preparing the dal -
Boiling chana dal at perfect consistency - Not too mushy and not too hard.
Earlier I was unable to understand how to boil. With lots of tips from my aai , with lots of mistakes and our beloved teachers from Youtube I learnt purana poli in an easy way.
2) How to knead a dough ?
I made it purely from whole wheat flour ( aata flour). People used to make it from maida because of the elasticity of maida there are low chances of tearing of poli. Since my childhood I ate puranpoli made from aata which is healthy and tastes delicious.
The main trick is - knead a soft dough. I didn't use too much oil. I used lots of water to knead soft dough and Just 1 tsp of oil cover up the dough so that it will not have any cracks. Cover the dough with cotton clothes and leave it for at least 15 minutes.
Flour + turmeric + salt and water to knead the dough. You can roll the perfect puranpoli.
3) Preparing Puran
It is tedious work. To make the perfect puran you should have patience. You have to continuously stir the dal and jaggarry mixture till it reaches the perfect consistency. If your spatula stands on that puran means your puran is perfect to make the puranpoli.
These are all difficulty levels which you mastered with practice. The whole process of making puranpoli is lengthy. You have to work in batches. I prefer to have preparation so that my patience level is maintained. 😇
The first step is soaking chana dal.
Second step boiling and separating water from dal.
Third step to knead the soft dough.
Fourth step to make puran - mixture of dal, jaggarry, cardamom powder and nutmeg powder.
Fifth step : rolling out roti (poli) with stuffing of puran.
Sixth step : Roasting on tawa with ghee.
And your delicious puranpoli is ready.
Now you understand why I said to work in batches. 😞 If you have toddlers revolving around you then you must do little bit of pre- preparation.
Finally I learnt perfect puranpoli.😁
I started to learn since my first kid was 5 years old. It took 5 years to make perfect puranpoli.
Take away points, if you love to make it.
1) Traditional dishes are not always easy but we have to restore our delicacy for our future generations.
2) Practice makes you perfect. Start with 1/2 cup of chana dal. And then slowly increase the amount.
3) Don't mind if anyone demoralises you. Motivate yourself and then only you can learn.
4) There is lots of video on Youtube Stick to one which is comfortable to you and practice.
Disclaimer : This was my experience from disliking puranpoli to preparing it and feeding it to my family. My intention is not to take any class 😜
Hope you enjoyed today's post - My chronicles of Puranpoli. And learnt something.
Questions of the day
Do you like to eat puranpoli?
Which traditional dishes from your culture are your favourite?
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