Puri (deep fried bread)

Ingredients

• For Dough
• 3 cups of all-purpose flour (strong white flour can also be used)
• ½ cup of warm semi skimmed milk
• ½ beaten egg
• Salt to taste
• ½ tsp of baking powder
• Vegetable ghee (hydrogenated oil) for deep frying
• Use water as per required to knead into a soft dough and binding.
• (In Asian cooking vegetable ghee is preferred over oil when deep frying and when making sweets especially for good taste)

Method

Step 1

Dough making:- First sieve the flour, add salt and slowly add in milk, beaten egg and knead the dough, work it into soft consistency. Add water if necessary. It should not be sloppy or sticky and not too hard and crumbly, leave it in a warm place to rest covered with a damp cloth. It springs up when you press the dough. Make small dough balls and roll them out into a circular shape.

Step 2

Frying:- Heat vegetable ghee in a deep pan or pot and let it melt, the vegetable ghee is different to pure desi ghee which has a very strong smell. The vegetable ghee when heated is odourless. To test put a small blob of flour into the oil if it bubbles up and rises it means the ghee is ready, don’t over heat the ghee for frying as it will turn the puri into a bitter brown tasting thing. The colour should be light golden always and not soggy. Put one rolled out circular puri into heated ghee, let it puff and flip for the other side to cook as well. Serve it with any curry.