Dal Puri and World Cup- A complete meal

This post has been long due as it has been busy for the last few months combined with summer camps, swim meets and the World Cup. I am not an ardent sports watcher but the rest of the family is. My only stints with sports on TV are the Olympics, an occasional game on World Cup Soccer and Cricket and of course the Super Bowl for the ads. We have a Super Bowl party every year and to keep up with the tradition of food with spectatorship, we had to do something special for the match between UK and USA on a weekend. So I decided to make Dal Puri ( Pan fried bread stuffed with split chickpeas) .

Since I was born in Lalu’s state, Dal Puri and Malpua are pretty popular food for any occasion. Dal Puri is not deep fried like other Indian fried breads , but instead pan fried like a paratha. It can be enjoyed with a potato curry, a bowl of yogurt or simply an Indian pickle on the side. It was a hit with my 8 year old who loves dunking everything in ketchup including dosas, idlis and any stuffed paratha. I enjoyed mine with some pickle with the annoying noise of vuvuzelas in the background.

Ingredients:

Chana Dal- 1 cup

Wheat Flour 3 cups

Cumin 1 tsp

Red chilli -1
Sugar – 2 tsp
Salt to taste
Canola or vegetable oil – 1 tsp for the dough and some to fry
• Pressure cook the chana dal with very little water.
• Once the dal is cooked and can be mashed with your fingers, grind the dal to a fine consistency with a food processor or a grinder.
• In a pan dry roast the cumin and the red chilli.
• Using a rolling pin, grind the toasted cumin and red chilli into a fine powder.
• Mix the toasted powder, sugar and salt to taste into the ground chana dal. It should not be too spicy neither too sweet.
• Add a tsp of oil to the flour and add water and mix the dough to the consistency of a tight bread dough
• Cut the dough into 10-12 large balls the size of golf balls.
• Spread each ball in your hand and add a tbsp of the ground chana dal mixture inside. Pinch together the top so that it forms a clean stuffed ball.
• Roll the stuffed ball into a 4-5 inch flat bread.
• In a pan add a little oil and cook the dal puri until brown spots form on each side.
• Serve hot with pickle , ketchup, potato curry or a bowl of plain yogurt.
It works very well for an evening meal as it contains both protein and whole grain carbs. You can serve it with a mixed vegetable curry and forms a full meal, But the best time this can be enjoyed is a late morning brunch when you have spend the morning cooking it sipping a hot cup of tea.