Puri (food)

Not to be confused with Purée.
Puri

Puri served at an Indian restaurant
Place of origin South Asia
Region or state Bangladesh, Burma, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Malaysia
Serving temperature Hot
Main ingredients Atta
Variations Bhatoora, Luchi, Sevpuri
Cookbook:Puri  Puri

Puri (also spelt poori and boori) is an unleavened deep-fried Indian bread, commonly consumed on the Indian subcontinent. It is eaten for breakfast or as a snack or light meal. It is usually served with a curry or bhaji, as in Puri bhaji.

Puri is most commonly served at breakfast. It is also served at special or ceremonial functions as part of ceremonial rituals along with other vegetarian food offered in prayer as prasadam.

Name

The name puri derives from the Sanskrit word पूरिका (pūrikā), from पुर (pura) "filled". It has a similar name in many Asian languages including: Assamese: পুৰি (puri), Hindi: पूड़ी (pūrī), Kannada: ಪೂರಿ (pūri), Malayalam: പൂരി, Burmese: ပူရီ (pūrī), Nepali: पूरी (puri), Oriya: ପୁରି (puri), Punjabi: ਪੁੜੀ (pūḍī), Tamil: பூரி (pūri), Telugu: పూరి (pūri), and Urdu: پوری‎ (puri). Puri (პური) also means bread in Georgian.

Ingredients

Puri is prepared with wheat flour, either atta (whole wheat flour), maida (refined wheat flour), or sooji (coarse wheat flour). Maida flour is the most common flour used in making Puris. In some recipes, cumin seed are also added to the dough. A dough of flour and salt is either rolled out in a small circle or rolled out and cut out in small circles and deep fried in ghee or vegetable oil. While deep frying, it puffs up like a round ball because moisture in the dough changes into steam which expands in all directions. When it is golden-brown in color, it is removed and may be served hot or saved for later use (as with the snack food pani puri). The rolled puri may be pricked with a fork before deep frying to get a flat puri for chaat like bhel puri. A punctured puri does not puff when cooked because the steam escapes as it cooks.

Accompaniments

Indian puri with accompaniments

Puri can be served with halwa, korma, chana masala, dal, potato based curries (e.g.: saagu, bhaji, bhujia, Aloo ki tarkari), shrikhand, basundi. In some parts of India, puri is also served with a mixed vegetable dish that is prepared during Puja, and with kheer, a dessert prepared with rice, milk and sugar.Puri is often served during a special occasion.

Types, variants

A variant of puri is bhatoora, which is three times the size of a puri and served with chholey (spicy chick peas). It often constitutes a full meal. (See chole bhature). Bhatoora is made of a different flour; puri uses whole-wheat flour while bhatoora uses leavened all-purpose flour (maida). In the Indian state of Odisha a large size Puri is made during Bali Yatra which is called Thunka puri (Oriya: ଠୁଙ୍କା ପୁରି).[1][2][3][4][5]

Another variant of the puri popular in the eastern states of West Bengal and Odisha is the luchi. In Assam, it is pronounced as lusi.

The puris used for Panipuri are smaller, and are usually made crisper by the addition of Rava/sooji to the dough.

Sev puri is an Indian snack offered by street vendors who serve chaat.

Street vendors in Mumbai serve Bhel in a throw-away folded leaf with a flat puri to scoop it.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Overview of Cuttack
  2. ↑ Fanfare & spectacle mark the opening of Bali Yatra, November 10, 2011
  3. ↑ Orissa CM Naveen Patnaik inaugurates historic Baliyatra festival in Cuttack, November 22, 2010
  4. ↑ Bali Yatra Fever grips Cuttack, 12 November 2011
  5. ↑ Binita Jaiswal, Fanfare & spectacle mark the opening of Bali Yatra, Nov 10, 2011

External links

Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe/module on
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Puri (food).