Wednesday

Gajar Poli with Potato & Rice Chakli

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This Diwali I decided to experiment a little with sweets and savories. I wanted to give them a slight twist from the regular ….but still have the festive spirit. I decided to enlist all the goodies I had eaten during Diwali. From the list, I decided on making Ubbati ( Obbatu/Puran Poli). I have been gorging on the left overs from the coconut ice cream from the weekend, and didn’t want to shoot up my cholesterol any further:) , hence was looking around for substitutes for coconut. I found the traditional Konkani recipe that calls for mixing Channa Dal and Jaggery for the filling, but it sounded too labor intensive. That's when I stumbled upon Gajar ka halwa on my list. Yeah! You guessed it right…I asked myself why not use this for the stuffing…and that is exactly how I landed up with my version of Gajar Poli. I made a very dry version of the halwa for the stuffing.

Savories are as much a part of the fesival as are sweets. I began skimming pages of Jaya V.Shenoy's "Dakshin Bharat Dishes" and came across this recipe for Potato Murku. I wasnt sure if it would turn out crisp, so I did a mish mash of recipes with Potato Murku and the one on a previous page - Rice flour Murku ( both can be found under the same section of the book). The Chaklis..a.k.a Murkus came out quite crunchy and the flavor of potato stood out.

Trust me, both of these are super easy..super simple…take very less time…and pretty decent too! This Diwali give it a try.

It was fun experimenting, so I thought I'd contribute this to Vee's JFS: Diwali .

Gajar Poli



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For Stuffing:

2 ½ cups Carrots, chopped
1 ½ cups Milk
2/3 cup Sugar
1 teaspoon Cardamom powder
1 tablespoon Almonds, blanched and finely chopped
1 tablespoon Clarified butter ( Ghee)


Method: In a food processor blend carrots and milk to a thick pulp. Heat clarified butter in a pan, add the carrot-milk pulp , sugar and cook together on low heat by stir continuously for 5 mins. Add almonds and cardamom powder, mix well. Cook on low heat, uncovered till dry. Remove from heat, set aside.

For the dough:
2 cups All Purpose Flour ( Maida)
3 tablespoons Oil ( Canola or Sunflower Oil)
A pinch of salt
A pinch Saffron soaked in 1 teaspoon water
Water as required

Method:
Mix all the ingredients with water. Knead well into a smooth non-sticky dough. Set aside for an hour.


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To make Polis:
Flatten out small balls of dough. Place a teaspoon ( heaped) of filling in the center. Fold corners of the dough to center, engulfing the filling. Roll and flatten out into small–circular-thin polis. Cook on low heat using a griddle /crepe pan. Serve hot.


Potato & Rice Flour Chakli


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Ingredients
2 ½ cup Potato flakes
1 teaspoon Chili powder
2 teaspoon Cumin seeds
2 tablespoon Unsalted Butter
½ cup All purpose flour (Maida)
2/3 cup Rice flour
A pinch of Asafoetida
Water as required
Oil for deep frying (Canola or Vegetable)

Method:
Sieve together All purpose flour and rice flour. Mix salt, cumin, butter and warm water. Add to the potato flakes, mix well. To this add the sieved flour mixture,asafoetida and knead well into a dough. Make sure that the dough is stiff and not watery. Make balls of the dough and add into the Chakli press ( choose the one with star shaped mould) and prepare small chaklis. Keep them 1” away from each other on parchment paper. Heat oil in a wok, add chaklis into the oil one by one. Deep fry till golden brown, by turning over a couple times. Allow to rest at room temperature and then store in air tight container.

Learnings: My first batch, I added them while hot into the air tight container..I realized they don’t remain crisp by doing so. Best way: bring chaklis to room temperature and then store.


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On Bee's suggestion this picture my entry to the November Edition of Click. Thank you Bee!


29 comments:

Padmaja said...

Eskay!!
Those polis and chakli look so delicous!!! I have never tried chakli at home as i don't like to spend more time in kitchen but your recipes are so easy and simple i gotta try!!!

Sihi said...

Happy Diwali Padmaja. Thank you for stopping by. I agree chaklis are tedious if you start with soaking the rice and all the preparation that follows. The original recipe called for soaking rice, but I used a shortcut- store bought rice flour:)Let me know how it goes.

sunita said...

Eskay, I've never made these recipes before...your's look so tempting...happy Diwali to you and your's.

Sihi said...

Thank you Sunita, wish you and your family the same. This is my first try at these recipes as well. Thought a change from the regular would be fun:)

Anonymous said...

Happy Diwali, Eskay. The chaklis look nice and golden, and those polis look great!

Thanks for participating, delighted tofind your blog!

bee said...

those are the most gorgeous chaklis i have seen. and the gajar poli is a really neat idea. your pics are lovely.

Divya and Chaya said...

Happy Diwali!! May god bless you with peace and prosperity. Girl, gajjar Poli looks yummy- unfortunately we will have 2 wait to make this. V R trying 2 loose some weight 4 the holidays.

Sihi said...

Thank you very much Vee. I'm delighted to be a part of the JFS: Diwali 2007 edition. Happy Diwali.

Sihi said...

Thank you Bee.

Sihi said...

Dee & Chai, wish you and your family a Happy Diwali. You could probably try it out with wheat instead of maida and cut out the milk and reduce the sugar. If you girls get around to try it with wheat do let me know.

Rajani Rayudu said...

Hi Eskay,
Tried your gajar poli's yesterday, they came out real tasty ones and were very simple. Thanks a lot.....

cheers
rajani

Sihi said...

Hey Rajani, Thanks for not only stopping by but also trying out Gaajjar polis. I'm glad you enjoyed it and found it easy too. Happy Diwali to you and your family.

Unknown said...

Its great, time to say move over ...so called trained chef's,innovate or perish.Eskay start a restaurant, wherever you are, if we cant cook, or have no time for it , we will visit to have our fill, or simply order it online!Do we say revival of the KONKANI KUSINE !!!!Good Luck.
KAYWEYES

TBC said...

All the pics are beautiful. I liked the one that u sent for *CLICK*

chemcookit said...

I saw this as an entry for the 'Click' event and came to check it out.. wow! I'm in love with the polis. It seems so easy. I really want to try to make it! Also: is it possible to make something similar to it, but with a savory filling?

Raks said...

Me too wanted to check after i saw ur entry in Click...Nice photography....:))And polis look tempting....:))

Sihi said...

hello kayweyes:) thank you for the encouragement and visiting my blog. thats a cool idea...will let u know when i get around to:)

Sihi said...

thank you TBC

Sihi said...

thank you Marta. glad to know you liked the poli...well, i havent tried a savory version of the poli..but there is a fried version of a different sort..more or less on the same lines..i'll try to have it up soon and let you know.

Sihi said...

thank you rajeswari

Finla said...

Wow it looks like you had a excelent feast.

Sihi said...

small one..just enough for two:)

Ramya's Mane Adige said...

hey, came across your blog just today!! you have a nice one here... and your obbattu looks delicious!!!!

Sihi said...

thank you ramya!

Suganya said...

Your entry is beautiful. I like how you have arranged various elements w/o overpowering others.

Sihi said...

thank you Suganya.

Raki said...

Wow eskay, these chaklis and the carrot polis are creative... thanks for the ideas...the dishes look yummy..

Sihi said...

Thank you for stopping by Raki. Glad you liked it.

Unknown said...

Start a Indian restaurant where ever you are Eskay.! we simply cant cook , but also simply cant resist !