Peas or Koraishutir Kochuri

Peas Puri or Koraishutir Kochuri as bongs call it is brings on fond memory of Kolkata. It reminds me of the "freezing" 60°F (15°C) winters in Kolkata. It’s during that time fresh green peas hit the local market. The kids in the house were given the chore of taking the peas out of their pods. The yield rates were around 50%, the other 50% were stuffed in the mouths with small little hands.

These days in the world of frozen goodies, the famed Koraishutir Kochuri can be made any time of the year, all that is needed is a short trip to the local store. 

Please also checkout the video recipe on my youtube channel by clicking this link or on the play button below.

Ingredients

SERVING 16 pieces

1. Frozen peas- 700gm 
2. Ginger-2 inch
3. Green Chili - 4-5
4. Bhaja Mosla - 1tbsp
5. Refined Oil - 3 tbsp
6. Salt to taste
7. All Purpose Flour– 2 cup
8. Salt- 1/2 tbsp
9. Sugar - 1 tbsp
10. White oil or ghee(clarified butter) -2 tbsp
11. Water - 1 cup ( Approximately 
12. Refined oil for deep Frying

Procedure

In a grinder add a little water, peas, ginger and green chili. Make a fine paste out of them.

Take oil in a frying pan. Add one pinch of asfoetida. Now add the paste you just made. Keep on stirring till the water completely evaporates and the pea mixture becomes dry and thick enough to make small balls out of it. Now add salt to your taste and if the peas are not sweet enough you can add little sugar to it. Let it cool and then sprinkle some dry roasted cumin powder.

Now we need to make the dough. In a wide vessel take the flour, salt and the oil or ghee for shortening. Rub the ghee into the flour with your finger tips. Now slowly add the warm water and knead it until the dough becomes soft and smooth. Cover it with a damp cloth or kitchen towel and allow it to rest for 30 minutes. Once again knead it and make small ping pong sized ball out of it.

Take a ball you made out from the flour and keep it on your palm. Using the other palm press it and make a small disc. You can also use your rolling pin to make this disc. Make a small ball out of your pea stuffing and put it in the center of the disc.  Bring the sides together and cover the opening. Now flatten it with your palm.

Roll out by applying little oil on both the sides.

Take oil in a wok or kadai and heat it. Deep fry the kochuri till both sides puff up.

Traditionally koraishutir kochuri is had with chana dal or potato curry (aloor dum). However, this time when I made it we had some home made mango chutney from my Tamil friends, it made a killer combo.

Healthy option

If you are like me and need to take care of someone who is prone to over-eat you can take the healthier option of making Peas Paratha.

The stuffing is made exactly the same way. For the dough replace with whole wheat flour. While rolling out the dough use more dough to create larger parathas. Also the dip-fry step is omitted in the Paratha. Heat a tawa or a skillet. Place the paratha on the heated tawa and cook for half a minute. Now flip the other side and pour oil with a spoon around the edge. Cook this side and flip again. You will notice brown spots on the surfaces  when the paratha is cooked.

Dahl Puri

One of our friends kept raving about some Dahl Puri which he had at a small restaurant in Seattle. He was so impressed that I had to also try it out. After a few attempts we finally got to Pam’s Kitchen at the University District one evening. I was surprised to know how a large percentage of Caribbean population is of Indian origin and our food has taken a different twist in their kitchen. I loved the Dahl Puri which they served along with a medley of Goat curry and Potato-bean curry. Even though they call it Puri it is more closer to Indian Parantha than the traditional Puri.

This is my recreation of the same, but obviously with a bong twist.

Ingredients

For the filling

• 2 cups yellow split peas
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/4 tsp. turmeric powder
• 1 tsp. ground roasted cumin
• 2 green chilies
• Salt to taste

For the dough

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 tbsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. instant yeast 
• 1 cup water

Procedure

Wash split peas and boil them in a sauce pan with about six cups of water and a pinch of turmeric powder. Once it comes to a rolling boil reduce the heat and cook for about thirty minutes.

Drain them on a strainer and let it cool down.

Take all the ingredients of the filling in a food processor. Grind them into a smooth mixture. There should not be any whole piece of grain left in the mixture.

In a mixing bowl take flour, yeast, salt and baking powder. Add water little at a time and start kneading. You might need to add little more water than a cup. keep kneading until you make a firm dough.

Cover the dough with a kitchen towel and let it rest for thirty minutes.

Divide the dough into six portion and make smaller balls out of them.flatten out each dough ball in your hand to form a six inch circle and dust one side of it with dry flour. Fill this up with 3 tbsp. of filling and then using your finger close the open end and seal.

On a flour dusted surface roll out each stuffed dough ball into a disc of 12 inch diameter.

Heat a skillet (Tawa) on medium high heat. Brush the surface with oil. Place the rolled out disc on hot tawa and let this side cook for thirty seconds. Flip it over. Once the puri is done it well swell up like a ball. Remove from tawa.

Serve hot.

Hinger Kochuri with Kumro Aloor Torkari

Once Halloween comes up in US, everyone finds excuse to put some form of pumpkin in anything they eat or drink. While some like pumpkin pie makes sense, others like pumpkin latte seems weird to say the least.

I had to get pumpkin for the little devil at home, so I decided to make something Indian out of it. Since my husband worked really hard at carving it up, I decided to treat him with his absolute favorite Hinger Kochuri (asafetida stuffed poori) and pumpkin potato curry.

He was so happy to have it, that he dug out the photo he took many years ago of his favorite dingy kochuri shack in Behala. He insists that the guy is pure genius and an artist (see English Vinglish)

Kumro AlooR Torkari

Ingredients

1. 3 large potatoes cut into medium cubes along with their skin
2. 100gms pumpkin peeled and cut into cubes
3. 1tsp. turmeric powder
4. 1tsp. chili powder
5. 1tsp. asafetida powder or hing
6. 2-3 dry red chilies broken
7. 1tsp. paanch phoron
8. salt
9. 2 tsp. oil

Procedure

Heat oil in a pan and temper it with paanch phoron, hing and dry red chilies. Wait till you get a pungent smell. Now add pumpkin and potato cubes to it. Add turmeric and chili powder and fry them for a minute. Season with salt and mix well.

Now add one and half cups of water to it and cook it covered on medium heat till potatoes are done and pumpkin cubes are very mushy and melts. There should be no solid pieces of pumpkin, they should’ve all turned into a gooey paste.

Remove from heat and transfer to a serving bowl.

Kochuri

Ingredients For Stuffing

1. 1 cup white urad dal soaked overnight
2. 1 tsp.ginger paste
3. 2-3 green chilies
4. 1 tsp. turmeric powder
5. 1/2tsp. kalonji  (nigella seeds)
6. 1+2 tbsp. hing (asafetida)
7. !/2tsp. sugar
8. Salt
9. 1 tsp. oil

Procedure To Make The Stuffing

In a grinder grind urad dal along with green chilies into a paste.

Heat oil in a frying pan and temper it with a spoon of hing and kalonji.

Now add the paste of dal to it. Sprinkle turmeric powder, salt and sugar over it and mix well. Fry the dal mixture on medium heat till you see the paste is coming together.

Turn off the heat and let it cool.

Once it cools down, add the rest of the asafetida and ginger paste to it. To retain the flavor of hing in hinger kochuri, we add asafetida at the end. Knead it well.

Ingredients for dough

1. 2 ups maida (All purpose flour)
2. 1tsp. salt
3. 1/2 tsp. sugar
4. 1/2 – 3/4th cup of water
5. 2 cups oil for deep frying

Procedure To make Dough

In a mixing bowl take all the dry ingredients (1 through 3) and mix well.

Add 2tbsp. of oil to it and mix with the flour mixture using your fingertips till it takes a crumb texture.

Knead it by adding water little at a time till you get a soft smooth dough. Keep it covered with a damp cloth for 30 minutes.

Knead once more and then make ping pong size balls out of the dough.

Approximately you will get around 20 balls.

Procedure of making kochuri

Take each balls you made from the dough and press it between your palm to flatten it. Now put a spoonful of stuffing at the centre of the flattened dough and round the dough again by gathering the sides together.

Roll them into discs as you would make pooris.

Take enough oil in a wok and heat it up before you slide the kochuris in. Give both sides a minute before flipping them.

They might not always fluff up like a puri as they have stuffing in it.

Your kochuris are ready.

Radhaballavi (Radhaballabhi) with Aloor-dum

On a wintery Sunday morning it’s pretty common to see a bong gentleman performing the delicate art of balancing a sack full of fresh vegetables/mutton in one hand and a large newspaper bag filled with freshly made radhaballavi in the other. It’s next to impossible to pass by the sweet shop close to the bazaar and ignore the aroma of hing emanating from the radhaballavis.

Radhaballavis were rarely made at home, It’s generally left to the moira at the sweet shop or the “chef” appointed to cook for marriage feast. However, being deprived of both I generally resort to become the moira myself (without the humongous tummy).

 

Ingredients For The Stuffing

1. 1/2 cup chana dal (also known as Bengal gram) washed and soaked overnight
2. 1/2” ginger
3. 1 green chili
4. 1/2 tsp. hing (Asafetida)
5. 1 tsp. whole fennel seeds( Mouri )
6. 1 tsp. bhaaja masala powder (1tsp. whole cumin seed, 1 tsp. whole coriander seed, 2 dry red chili, dry roasted and ground to a powder)
7. 1/2 tsp. sugar
8. Salt to taste
9. Oil

Procedure to make the Stuffing

In a grinder make a paste of pre-soaked dal with ginger and green chili. Heat oil in a non stick pan and temper with hing and whole fennel seeds. Let it sizzle for a while before you add ground dal paste to it. Season with salt and sugar. Keep stirring on medium heat till it comes together. This dal mixture has a tendency to stick to the bottom of the pan, so don’t stop stirring. Once done, allow it to cool and then sprinkle bhaja masala powder over it.

 

Ingredients for the outer Shell

1. 1 cup maida (All purpose flour)
2. 2 tsp. oil or ghee
3. 1/2 tsp. salt
4. 1/4th cup warm water
5. Oil for frying

Procedure

In a bowl take maida, salt and 2 tbsp. of oil or ghee. Mix them together well with your finger tips to give them a texture of crumbs. Now gradually add warm water to knead the maida. You need to kneed it tight. Smear it with a spoon of oil and keep it covered with a damp kitchen towel for 30 mins. Knead it quickly once more before you make lemon sized balls out of it.

 

Bringing Them together

 

		Radhaballavi VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Take each balls you make out of the dough and give them a shape of disc by using your palm. Now put a part of the stuffing in the center of the disc and close the opening by bringing the sides altogether. Flatten it and roll it  out uniformly into flat round discs of 4-5” diameter by using few drops of oil.

Take enough oil for deep frying in a kadai(Wok)  and heat it up before you let your radhaballabhi to go in one by one.  Fry one side till it takes a brown hue and then flip it over. Because they are stuffed in, they won’t always puff like luchi or puri. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on a paper towel if you want to keep you heart healthy.

Radhaballavi is best served with Aloor Dum

Luchi (Bengali White Flour Puri)

When you live in another state or country some of the local habits really get to you. For example I was always astonished how some people could survive just on curd-rice for months on end. I love curd-rice, but really how can someone have it every single day?

Similarly one of my Telegu friends in Bangalore had this pet peeve about bong-land. He studied in IIT Kharagpore and he just couldn’t get how his classmates had luchi and tarkari every single morning at breakfast. He was just so done with it, that he never wanted to have it even once more.

Now I understand that every local culture has these foods which an outsider will just not understand. I have seen people skip 5-star buffets and reach straight for curd-rice, I have seen my husband who cannot make anything with any form of flour other than luchi, which by the way is not something simple to make.

Here goes the recipe or rather the procedure to make the perfect puffed up luchi. This goes best with the sada alur charchari.

Ingredients

1. All purpose flour (maida) 2 cups
2. 1/2 tsp. salt
3. 1/2 tsp. sugar
4. 2 tbsp. oil / ghee for shortening
5. 1/4th cup of water
6. Oil for deep frying

Procedure

In a wide mouth bowl take all the dry ingredients and mix them really well. Now make a hole at the center of the flour mixture and pour oil or ghee into it. Mix the flour with the oil uniformly using your finger tips so that the texture becomes like breadcrumb.

Gradually add water to it. You need to be very careful about the quantity of water you add because your luchi won't come out nice if the dough is soggy. Work on the dough till it becomes smooth and soft and doesn't stick to your fingers.

Make small balls out of the dough. Roll out each balls uniformly into flat round discs of about 4 to 5 inches in diameter. If you are a beginner it perfectly fine to attempt to make the shape of each continent and country you know. Concentrate on making the luchi and not on it’s shape. Shape will come with time. You can cheat your self out by rolling in any shape and then cutting out round discs using a bowl or jar-lid.

Use few drops of oil to ease the process of rolling so that the dough doesn’t stick to the rolling pin.

In a kadai or deep frying pan heat enough oil till it is piping hot but not smoky. The temperature of the oil is really important for the luchi to puff up, so test it by dropping a small piece of dough into the oil. If it jumps up to the surface immediately then it is the right time for the luchis to be released in the oil.

Gently release luchi one at a time to the oil. With a flat spatula or spoon push the luchi down and hold it under the oil. This is important to make the luchi puff up. As soon as the luchi is puffed up flip it over. Fry again for 10 secs.

Take it out of the oil with a slotted spoon. Repeat the process till you are done with your dough. As the temperature of the oil is really an important factor you may need to control the temperature by decreasing or increasing the heat throughout the frying process,