Wednesday, March 14, 2012

matar ki poori UP style and a healthy green and raw side dish with it...



I promised to post this UP style matar ki poori when I introduced you to the bengali motor shuti kachori.

Or did I promise a kachori? There is actually a difference between poori and kachori , the outer pastry is different and the finished product tastes a lot different from each other. While a poori, even when it is stuffed, is usually made with whole wheat flour and there is no shortening used to make the dough. So the resulting fried flat bread is softer with a hearty bite. The kachoris are made using all purpose flour (maida) along with a generous shortening, for the pastry. The resulting flat bread in this case is more crisp and delicate to bite into. Even though the stuffing is same.

So the same stuffing goes for kachoris too, only the outer pastry being different. Serving of poori and kachori may be different too, as poori is served usually for a meal and kachoris are served for snacking or as an alternative bread for meals. Kachoris also make great picnic food when some green chutney made with coriander and mint leaves and a sweet n hot chutney made with tamarind, dates and garam masala is packed along in separate containers and people love to dunk the kachoris in their favored chutney. Or both the chutneys at the same time.

Oh again I stepped into the wrong side of food talk, the kind which brings down major cravings....

That is the reason I stick to pooris in the first place. This blog is a major resource for many different kinds of pooris and kachoris you know, many google searches for these two land up here, much to a health food enthusiast's embarrassment :-)  ...

To justify my healthy food enthusiasm going strong, let me tell you as I have mentioned in many of my poori/kachori posts, I make it a point to serve a very low fat and high fiber side dish with pooris always. Many a times it is some or the other kind of pumpkin subzi, many other times it is a generous amount of a green raw chutney served like a curry.

This time it was a raw spinach and spring onion chutney served like a green curry besides poori. Believe me it made such a great accompaniment to the poori that we polished off this huge bowl with 8 pooris . The two of us, each having 4 pooris and the chutney was about 600 ml.

It was actually a spinach gazpacho , paired so well with a desi food.


2 cups of spring onion greens (the leafy parts only) , 2 cups of baby spinach, 2 cloves of garlic and a green chilly and a generous dollop of salt preserved raw mango slivers. You can use salt preserved lemons too. That is all this super green, healthy side dish for pooris calls for.

Coming back to the pooris. The dough was made using whole wheat flour as I mentioned, adding some ajwain seeds and minimal amount of salt. The dough is made after preparing the green peas paste, as we want to keep the consistency of the dough as close to the mashed peas as possible. And the consistency of mashed green peas depends on how mature the peas are, more mature peas make a drier paste while very fresh tender peas make a softer, moist paste. The dough has to be closer to the stuffing consistency as the stuffing doesn't get leaked during rolling the pooris and frying them.

ingredients for the stuffing...
(3-4 servings)
fresh green peas  250 gm
ginger finely chopped or grated 1 tbsp
green chillies finely chopped to taste or red chilly powder as I used, to taste
black pepper powder 1 tsp
garam masala 1 tsp
turmeric powder 1/2 tsp (optional)
cumin powder or whole seeds 1 tsp
asafoetida just a pinch
salt to taste.

Whole wheat dough with some salt and ajwain (bishops' seeds) as required.


procedure...

Steam the peas or microwave them till they are just cooked. Traditionally the peas are cooked in a wok with a tempering of cumin and hing (asafoetida) but i see this as a futile exercise as it doesn't make the taste any better. The peas just need to be lightly cooked so they can be mashed into a coarse paste.

Mash them while still hot, with the help of a potato masher and add all the other ingredients and just mix well.The stuffing is ready.

Now take lemon sized balls of dough. make a bowl using your fingers from it and place a spoonful of stuffing into it, seal it and then flatten the ball. Now roll it softly into a 3 inch diameter disk, about 1/2 cm thick. It might be bigger or smaller depending on the size of the dough ball you pick up. Repeat stuffing and rolling for all the pooris you need.

The stuffing keeps well in the fridge and is quite versatile as you can have it in a grilled sandwich next day.

Fry in hot oil or ghee


Serve hot with your favorite accompaniment , or a generous amount of chutney if you are like me.

Making the chutney with minimal heat(minimal chillies or no chillies) will help you to eat loads of chutney ...a healthy side dish to a fried bread.

Balancing the act.


We are still getting quite fresh green peas in the markets. I hope this recipe is in time in other parts of the country too. Fresh green peas are the key to a great tasting Matar ki kachori or poori.

Are you making some today?

29 comments:

  1. The differences very well explained :)
    I think I'll go for the kachori; I'm in no way health-conscious :P
    One of these days I'm going to make this ... matar kachori from UP and pyaaz kachori from Rajasthan .... mmmmmmmmmmmmm

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  2. It's been so long since I had this ,reminds me of winter and home :)

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  3. They look so delicious!! I have already told mom to make it soon...:):)

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    1. Glad you liked Pankaja. I am sure the spinach will be liked too this way.

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  4. It looks delicious!! I have already told mom to make it soon...:):)

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  5. They look very delicious...I somehow feel guilty to fry pooris at home and I happily gobble outside so that I can restrict to just 2-3 pooris..

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    1. Thanks Pratibha. Would you mind having the pooris with a huge bowlful of a raw spring onion and spinach gazpacho? Whole wheat pooris without shortening in the dough do not soak much ghee.

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  6. Another healthy Kachoris from you ,I;am sure it will taste as good as it looks, and yes I;am planning it for this weekend, we are having guests ,so i think i can serve them this for dinner. Sangeeta, could you tell me one thing? Can i bake those pumpkin cakes (the one u;ve mentioned in your older posts)in a microwave? or should i have to have an OTG for baking?

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    1. Glad you liked the kachoris Priya.

      Yes you can bake that cake (or any cake for that matter) in the microwave too. The only MW mode would give you quick results with baking but no crust, the cake is still tasty. The combi mode ( MW+ grill) would take a little more time and would give you a nice crust too. In convection mode you get the results similar to OTG and quicker. Go ahead, bake it. :-)

      BTW you can bake these kachoris too if you like :-) Slightly different texture but very much enjoyable.

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  7. Wow....such and yummy recipe...looks mouthwateirng.

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  8. Lovely ... yeh to aaj he banana padega :)

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  9. Matar kachori looks yummy. It is my fav.

    Cuisine Delights
    My First Event - "COLOURFUL HOLI".

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  10. Oh Thank you sooooo much Sangeeta, was overwhelmed with your prompt reply. Was desperately wanting to bake that cake for my daughter {5 and half}. I too like u hate buying cakes and stuff from outside. We generally don't prefer outside food,though I'am a professionally qualified Hotel Management and Catering Technology person. I just love to cook and basically love food (healthy food). So thank you once again. Oh yes my daughter said thankyou too from her side!!!

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    1. I am so glad that my inputs made a lovely mother and daughter happy :-)
      Thanks for connecting Priya.

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  11. Drooling Sangeeta! My friend from Benaras makes this; bookmarked again.

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    1. Thanks Shri, would like to know if you try them :-)

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  12. Do these puff up with the filling? They look wonderful. I am sure my family will appreciate this. The side is equally tempting.

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    1. Yes Anita, these pooris puff up nicely in the hot oil, so much so that they sometimes get cracked. Some people who are new to deep frying can mess up and let the stuffing come out. It needs to be handled carefully, gently turning the poori in hot oil so it doesn't burst.

      I have earlier posted about a smart procedure for all stuffed pooris, that they can well be microwaved for a minute before dunking them in hot oil, this makes the frying time reduce to just a few seconds, making less ghee/oil to be absorbed and the poori puffs up beautifully.

      Hope it helps.

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  13. loved your green chutney , is it traditional or your innovation

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    1. This chutney is my innovation as I like something raw to balance the heaviness of pooris. Raw spinach was never traditional in Indian kitchens I guess, calling it chutney is quite traditional though :-)

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  14. Hi sangeeta,came across your blog through google,lovely recipes!!They remind me of food my mum makes.One question,is there any substitute for salt preserved mango slices in your spinach gazpacho or is this aam ka achar you are referring to?

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    1. Thank you Shweta.
      The salt preserved mango is just peeled raw slices of mango preserved in 15% salt weight wise. It's not aam ka achar, but more like the salt preserved lemons which we call nimbu ka plain achar and that lemon one can be used instead. Other substitutes can be plain lemon juice or even olives. We like it with olives too.

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  15. This matar ki poori reminds me of my Amma's matar ki poori. Going to make it now:)

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  16. I had a recollection of seeing this on your blog. Coming back to find it was a task. Neither matar nor kachori lead to the recipe. I am yet to find the search for a recipe button on your blog. Hope you will address the issue soon.

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    1. Thanks for the feedback. So sorry for the inconvenience caused.
      I will try and fix this issue asap.

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  17. Are these meant to be deep / pan fried Sangeeta?

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    1. These are deep fried Valsa but can easily be pan fried too. It will be a paratha if pan fried.

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