Weekend breakfast in an Indian household can be an elaborate affair and usually comprises of poori, paratha, idli, and dosa. Whenever I go for a vacation back home, I am always treated by my mother with my favourite dishes and bedmi poori is one such dish that I love to savour on a lazy weekend morning as my brunch.
Bedmi poori is a traditional dish hailing from Agra, Uttar Pradesh and is very different yet identical to the poori that we all are aware about. There are some shops that sell this delicacy in Delhi and are always flocked by food lovers from the area. One such shop was a little away from my place but almost every alternate weekend I used to go there to get our dose of bedmi poori along with the spicy and tangy potato bhaji and pickles that came along. I was guided to this shop by one of my general managers who was a regular at that shop too.
Bedmi poori, pronounced as Bay-duh-me poori, is not just any ordinary poori and requires special preparation and cooking techniques. These pooris are similar to the kachoris due to the urad dal stuffing in them and are healthier than kachoris as it uses whole wheat instead of refined flour. The dough is then filled with a filling prepared with urad lentil and spice blend. Whenever I used to go to the bedmi poori shop I used to observe the minute details about the dish and how the cook used to prepare in front of all the waiting customers.
The first thing that I noticed was about the dough and it was not a regular dough and the guy used to pinch off a small portion and would stuff with the prepared filling and then roll with a thin rolling pin and would slide them into hot oil to fry over medium heat.
Another guy will just scoop out the pooris out of oil into a strainer to drain excess oil, the poori does not look appetising at this point as they are only half cooked and are soft to touch, he then would increase the fame and would make the oil hotter and used to slide all the half cooked pooris into the hot oil to make them crispier and this is what makes them swell like a ball.
The best thing I like about bedmi poori is that it stays crispy even when it is cold. So you can prepare this poori beforehand and can sit down with your friends and family to enjoy them. The sight of pooris being fried fresh used to make the waiting customers mouths water. Then come the turn to pack the accompaniments, spicy potato and pumpkin bhaji and spicy mango pickle.
Bedmi Poori
Serves 8-10
Ingredients
Urad dal ¼ cup
Coarse whole wheat flour 1 cup
Fennel seed powder 1 tbsp
Coriander powder 1 tbsp
Asafoetida 1/8 tsp
Dry ginger powder ¼ tsp
Red chilli flakes ½ tsp
Salt to taste
Oil 2 tbsp
Oil to fry
Method
Wash and soak urad dal for four hours or overnight.
Drain the water and blend coarsely in a blender to a thick paste, using as little water as possible.
In a separate bowl, sift flour and combine fennel seed powder, coriander powder, asafoetida powder, dry ginger powder.
Add the dal paste to the flour mixture and form into soft dough using lukewarm water.
You can grease your palms with oil as the dough will be sticky, once the dough is ready coat with oil and keep the dough covered with damp cloth.
Divide the dough into eight equal parts and roll them into balls.
Roll the balls using rolling pin to a flat disc shape and deep fry at medium heat.
Fry one poori at a time in medium heat and turn with skimmer and remove the poori when half cooked, repeat the same for all the poori.
Increase the flame and heat the oil and then carefully add 3-4 poori and flash fry them.
The pooris will puff up and will turn crispy and golden brown in colour.
Take the pooris out and place them on paper towels to absorb the excess oil. Repeat the process for the remaining pooris and serve hot.
Note: you can serve this freshly prepared pooris with aloo bhaji, mint chutney, pickle or spicy subji.
Bedmi Poori. Photo by the author
