Gongura Poori (Puri)

Poori, also spelled as Puri, is a deep fried bread used in India mostly for breakfast or as an evening snack, served with some side dishes like Poori Masal. Normally it is made from whole wheat flour, mixing with water to make the dough.

Here I have used the watery paste of Gongura leaves to make the dough and then made Poori with it.

Gongura leaves are sore in taste and used to make pickles and chutney. We grow the plant in our home garden and use the leaves in many dishes we make at home.

• Harvest a bunch of Gongura leaves. If you do not have the plant at home, you can find it in the local market.
• Cut the stems and wash the leaves in clean water.

• Add the cleaned Gongura leaves in a mixer / grinder
• Add salt to taste. You can add a little more as we will use this paste to make the dough
• Add a cup of water or the normal amount you use to make the dough, and make a watery paste

• Pour little amount of Gongura paste in a vessel
• Add one cup whole wheat flour (Atta) to the vessel and mix well
• Add little amount of Gongura paste at a time till you get a properly mixed dough

• Take a ball of dough and roll it flat using a circular board and a rolling pin.
• You can sprinkle little bit of flour to prevent the dough from sticking to the board and rolling pin.
• Using a circular lid of a container, cut a round shape from the flattened dough.
• If you have a larger board, you can make many such circular pieces in one go.
• Store the circular pieces in a platter separately

• Heat enough cooking oil in a frying pan
• When the oil is properly heated, take one circular piece of dough
• Gently place it in hot oil. Within few seconds, the flat piece will buff in to a circular ball
• Turn it over so that the other side also get fried in oil
• Once both sides are properly fried, remove and drain out excess oil from the Poori.

Serve hot with a suitable side dish you like. The whole lot of Pooris will disappear in no time due to its excellent taste.