Pooran Poli by Viji Jeyakumar

Pooran Poli – Festival Sweet by Viji Jeyakumar (in her own words)

It is a traditional south Indian sweet made for festivals like Tamil New Year, Samaradhanai and Pogi. This sweet is very delicious and it can be stored for a week also. I always like thin poli with less ghee. My version is quite simple to make and very tasty also.

Ingredients:

All purpose flour (called maida) 1 ½ cups + 2 tbsp for dusting
Turmeric powder ¼ tsp
Salt ¼ tsp
Refined oil 1 tsp
Channa dhal 1 cup
Jaggery 1 cup (as per your taste)
Cardamon powder 1 tsp
Ghee 2 tbsp

Preparation:

First sieve the maida (if needed). Add Turmeric Powder and salt – mix well. Add enough water to prepare soft dough. At the end add 1 tsp oil and cover it with a moisture cloth. Keep it for 3 hours at least.

Meanwhile, soak the channa dhal in boiling water for 30 minutes. The water should be boiling. I used to change the water (cooled) after 15 minutes with boiling water again. The dhal is very soft now. If you prefer, you can cook for 1 whistle in pressure cooker. Strain the water fully. Keep the dhal in the strainer for sometime to remove excess water. Grind this into fine paste preferably in a grinder without adding water.

Now take a bottom thick vessel. Add jaggery with ¼ cup of water to it. Once it is melted filter for impurities. Then keep it boiling for 5 minutes. Now add the grinded channa dhal paste to it. Keep stirring. In 15 minutes it will become thick. At the end add elaichi powder and mix it well.
For this quantity you can prepare 8 to 9 polis. When it is cooled, make pooran balls and maida balls.

Now roll the maida dough in to a small circle. To get a thin poli, you have to roll this small circle, from the end keeping the middle portion thick. Fill it with pooran balls and fold it as shown. Then roll it again with the help of maida for dusting. It will never crack in between. Instead you will get an even shaped thin poli.

Heat the non stick pan on medium heat. Pour few drops of ghee and put the poli. Add few more drops of ghee while turning to other side. Mouth watering poli is ready. You can have as many as you like. Since by doing this method, it will consume only less ghee/oil. I have attached the snaps for your reference.

VCC: VCC Q3 2006