Hawa Hawaii Pooris

Whenever we have a craving to eat chole curry, we love eating it with pooris. *Pooris are another type of Indian flat breads which are made with wheat flour. If you have perfected or at least practiced the technique of making dough for chappati or roti, then making dough for pooris is a cinch. The following videos are broken down into easy-to-follow steps from making the dough to frying the pooris. We love eating pooris on cool and breezy nights when we want to eat some warm comfort food. Now with summer around the corner, pooris can also be enjoyed with mango pulp or puree.

Step 1: In a mixing bowl, mix together (3) cups of wheat flour, (1.5) tablespoons of oil, and less than 1 cup of water.

Once you are finished making the dough, you can make the dough balls. These will be rolled out and fried in the hot oil. 

Now you are ready to roll out the poori dough balls and fry in the hot oil. Hint: You can drop a tiny ball of dough in the oil to see if it's hot enough to fry the pooris. You will know it's hot enough when the tiny ball comes up to the top and you see bubbles. 

Just look at those fluffy pooris floating in the hot oil! Don't let the poori sit in the oil too long; otherwise it will soak up the oil and it will taste oily and heavy. You just have to flip it once or twice until it puffs up and is ready to be whisked out of the pan and into the drying bowl. Then just add it to the pile of hot pooris in your serving dish.

***Quick Tip: 
- For fluffy pooris add a little bit of milk when making the dough. 
- We used Deep Foods Whole wheat flour to make these fluffy pooris. This multi-purpose flour can be used to make dough for chappati, roti, poori and paratha.

Fun Fact: The title for this post was inspired by one of my favorite songs from a Bollywood movie called Mr. India and the song's name is "Hawa Hawaii".

~Reinvented Chili - Desi Style~

We found a way to help all our readers keep warm during this winter. Put aside all those canned soups, and spice up your cuisine a bit with some good ol' homemade Chili. We're not talkin' about any ol' chili now. This is chili made desi style.

It is actually called Rajma and it is made with red kidney beans. Coincidentally,  red kidney beans are called Rajma in Hindi specifically because of this dish. It is made with just the right amount of spices, protein, and carbohydrates to create a good wholesome meal for the season.

So go ahead, try your hand at this dish and warm up your tummy.

Main Ingredients

Ingredients for Serving size of 6:

• 1 pound 13 ounces (822g) Goya Red Kidney beans
• 1 medium Potato, (microwaved for 3 min)
• 1 large Red Onion, peeled and chopped finely
• 1 ½ cups Crushed Tomatoes
• 1 tbsp Garam masala
• 1 tsp Ginger garlic paste
• 1 tsp Cumin seeds
• ½ tsp Turmeric powder
• 1 tsp Chili powder
• 3 tbsp Vegetable oil
• ¼ cup Fresh Coriander, chopped for garnish (Optional)

Procedure:
1) Pour the beans from the can into a colander and wash them thoroughly under running water & drain.

2) Peel the potato and cut into cubes.

3)  Heat oil in a heavy bottomed saucepan, add jeera and when it starts to sizzle add grated onion. Saute it until golden brown; add ginger garlic paste, turmeric & chili powder. Mix well.

4)  Add crushed tomato into the mixture and stir it for 2-3 minutes until the raw taste is gone. Now
add the beans and the potato cubes and mix. Add salt, garam masala, and some water to the desired consistency. Cook well under low-medium heat for 10 – 15min.

5) If using a pressure cooker instead of the saucepan, pressure cook for 10 minutes.

Now the rajma is ready to be served. Grab a bowl full with a side of rotis or naan as your bread for dipping. It can also be eaten with hot jeera rice or plain basmati rice. We served this dish at Thanksgiving as well and it was an instant hit and all gone by the end of dinner.