Saran Ki Pudi / Puri

I don't know what this is called in Marathi. I know very few ladies who make this Saran ki Pudi for Diwali faraal, but I do know lot of them who like it! It's a modified version of Karanji, or perhaps Karanji is modified version of this. It has jaggery instead of sugar. I love jaggery, so I prefer putting it instead of sugar in dishes like puran poli, kharvas and anarsa.

The filling is called 'saran' (सारण) and after stuffing it, it's fried like puri. I usually prepare the filling for karanji and this, and then make both the dishes together. This filling can be stored in an airtight container for a week or so. Shaping this is easier than karanji though.




Ingredients

For filling

• 2 cups Semolina1/2 cup Dessicated coconut
• 1 1/2 cups Jaggery
• Cardamom powder
• 3 tsp ghee
• Ghee/ oil for frying
• 1/2 cup milk

Method

1. In a pan, add 2 tsp ghee. Heat on medium flame. When ghee melts, add Semolina.
2. Fry until it's golden brown in color. Then add coconut to it. Take off the heat.
3. In another pan, take 1 tsp ghee. Heat on medium flame. When ghee melts, add jaggery.
4. When jaggery melts, add the mixture of semolina and coconut, and mix it well in the jaggery quickly. Let it cool.
   
5. As we want an even mixture, take this mixture in a mixie and grind. We don't need a fine powder, but a coarse and even mixture. Keep it aside.
6. Prepare the dough same as we prepare for karanji. Set this dough aside for 15-20 minutes. Keep it covered with a damp cloth.
7. Sprinkle some milk on the filling and mix it well. It should be slightly moist so that it holds well inside the puri.
   
8. Take 1 inch ball from the dough. Roll it to make a thin disc.
9. Now sprinkle some maida on a flat surface and put this disc on it.
10. Take 2-3 tsp mixture and spread it over the disc leaving the edge. Leave about 1/2 to 3/4 inch margin near the edge. The mixture should be spread evenly and could be about 3 mm thick layer.
11. 
12. Take another 1 inch ball from the dough. Roll out one more thin disc. Put it over the other disc covering the mixture, and bringing the edges over each other.
13. Now seal the edges carefully. Make sure there are no air bubbles, so as you go on sealing the edges, try to remove the air between the disc and the mixture below it. We need to apply some pressure so that the edges are sealed properly, so it's important to have enough maida sprinkled below the 1st disc. Otherwise it might stick to the the surface.
14. Cut off the remaining dough with karanji cutter. Be careful while doing this to make sure the edges won't open up.
15. Put this puri on a paper and keep it covered.
16. Make remaining puris one by one. Keep the dough covered while making puri's.
17. Heat ghee/ oil on medium heat. Deep fry these puris by one. You can serve hot or store in a container.

Note
Adding milk to the mixture and keeping it for long time might also form lumps in the mixture. You'll need to grind the mixture again in that case. To avoid this, don't add the milk to all the mixture at once. Keep the powder ready, take some of it (enough for 5-6 puris) at a time and add milk.

Karanji

I am back with one more faral item, my favorite, Karanji। Last week, I saw a poll about favorite faral item and the author had not listed Karanji in the options!! I was quite pissed off, so decided not to vote ;) Jokes apart, but I just love karanji, and I manage to make at least a few of these every Diwali no matter how busy I am. You can find many version easily on the web, but the recipe I am going to share is my mom's. The filling is very soft and these are more whitish than reddish/ brown. While making karanjis I always remember this poem I had learned in preschool.

गोरी पान करंजी नावेसारखी दिसते,
पोटातले खाताच आणखी खावी वाटते!

So, here goes the recipe.

Ingredients

For filling

• 2 cups dessicated coconut
• 1/2 cup Semolina/ Rava/ Suji
• 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp ghee
• 1/4 - 1/2 tsp poppy seeds
• Cardamom powder

For dough

• 1 cup all-purpose flour / Maida
• 1 tsp ghee
• 1/4 cup milk
• water
• Oil/ ghee for frying

Method:

1. In a pan, add 1 tsp ghee. Heat on medium flame. When ghee melts, add Semolina.
2. Fry until it's golden brown in color. Add poppy seeds to it. Fry for a minute.
3. Turn heat off. Add dessicated coconut to this, and mix well.
4. Add powdered sugar and cardamom powder. The feeling is ready.
5. For the dough, take maida in a bowl. Heat the ghee, and add to the maida. Add the milk and mix well. Add water to this to make a thick dough.
6. Knead well, and set this dough aside for 15-20 minutes. Keep it covered with a damp cloth.
7. To make karanji, take 1 inch ball of the dough. Roll it to make a thin disc.
8. Put the filling at the center of one half of the disc leaving the edge. Then cover it with the other half bringing the edges over each other. Seal the edges properly so that the mixture doesn't come out. Make sure there is no air inside the sealing.
9. With karanji cutter, cut off the excessive part of the edges. Be careful while doing so as if you cut very close the filling the karanji would open up. (If you don't have a cutter, just twist the edges. )
10. Keep this karanji in a plate or on paper and cover with damp cloth to make sure that it doesn't harden while you are making the remaining karanjis.
11. Make all remaining karanjis in the same way and keep them covered. Don't forget to keep your dough covered.
12. Heat ghee/ oil on medium heat. Deep fry karanjis one by one. You can serve hot or store in a container.

Tip
Adjust the sugar to your taste. I add some extra sugar so that it goes well with the covering.

Note
Since this filling contains more of the coconut, it doesn't last long. It's good for about 4-5 days (depending on temperature).

Anarsa

Diwali is just a few days away, and it's time for some nice faraal. We get almost everything in the Indian stores. But karanji and aransa's are something that we can't get. So I have been making these two for every Diwali. Since anarsa's take lot of time, I started it well in advance this time. I am sharing it here today. For the first-timers it is not straight forward, but definitely worth a try. If you succeed once, you would definitely make this every year!!

To Make the dough

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rice
• 3/4 cup jaggery (finely grated)
• Water

Method:

1. Wash rice two to three times. Soak it in the water for three days. Change water everyday.
2. After three days, drain water completely. Put the rice in collander to drain any remaining water. Leave if for about 10-15 minutes.
3. Spread a clean cotton cloth on a plain surface, and spread rice on it evenly. The cloth will absorb remaining water.
4. Take half cup of rice in a mixie at a time, and grind it to fine powder. Repeat this for remaining rice.
5. Sieve this to get fine powder.
6. In a bowl, mix rice powder and grated jaggery. Mix it well to form a nice mixture of rice powder and jaggery. Knead well to make a dough. If you are not able to make the dough right away, just store the mixture in a container at room temperature.
7. Keep it for 3 to 4 days. In cold weather it may take more days to get the dough as desired.
8. Once the dough is ready, you can store it in the refrigerator for 6 months or so.
   

To Fry

Ingredients:

• Ghee
• Poppy seeds
• The dough

Method:

1. Take some dough and let it come to room temperature.
2. Knead it with some ghee. If it's too dry add very little amount of milk.
3. Make about 1 inch balls of the dough. Take poppy seeds on a flat surface.
4. Put one ball in the poppy seeds. Apply some ghee on your finger tips, and flatten the dough to form a circular disk of anarsa. The anarsa should be about 3-5 mm thick depending on how crispy you want it.
5. Heat a wok on medium heat, and add some ghee. The amount of ghee should be such that the top of anarsa is not covered it. Now put in the anarsa with the poppy seeds on top. With a spoon, sprinkle ghee over anarsa from all sides. Make sure it's done in the center. All this needs to be done quickly without letting the anarsa burn.
6. Remove the anarsa from ghee and serve hot.

Tips:

1. For step 4 of dough, I prefer to stop the mixie and blend the rice after every few seconds. I repeat this 3-4 times than doing this in one go.
2. The anarsa's may splutter if there is more jaggery in the mixture. For this reason, I usually make some extra powder so that we can add it to the dough.
3. For more sweetness you can add powdered sugar while frying the anarsas.