Preparations:

In a bowl take whole wheat flour and add maida, salt and mix well. Then add oil and mix again to incorporate the oil. Then add warm water little by little and make dough which is not very soft. Smear some oil on the dough which will not allow it to dry. Cover and keep the dough aside for 30 minutes.

Method:

Place a pan on flame and add sufficient oil to fry the puris. While the oil is getting heated up, roll puris. Take a portion of the dough and make smooth round ball by pressing between palms. Similarly make balls from the dough. Take a ball and press it between palms. Now start rolling. While rolling, lift the rolled puri at intervals so that it will not stick to the rolling board. Make into even rounds of desired size and place them on a plate. While rolling cover the remaining dough balls with a cloth to retain the moisture. Covering the dough balls with a wet cloth is a better option if there is a gap in frying all puris.

On a plate spread a paper napkin and keep it near. Now the oil is sufficiently hot— Fry the puris. Carefully slide a rolled puri into the oil from the sides of the pan. the puri first settles at the bottom of the pan and sizzles. Then it slowly rises up. Then gently press the puri with the ladle to allowing it to puff up. Once the puri is puffed nicely, turn it and fry the other side too. With the help of a slotted ladle remove the puri from oil and drain excess oil. Place the fried puri on the paper napkin which will absorb excess oil. Repeat the process and fry all the puris. Serve hot with Puri Sathi Potato Curry.

Points to Notice:

Using warm water while kneading the dough, gives a smooth texture.

Allowing rest period for dough is important for the puris to puff up nicely.

Oil should be sufficiently hot before frying puris—otherwise puris will not puff up.

Dough should be smooth and not very soft. For rotis and parathas the dough should be soft. The excess moisture will help in puffing up the rotis making them soft. But in this case the soft dough puris when fried in oil will absorb oil—so the dough should not be that soft. Also, it will be difficult to roll soft dough puris without using oil or dry flour.

When the puris are rolled with uneven thickness and fried in oil, the result will be half puffed and half crisp puris.

If the puris are rolled evenly and thinly and then fried, the puris will be crisp.

If the puris are rolled thick and even and then fried, the puris will be dense and will not taste good.

So it is important to roll the puri evenly to get nicely puffed puris.

While pressing the puri in oil, try not to make a hole on the round disc—then also the puris will not puff.

The maida has a contracting property which will help while rolling the puris.

When we roll the puris without using any oil or dry flour, the dough stretches and also gets contracted which will ensure even thickness while rolling. As we are using more of wheat flour and less of maida the contraction is just sufficient and all the discs which we roll will be of even thickness only. When such puris are fried in oil, each and every puri will puff up. So using maida and oil will give smooth and evenly rolled puris. This way we can avoid using oil or dry flour while rolling puris yet get perfectly puffed up puris.

Serve hot puris with puri sathi poytato curry.