The
market next to our home gets busy during the weekends. I used to buy
fresh vegetables & groceries during the weekends and store them in
refrigerator for the following
week's usage. Only exception is, “I don't store greens inside the
fridge”. I buy it and consume it immediately when it is fresh. Last
Sunday, I bought fresh spinach from the nearby market to prepare Dal Spinach for lunch.
All my
cousins paid a surprise visit last Sunday. The time was 9.30 AM and
they were yet to complete their breakfast. Sometimes, it is difficult to
get ideas when guests
visit our home as what dish can be prepared with the available
ingredients in the kitchen. I was thinking what to prepare for breakfast
and lunch and my mind settled on Poori as everyone likes Poori. Poori
is a special dish among Indian households. We prepare
it most of the time when guests visit our home. At the same time I was
thinking as what can be done with the spinach. It can’t last for long
and there wasn’t enough spinach to make a dish of sizable quantity for
lunch. So, I decided to include spinach preparing
poories. The end result is Palak Poories with potato masala. Doesn’t it
sound a good combination? The dish turned out to be good and everyone
liked the green color of the poories which was a refreshing change from
the golden brown color.
Do
you want to know what I prepared for lunch? Well, it is an Andhra meal
which includes Annam (Steamed rice), Pappu koora (Dal using toor dal),
Bendakaya pulusu (Okra in tamarind gravy), Sithapandu chaaru (Tamarind Rasam), Chintha chiguru
podi (tamarind leaves peanut powder), Arati Puvvu curry (Banana flower
dry curry), Karuveppilai thokku, Thandu keerai poriyal, avakaya oorugaya
(Andhra mango pickle) and ghee. :-) Long
list indeed.
Basic Information:
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Serves: 8 persons
Ingredients:
Wheat flour / Atta - 3 cups
Palak Leaves / Spinach - Leaves from 1 bunch, came about 2 and 1/2 cups
Green chillies - 2 nos
Salt - to taste
Oil - for deep frying
Wheat flour - 1/4 cup, for dusting
Method:
1)
Remove the stems and wash the spinach leaves. Cut the leaves into small
pieces and blanch it with hot water. Allow it to cool to room
temperature.
2) Grind it to a fine paste along with green chillies.
3) Take wheat flour in a wide mixing bowl.
4) Add the ground spinach leaves.
5) Add salt.
6) Add water slowly and make a very tight dough. If required add a teaspoon of oil.
7)
Divide the dough into lemon size balls. Roll each of them into round
shapes using a rolling pin. Dust it with flour or oil to help rolling.
8)
Heat oil in a frying pan. When it is hot and not smoking, add the poories
one by one. Slightly press on each side to allow the poories to puff
up.
9)
When both the sides are cooked (the instance when the color turns to
golden brown), transfer the poories to the bowl covered with paper
tissues. The paper tissues
will help to drain the excess oil.
10) Serve hot with potato kurma/ potato masala.
Notes:
1)
Addition of green chilli is optional. Without green chilli, you can
directly add the ground spinach paste to the flour to make dough.
2) Add ajwain/carom seeds or cumin seeds to the dough (optional).
3)
The dough should be tight and the temperature of the oil should be hot.
Test it with a very small pinch of dough. It should immediately come to
the surface of the oil. Otherwise,
the poories will absorb more oil and poories will become soggy.
