Puri (food)

Puri (also spelled Poori) is a deep-fat fried bread made from unleavened whole-wheat flour that originated in the Indian subcontinent. It is eaten for breakfast or as a snack or light meal. It is usually served with a savory curry or bhaji, as in puri bhaji, but may also be eaten with sweet dishes.

Not to be confused with Purée.
This article is about bread from the Indian subcontinent. For the extinct Indigenous people of Brazil, see Purí people.

Puri
Puris
Place of originIndian Subcontinent
Region or stateIndian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia
Associated national cuisineIndia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Mauritius
Serving temperatureHot
Main ingredientsAtta
VariationsBhatoora, Luchi, Sevpuri, Panipuri

Puris are most commonly served as breakfast and snacks. It is also served at special or ceremonial functions as part of ceremonial rituals along with other vegetarian food offered in prayer as prasadam.

Name

The name puri derives from the Sanskrit word पूरिका (pūrikā), from पुर (pura) "filled". It has a similar name in many Asian languages including: Gujarati: પૂરી, Assamese: পুৰি (puri), Bengali: পুরি (Purī), Hindi: पूड़ी (pūḍī), Marathi: पूरी (pūrī), Kannada: ಪೂರಿ (pūri), Malayalam: പൂരി, Burmese: ပူရီ (pūrī), Nepali: पूरी (puri), Odia: ପୁରି (puri), Punjabi: ਪੁੜੀ (pūḍī), Tamil: பூரி (pūri), Telugu: పూరి (pūri), Urdu: پوری‎ (puri)

Ingredients

Puris are prepared with wheat flour, either atta (whole wheat flour) or sooji (coarse wheat flour) . In some recipes, ajwain, cumin seed, spinach, or fenugreek seeds are added to the dough. The dough is either rolled out in a small circle or rolled out and cut out in small circles, then deep fried in ghee or vegetable oil. While deep frying, puris puff up like a round ball because moisture in the dough changes into steam which expands in all directions. When they are golden-brown in color, they are removed and either served hot or saved for later use (as with the snack food pani puri). Rolled puris may be pricked with a fork before deep frying to make flat puris for chaat like bhel puri. A punctured puri does not puff when cooked because the steam escapes as it cooks.

Accompaniments
Indian puri with accompaniments

Puri can be eaten with many savory accompaniments, including korma, chana masala, dal, potato-based curries (for example, saagu, bhaji, bhujia, Aloo ki tarkari, shaak, and sambharo), shrikhand and basundi. In some parts of India, puri is also served with a mixed vegetable dish that is prepared during Puja. Puri is also eaten with sweet accompaniments, such as kheer (a dessert prepared with rice, milk and sugar) or halwa (in Hindi-speaking regions of India, the expression "Halwa puri khana", "to eat puri with halwa", signifies a celebration – of possibly modest means). Puri is often the bread of choice for festivals and special occasions.

In the South of India, puri is almost always made for tiffin, and on the east coast (Andhra, Tamil Nadu) it's rarely eaten with non-vegetarian dishes. Often, they will be served with pickles, chutneys, dal masalas, potato masala, or gourd curry (either ivy, ridge, or bottle varieties).

Types, variants

A variant of puri is bhatoora, which is three times the size of a puri and served with chholey (spicy chick peas). It often constitutes a full meal. (See chole bhature). Bhatoora bread is with yeast and puri bread made from unleavened dough.[1]

In the Indian state of Odisha a large size puri is made during Bali Yatra which is called thunka puri (Odia: ଠୁଙ୍କା ପୁରି).[2][3][4][5][6]

Another variant, largely popular in the Northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh is bedvi. It is a saltier and stiffer version of the regular puri, and is often stuffed with lentils.

Another variant of the puri popular in the eastern states of West Bengal and Odisha is the luchi. In Assam, it is pronounced as lusi. Luchis in Bengal are served with typical side dishes like aloor dum (potato preparation), begun bhaja (fried brinjal) and others

The puris used for panipuri are smaller, and are usually made crisper by the addition of rava/sooji (semolina) to the dough.

Sev puri is an Indian snack offered by street vendors who serve chaat.

Street vendors in Mumbai serve bhel in a throw-away folded leaf with a flat puri to scoop it.

  • Puri Frying in Pakistan
  • Puri is traditionally deep fried.
  • Dal puri, a traditional Bengali version
  • Aloo Puri, typical morning snack, Varanasi
  • Mini-puris are part of panipuri snack. It's crunchier in texture.
  • Daal puri, Bangladesh
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See also

References
  1. Ramineni, Shubhra. Entice With Spice: Easy Indian Recipes for Busy People.
  2. "Overview of Cuttack". Archived from the original on 13 August 2011. Retrieved 28 November 2011.
  3. Fanfare & spectacle mark the opening of Bali Yatra Archived 3 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine, 10 November 2011
  4. Orissa CM Naveen Patnaik inaugurates historic Baliyatra festival in Cuttack, 22 November 2010
  5. Bali Yatra Fever grips Cuttack, 12 November 2011 Archived 13 November 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  6. Binita Jaiswal, Fanfare & spectacle mark the opening of Bali Yatra, 10 November 2011
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