Spusht: Moong Dal ki Kurkuri Poori Recipe | Korma ki Poori Recipe

She deep-fried them one at a time in a small kadhai and told me it's called Korma ki Poori.

"Why is it called Korma ki Puri?" I asked. "What's the korma in this?"

She replied, "In the earlier days, my mom used to bring whole moong dal from the market and grind it by hand in the stone grinding mill, the one that can go round and round. She made the split moong dal that way and the 'choori' that came out from it was called korma by them and was used to make this Korma ki Puri. They also call it Choori ki Poori. But these days you can just grind the split moong dal in a blender."

"So why didn't she just buy split moong dal in the first place? And why not just call it Moong Dal ki Poori" the inquisitive person in me just doesn't stop.

She knows how I am. She gave birth to me. She knows how to respond to my questions when she is fed up: "I don't know," she replied.

Moong Dal ki Kurkuri Poori | Korma ki Puri
My mom's recipe

1 cup split green moong lentils (chilkewali hari moong dal)
2 cups whole wheat flour (gehun ka aata)
2 tsp red chili powder [to taste]
2 tsp fennel seeds (saunf)
1/2 tsp salt [to taste]
pinch asafetida
1/4 cup oil

Oil for frying

1. Rinse the moong dal once and let it drain completely. Then grind the moong dal until coarse (don't make it a powder) then soak in about 1/2 cup water for 30 minutes or even longer. Then strain and reserve the water to use for kneading.

2. In a bowl mix all the ingredients: the ground and soaked and strained dal + flour + red chili powder + fennel seeds + salt + asafetida + oil. Mix it well. If the mixture forms into a dough because of the water that remainds inside the strained dal, then stop there, otherwise use the same strained water a few teaspooons at a time to knead into a semi-firm dough. Not soft like kadhai ki poori dough, not firm like mathri dough. Cover and keep for 10-20 minutes.

3. Heat oil in a frying pan on medium heat. Meanwhile, make small balls from the dough and roll out circles to whatever diameter you want (and can fit inside your frying pan!) and of about 5mm thickness. Deep-fry on both sides in hot oil until brown and crunchy and crispy and drain on paper towel or absorbent paper. They will not puff up because of the coarseness of moong dal that creates tiny little holes in the poori when rolling out.

These Crunchy Moong Dal Puri make such excellent snacks, especially with my favorite Adrak-Elaichi Chai (Ginger-Cardamom Tea). Two years back when Mom made this for our travels in Indonesia I had loved it even then. She had made a deep-fried one for me, whereas for my dad who had undergone a heart surgery the year before she made on flat pan (tawa) pressing the Moong Dal Puri well on both sides instead of giving him a fried one.

But the deep-fried version Moong Dal Poori aka Korma ki Puri has great shelf life of over 3 weeks. Mom has started adding ground flaxseeds to the dough to make it healthy sometimes. I know, deep-fried yet attempts to make it healthy - how ironic, haha. But if you are bored with Mathri or Masala Mathri as a snack or accompaniment to Chai or for travels, this crunchy crispy spicy Moong Dal ki Puri is a delicious change.