Sunday, August 19, 2007

Who is Mohan and What is He Doing In My Puri?

The small amount of oil that is usually added to fried foods such as puris, chaklis, sev, bhaji (pakoda) batter etc. is called mohan. During frying season Diwali, the ladies in the kitchen would always talk about mohan. If the quality of the fried goodies was not satisfactory, it was mohan's fault....either too much mohan or not enough mohan. As kids, we found this incredibly hilarious.

I was reminded of this when at first what emerged from the frying pan were cluris and not puris.
Yes, I was frying puris today. The last time I fried anything was almost six months ago. A pretty good run, huh?
But when the lady in Delhi (not Madam President) issues an edict to either fry puris or consider yourself uninvited from the party you are left with no choice.


So here I was frying puris in the kitchen while the kids (who couldn't believe their good fortune) were doing the jig in the family room.

We enjoyed tikhat mithachi puri (masala puri). My aai usually pierces the puri with a fork before frying them. This results in a lovely crunchy puri; one that doesn't puff much.

Anita, hope there is place on your table for these?
 
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