Puri Bhaji for a tea party

( With blogger behaving badly, I was refused access to my own blog! These posts-in-waiting have been delayed. )

When Anita invited us to make puri-bhaji for her tea party, puri-bhaji it was for the weekend breakfast! Being puri lovers, it takes all morning of rolling out puris before I can sit to enjoy some. Puris are always served hot, straight off the smoking oil. Yet I was beaming from ear-to-ear thinking of the beautiful puffed up puris and my favourite potato bhaji to accompany it. And the husband dropped the bomb. "No, not puris today. I want something light." "Are you alright?" I asked, all my ballooned dreams crashing. What was wrong with this puri lover I wondered? "I'm not exercising enough", he said. The puri-less weekend passed by and the husband left on a week long trip. On such occasions, I'd generally stick to a one-pot meal, but puris have the ability to melt my will power.

For the puris, I took 2 cups of flour and kneaded it into a stiff dough adding a little water at a time. Rest it for 5 minutes and roll out puris and fry in hot oil.

For potato podimas/ potato bhaji, boil 5 big potatoes, peel and mash them. Heat oil in a pan, add a tsp of mustard/jeera and let it splutter. Add a chopped onion, 2 chopped green chillies and fry till translucent. Add a chopped tomato and fry for a minute. Add water, salt, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and a spoon of pav bhaji masala and let the tomatoes turn soft. Add the mashed potato and allow it to cook for a few minutes. Garnish with coriander leaves.

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