Sev Puri (Poori) : An Indian Savoury Snack

There are some great snacks that Indians love making.  These are served up in most Indian restaurants as starters. If you visit any Indian homes, they usually manage to serve you some snacks put together using various ingredients they have in their cupboards like sev, crisps, potatoes, chickpeas and chutneys. One such dish is the bhel puri or sev puri or dahi sev poori.

Some time ago I bought some ready made puris to make pani puris. However, when I opened the packaged puris -  they smelled stale and I couldn’t bring myself to use them. I was really disappointed as I was looking forward to trying out either pani puris or sev puri. I finally managed to get some time to make some puris and try out the sev puri chaat. This dish is fun to make and the dish - often called a chaat - can be eaten with quite a few toppings depending on what you have in your cupboard.  This dish is crispy and spicy with a hint of sweet and sour taste.

To make about 50 puris (serve 5-6 people):

¾ cup of fine semolina. ( if your semolina is coarse – just grind it in a coffee grinder)
¼ cup of plain white flour
¼ teaspoon of salt
1 litre oil for deep frying

For the toppings:

4-5 potatoes
2 cups of chick peas
2 cups of yoghurt
1 medium onion
1 medium tomato
1 large heaped tamarind concentrate
Bunch of coriander
4-6 cloves of garlic
Small bunch of mint
5-6 green chillies
1 tablespoon of jaggery
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups of fine sev
Chaat masala (optional) ( I am not too keen on the taste so prefer to use my own spices)

Method:


To prepare the puri:

1. Mix the semolina and plain flour; add the salt and make the dough by adding warm water to the dough. Knead the dough until it feels glutinous. The dough should be fairly hard. Cover this for 30 minutes.

To prepare all the toppings:

1. Boil the potatoes whole with the skin on. Remove skin, and dice the potatoes in small cubes and transfer to a serving bowl.

2. Boil the chick peas (these should have been soaked the day before). You can also use canned chick peas which are come ready boiled. If using a can, wash and re boil the chick peas and transfer to a serving bowl..

3. Transfer plain yoghurt to a serving bowl – sprinkle some cumin powder, salt on the yoghurt.

4. Chop the onion and tomato finely and transfer to a serving bowl.  Add a couple of chopped green chillies to this salad.

5. Add one and half cup of water to the tamarind sauce. Add salt, 2-3 green chillies, garlic, jaggery, mint and coriander to this and blend it all. Heat this mixture until it boils, allow it to cool, sieve and transfer to a serving bowl. ( You can also use any ready made tamarind sauce like Maggies!)

6. You will need some sev to sprinkle on the chaat. Sev is available ready made in lots of Indian shops and take aways. To make the sev at home, the recipe is here.  It's nice to use fine sev but I used the one which I had made and it tasted great.

Now make the puris:

1. Knead the dough again. You can either use small amount of the dough to roll out one or two big chappatis and cut them out into small puris using a biscuit cutter OR:

2. Divide the dough into 50 small dough balls and roll each out to the diameter of an inch and a half.

3. Both ways are fine.  I prefer to make them individually.

4. Heat the oil, cook a couple of puris at a time.

5. Gently tap each puri with a skimmer or a slotted spoon and this will make them rise. Turn over the puri, cook second side and transfer all puris to a serving dish.

Now you can start serving your sev puri chaat - often called sev and dahi puri chaat.

There are two ways to serve this:

1. Take two or three puris in a plate, add some potatoes and chick peas to it.

2. Add the Onion and tomato to this.

3. Top it up with the tamarind sauce.

4. Now add yoghurt to it and sprinkle some chilly powder to this.  (can also use Chaat masala if you like it).

5. Sprinkle some sev to this.

6. Now enjoy the Sev puri chaat by popping it whole in your mouth!.

Second way to serve this is as follows:

1. Break up three or four puris in a plate.

2. Add the Onion and tomato to this.

3. Top it up with the tamarind sauce.

4. Now add yoghurt to it and sprinkle some chilly powder or Chaat masala to this .

5. Sprinkle some sev to this mixture

6. Now enjoy the Sev puri chaat.

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