Vella Poori

Vellapooris are deep fried, spicy rice puris savoured in some parts of tamilnadu. These fully puffed puris are thin, crisp and stiff on one side and thick, soft and chewy on the otherside. Usually accompanied by coconut chutney they also go well with tangy rasam.

Ingredients:

1. Idli rice - 2 cup

2. Tur dal - 1/2 cup

3. Dry chilies - 2 or 3

4. Coriander seeds - 1 tbsp

5. Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp

6. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

7. Garlic - 6 cloves crushed

8. Salt to taste

Method:

Step 1: Wash and soak rice and dal together for 2 hours.

Step 2: Drain the water and grind rice & dal along with coriander seeds and dry chilies with minimum water to get a  thick and coarse dough like mass. 

Step 3: Mix the turmeric powder, asafoetida, salt, crushed garlic and mix well. Cover the dough in a muslin cloth and leave it for 20 minutes. During this time the excess moisture is absorbed both by cloth and the coarsely ground rice.

Step 4: Heat oil in a deep kadai; take a 50gm -60gm portion of the tight dough place in on a piece of muslin cloth and pat into round shape of 2mm -3mm thickness.

Step 5: Place it on your hand with the cloth on the upper side and peel it gently; now slide the vellapoori gently into the hot oil.

Step 6: With slotted spoon (jalli karandi) slightly push the puri into the oil while they keep popping up, this helps to get the puris puff well and full.

Step 7. Flip on other side and get the vellapoori cooked well on lower side and crisp and golden yellow on upper side. 

Step 8: Once the bubbles subside, drain and  place them on kitchen tissue to absorb excess oil. Repeat for the entire dough.

Step 9: Serve hot with coconut chutney.

TIPS:

* The dough consistency is little tricky, here we are making a dough by wet grinding not batter. So far, I never got to make up a watery dough, so I do not have tips in stock. All my mom says is keep in fridge, let the excess moisture get absorbed by rice and use dry wraps of muslin to absorb. More moisture in dough will complicate making shapes and even dropping in oil will be difficult, in addition to drinking a lot of oil (tamil slang for absorbing more oil ;))