BEULIR DAL ER GURO DIYE HING ER KOCHURI

This was our dinner last Friday. I try to wipe clean my Saturday cooking by Friday night and only the Aloo Potol er Dalna was left on that day. I did not wish to cook any extra dish and get tired on a Friday evening when I have a good amount of cooking on a Saturday. I do not know how people cook four dishes in forty five minutes, I or the family I come from cannot. For us cutting of the vegetables require hours; be it "mocha, echor, kochu shaak, thor, potol." "Guchiye Ranna" runs in the family and I cannot get out of it. Till date, our mother cooks two vegetables, one dal, a non-vegetarian curry for the day. The brother does not want to repeat for dinner what he ate for lunch. So I ask the mother to cook a few dishes on a day; say over the weekend given Bhai has become a pro when it comes to buying raw vegetables & meat, fish and she need not have to go to the market in the morning. The problem is she is getting irritated being jailed at home, she loves her freedom.

When the mother was here last year, she complained how she hates sitting idle all day. We know she does. I keep telling her to cook on Saturdays & Sundays and enjoy gardening rest of the days. Since childhood, I have seen she hates cooking in the evenings. Even at this home, what we eat for lunch is not served at night. Our mother does not like anyone else cutting the vegetables for her; size matters, cuts matter to her. After her late afternoon shower for the second time, she does not like soiling and cleaning again her kitchen counter; retires to her room, switches on the television and sleeps. If the daughter-in-law is at home, she does all the work for the evening, mani says. The problem is she alone has to take care of her parents too, juggling between two homes has become very tough for her; not everyone can employ a couple of helps for the aging parents. What I wish to tell both my mother & sister-in-law is that take a shift from "luchi, porota, aloor porota" and try such easy to go desi breads, a literally hand made beuli / urad dal / skinned & slit Black lentil fried puffed bread BEULIR DAL ER GURO DIYE HING ER KOCHURI; that is a vegetarian puffed bread with powdered black lentil, the dough flavoured with asafoetida, it is that simple.

I will call it Bengali because after eating it, I felt the Dakshineswar temple ground shops sell something similar but there definitely have refined flour in their dough. The entire Kolkata sells similar tasting pooris / puffed breads in the roadside stalls. I was finding it difficult to roll them with a rolling pin; the dough was tight, yet. The texture was not right according to me, felt soggy after I had fried three of them. Then I felt let me use my palms & fingers and I got them, Cristine too used her palms. The trick for their fluffier selves was me constantly splashing oil on top of each poori while frying them at low heat. Actually my bori / vadi / sun-dried lentil dumplings with the readymade urad dal powder were not satisfactory. What to do with the rest of the flour? I did these Bengali style vegetarian puffed bread BEULIR DAL ER GURO DIYE HING ER KOCHURI.

INGREDIENTS :

POWDERED BEULIR DAL / URAD DAL / BLACK LENTIL : 2 COFFEE MUG
SEMOLINA : 1/2 MEDIUM TEA CUP
ASAFOETIDA / HING POWDER : 1/4 TSP
SALT : 1/4 TSP
OIL : 3TBSP + 2TBSP + 100-150ML TO DEEP FRY

PROCEDURE :

Take the dal / lentil flour, semolina, aesafoetida  and salt in a bowl. Mix together well.

Add 2-3 tbsp oil to it and rub well for 2-3 minutes.

Add water little by little and prepare a dough which will take some 7-8 minutes. Add 2tbsp of oil and knead again for 3-4 minutes.

Keep covered for over an hour. Open cover, knead it again for 2-3 minutes and tear off smaller portions. Smoothen it between your palms.

Take each on your washed & clean left palm, flatten lightly with your washed right hand finger.

Heat about 100-150 ml or as required for deep frying each bread in a wok, not to smoking point. I add each bread at a time, I am not a pro.

Keep splashing oil from the sides on top of the bread, it automatically fluffs up in 30 seconds. Turn over and place on to tissue paper before serving.

I served it hot with a Bengali Pointed Gourd & Potato Curry; you can serve it with any curry, sauce, chutney. If invited, I would want to have it with the chutney that the kolkata roadside stalls do with stale rasgulla syrup; tamarind & red chilli flakes or a dry roasted spice powder.