Pani Puri

Before You Start

Stiff dough and 190°C / 375°F oil, or they will not puff.

Cool them completely before storing — warm puris go soft.

Fill one at a time. Twenty seconds is all you get.

How to Make Pani Puri

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1. Mix the semolina, plain flour and dough salt with the warm water into a very stiff dough. Knead 8 minutes.

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2. Cover with a damp cloth and rest 30 minutes.

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3. Roll the dough as thin as you can and cut 40 rounds about 4 cm across.

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4. Heat the oil to 190°C / 375°F and fry 6 rounds at a time, pressing them under with a slotted spoon until they puff, about 90 seconds each batch.

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5. Drain on a rack and cool completely — they crisp as they cool.

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6. Blend the mint, coriander, chillies, ginger, tamarind, chaat masala, cumin and black salt with a little of the cold water to a smooth paste.

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7. Stir the paste into the rest of the ice-cold water and chill 30 minutes.

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8. Toss the potato and chickpeas with the chilli powder and a pinch of salt.

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9. To serve, crack a hole in the top of each puri, spoon in a little filling, dip it full of cold pani.

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10. Eat it whole, immediately, and make the next one.

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Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.

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What's Going On Here

The puris puff because the dough is stiff and the oil is hot — a soft dough steams and stays flat, and oil under 190°C / 374°F lets them absorb rather than inflate. Roll thin, cut small, and fry in oil hot enough that they rise within five seconds. Then keep the pani ice cold and assemble one at a time: a filled puri has about twenty seconds before it collapses.

After You've Cooked It

The puris keep 2 weeks airtight. The pani keeps 3 days refrigerated.

Ingredient Swaps

• Dried chilli flakes can stand in for the green chillies. Heat varies a great deal between chillies and between jars, so start with a small pinch and add more to taste.
• If you only have ground ginger, a quarter-teaspoon for each tablespoon of fresh is the ratio usually given; it tastes warmer and less bright than the fresh root.

Good With

• Sweet tamarind chutney
• Bhel puri
• Cold lassi

Common Questions About Pani Puri

Nutrition per Serving

No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (how much frying oil the food takes up cannot be known from the recipe). Why some recipes have none.

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