With summer comes travel and the quest of kid friendly finger foods begins. Indian moms have been carrying various kinds of flat breads, pooris and theplas for such travels as travel in India is never friendly and without incidents. The train run late for untold hours, the food available on streets is not at time of edible quality and the issues go on.
Only thing you can vouch with confidence is the never ending supply of tea and coffee, so taking such home made snacks that can be mini meals save the day when incidents delay the travels.
In the US, we get a decent supply of Avocado. Back home, we never heard of such fruit, but after coming here and settling in anew home, we adapted some new foods.
But trick with avocado is to get it at the right time, too raw and too ripe is equal to wastage. I am still learning the trick to getting the perfect avocado. Sometimes I fall prey to wholesale club prices and get more than I would need.
This recipe is perfect for those times. My kids enjoyed this lunch box and demanded an egg frankie with the same dough for the next day. I would give that a A+Grade.
You will need; 1 over ripe Avocado -Pitted and Mashed ** Mash and break the Avocado cubes as fine as possible 2 cups Wheat Flour
1 tbspn fine sooji or semolina
1 tspn red chili powder
1 tspn turmeric powder
1 tspn cumin and coriander powder
1 tbspn Kasuri/dry methi
1/2 tspn Ajwain powder/Carrom seeds powder
1 tsp salt or as per taste
2 cups Oil for deep frying--Approx
water to knead the dough
**this
dough is slightly hard and not like chapati so use less water to knead
the dough, only if needed as the avocado mash will also be wet enough.
In
a bowl, take the flour
and semolina and add the dry powders, salt and sugar, add the mashed avocado and knead into a hard dough . Keep aside for 10 mins.
In a wok, take oil for frying, take only as much as the pooris will immerse, I would say about 2-3 cups of oil, and heat it till it smokes once and then reduce the heat to medium.
Make small round balls of
the dough and roll each one out (try rolling like thin cookies).
Fry each one of them in the
hot oil, one at a time. DO not rush and be extremely careful when
frying. The ideal way to fry poori's is to slide the poori from one side of the wok. DO Not throw the poori's in the hot oil, the oil will splutter and splash and burn your hands.
Once you slide in the poori
in the hot oil, let it puff up from one side, once it puffs up, turn it
and let the other side puff up.. once both sides are puffed , drain
them on some paper towels to remove excess oil and enjoyy them hot or
cold, either ways they are delish.
Alternatively, if frying scares you, make them into theplas/parathas.
Roll out the parathas like you would make roti's( make small balls of the dough and roll out thin round tortillas dusting flour if the tortillas stick to the surface). Heat a griddle or tawa on medium heat and cook the partahas on one side. Flip the parathas and spray oil and cook the other side. Repeat on side one and cook both sides. Serve hot with some ketchup. or green chutney or any curry of your choice.
Optional: If making it for kids lunch, I usually scramble an egg with milk and make a small frankie of the egg with the paratha, in this way.
These make for a quick kids lunch box or picnic food item along the way.
