GolGappy

Golgappas are among one of the street foods found in almost every Pakistani bazaar. You can even find golgappa vendors roaming around in almost every street of Faisalabad (my parent’s home town). The only time I could enjoy eating golgappay was during our school vacation when we would go to visit our Grandmother, uncles and aunties as living in Islamabad didn’t let me enjoy the privilege of eating golgappas. Finally now I can make Golgappay at home and eat as much as I like, what I Like most about Golgappas is the khatta pani, the sourness I die for. One needs to break open the golgappa and stuff the mixture into it and put tamarind water in it and then eat it by placing the entire shell into the mouth in one go.

Ingredients for the Puri/the GolGappa shells:

1 cup semolina (suji)
2-3 tbsp maida (all purpose flour)
1/4 tsp baking soda
salt
oil for frying
water to knead the dough

Method:

1) Add all the dry ingredients for the puri in parat or large bowl. Mix together all the dry ingredients for the puri. Add little water at a time and form stiff dough. Cover the dough with a wet cloth and keep aside for 20-30 minutes.

2)  After 20-30 mins, remove the wet cloth and knead the dough again. Dust the rolling board with some flour. Take a medium sized ball from the dough on the rolling board and roll out the dough thinly into a large circle.

3) With a 2 inch biscuit cutter or a lid cut out the round discs from the rolled dough. Cut out round puris from the entire rolled dough. Arrange the cut out puris on a wide dish or parat. Keep them covered under a wet cloth. Complete making round discs from the dough in this manner.

4) Heat oil in a karahi(wok).  once the oil gets smoking hot, slip one puri in the oil. The puri will immediately puff up and become golden brown. Apply a little pressure with a slotted spoon so as to help the puri puff up, if it is not puffing up. Turn the puri with a slotted spoon, so that the other side gets cooked. Turn once more if you want to brown the puris more. Remove and drain the puris on a kitchen tissue.

Filling:

Filling is entirely up to you. I make mine with chickpeas, boiled potatoes, finely sliced onion. Tomatoes, sabz mirch, with juice of 1-2 lemons. Then season with salt and cayenne pepper.

Some of them I have with khata pani and on some of them I usually put a bit of yogurt and plum chutney.

For the Khata pani:

Ingredients

Tamarind - 1/4 cup firmly packed
Water - 2 cups
Chat masala 1 tsp
Roasted Cumin Seed (zeera) Powder - 1 tsp
Black Salt - to taste (I used normal salt)
Juice of one lemon ( i used a bit of tatri powder/citric acid)

Method:

Soak the tamarind in ½ cup of water for approximately 1 hour. Strain out all the pulp through a sieve. Combine this pulp with the remaining ingredients (chat masala, roasted zeera) except salt and grind it to a fine paste. Transfer the paste into a large bowl and combine with the 2 cups of water, salt and mix well. Chill for at least an hours after making for the flavors to blend well.

Sweet Ones:

For the sweet golgappy, just add your desired filling and top it with yogurt and alubukhara chutney.

Tips:

1. Once you mix all dry ingredients for the golgappas (flour, salt, semolina etc) sieve it twice.

2. You could fry the puri one at a time. Or fry one puri, when it’s almost done, add the second one and so on.

3. The puris have to be thin. If you do not roll them thinly, then the puris won’t puff up well.

4. Fry the puris in a moderately hot oil. If the oil is not hot enough, the puris will absorb oil and become soaked in oil. Too hot oil, will burn the puris.