Dahi Puri
This wonderful snack has its origins in India, in particular in Mumbai area. You can find stalls selling this stuff all around the cities of Nepal.
​
So what is Dahi Puri exactly? It is a crispy shell made of puri (semolina based deep-fried pastry) with a filling of mashed potatoes topped with different chutneys, yogurt and some spices. Each ball of dahi puri is supposed to be eaten in one bite. When you do that, you get a sudden explosion of flavors and textures in your mouth, that will make you beg for more.
​
Now this recipe includes some ingredients typical to Indian/South Eastern cuisines, such as chutneys, moong beans, sev. If you find difficulties to find them in your area, then: you can prepare the chutneys by yourself (see the recipes), moong beans can be substituted by mash or other bean sprouts, the sev can be omitted.
​
Preparation time: 1 hr. 30 mins
Difficulty level: Medium-high
Servings: 8
Ingredients
Puri:
1 cup fine semolina
1/4 cup white flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup water
​
Potato filling:
2 potatoes
1/2 cup moong bean sprout
1 small red onion
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp. chopped cilantro
salt
​
Garnishing:
1 cup date tamarind chutney
1/2 cup green chutney
1/2 cup garlic chutney
1/2 cup curd or yogurt
1/2 cup sev
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
Preparation
Wash the potatoes and cook them in a pot with salted water with their skin until tender.
When ready, drain the pot and pour some cold water on the potatoes, then peel them and cut into small dices (1cm).
Meantime prepare the dough for puri. Mix all the dry ingredients well and gradually add water, kneading all the time. The dough should be quite hard and not sticky. Keep kneading for 5 minutes, then cover with a dump cloth and let it rest for half an hour.
Make small balls of dough size of a large olive and using a rolling pin, roll out each ball on a slightly oiled surface into a circle of about 8 cm. Keep the prepared puri covered with a dump cloth.
In a wok or a pan heat oil for deep frying over medium heat. When the oil is hot, fry the puri a few at a time about 2 minutes from each side. The puri should puff into a shape of a ball and reach golden-brown color. Let them drain on a paper towel.
Now for the filling: Boil the moong, thinly chop the onion and the cilantro, slightly beat the curd/yogurt
Combine together the diced potato, moong, onion, cumin and chopped cilantro. Add salt to taste.
With the thumb make a small hole in each puri ball. Using a small teaspoon put some potato filling in each ball (about half way). Top it with curd/yogurt, green chutney, garlic chutney, tamarind chutney and sev in this order. Finally sprinkle some cilantro on top.
Serve immediately.