Ever since I made channa masala chaat a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been thinking about making the masala puri that my husband, Tejas had mentioned. I finally got around to it last night. Masala puri is a common street food in Bangalore where Tejas is from. I found many recipes, but one post on Aayi’s site for masala puri looked the most interesting and was based on one of her readers comments. It includes mace which I have never used before and something called marathi moggu which I’ll have to see if I can get from India for next time. She has another version as well which adds chutneys, so we did just that. And we topped it off with a little dahi as well.
After pressure cooking the peas, the pea skins all came off and they were not a very good texture so I ended up separating out all the good parts of the peas from the shell. Does anyone have any idea why this is? Were they too old? Should I have soaked them instead of just cooking them longer?
1 cup dry white peas
1/2 cup toor dal
1 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)
3 cloves
A couple little pieces cinnamon bark
½ teaspoon peppercorns
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon mace
2 teaspoons coriander powder
1 teaspoons red chili powder
¼ cup desiccated coconut
Salt
Puris (we use store bought)
1 onion diced
½ carrot shredded
1 tomato chopped
½ cup cilantro chopped
Yogurt thinned out a little
Sweet tamarind chutney (this is my favorite store bought kind)
Sev (we use store bought)
- Soak the peas for 6-8 hours. Pressure cook with the dal in separate containers for 16-18 minutes after the first whistle (this is too long for the dal, but it doesn’t really matter since you’re blending it anyways). If you don’t soak them, they just take a lot longer in the pressure cooker (I pressure cooked both the dal and the peas for 16 minutes, then I put the peas back in for 10 minutes, then back again for another 10 minutes!).
- Dry roast the cumin seeds, cloves, cinnamon and pepper corns in a medium skillet until toasted.
- Grind these spices along with the nutmeg, mace, coriander powder, red chili powder, and coconut. I used a coffee grinder.
- Put the dal and this ground mixture along with water into a blender and blend until smooth.
- Poor this mixture through a seive into a small sauce pan. It should be quite runny.
- Add the peas and salt to this mixture.
- Put 6 or so puris into a bowl and crush them a little with your hand.
- Top with the dal & pea mixture.
- Top with onions, carrots, tomatoes, and cilantro.
- Add a little yogurt and a little sweet tamarind chutney.
- Sprinkle with sev.
I think soaking might be the trick! I’m not good at planning ahead and forget to soak. I’m eating some leftover channa masala chat right now. So good! I’ll email you soon for the radga recipe…
Hi Ashitha, Thank you for your feedback! I’ve made one more recipe with these same peas and there wasn’t the shell problem, but my mother in law was helping me, so I think it was her magic that helped 🙂 Do you soak your peas before cooking? Do you have a good recipe for ragda pattice? I haven’t made it yet, but would love to!
Yes, I always soak them the night before and usually steam it in a cooker for about 3-6 whistles depending on the cooker and amount of water. I also add potatoes in mine to give it the thickness and skip the dal (to make more junk food like – haha!). For ragda pattice, I have this recipe I conjured up myself which is very similar to my masala recipe other than the potato patty and the masalas. If you’d like, I can send you an email with the details – just email me.
masala puri*
Hi Maya – I’m not sure how bad the peas were but I make masala puri quite frequently and many of the peas pop out of the shells once cooked. This is fine as long as there aren’t too many shells floating around. I usually mash the peas once they are cooked and save some for garnish at the end. Also, I like to use dried green peas (called dried green vatana in some stores) because yellow peas (for me) taste better in ragda pattice. I know you posted this a long time ago so you probably have have found a solution by now but I just came across your website while looking for jhal mudi recipes and began exploring! Great work on the recipes!!