Kitchen Tips: How To Make The Best Bedmi Puri For Your Sunday Breakfast?

Something happens to Delhiites on Sundays. It is fascinating how the same set of people who are always on the run throughout the week, can press pause everything to enjoy a lazy bite of their bhaturas spilling with spicy chole and chutney. Chole Bhature is a weekend favourite, but it has stiff competition from many equally greasy and iconic snacks such as Kachori, Nalli Nihari and Bedmi Poori-Aloo.

Bedmi Puri is a golden-coloured, deep-fried flatbread made with urad dal stuffing. It is different from your regular puri because of its texture, which is slightly grainy and of course, there is a significant difference in the flavour too. Bedmi puri is usually paired with a spicy potato curry with a hint of hing. This filling breakfast combination is prevalent in all of Delhi and parts of Uttar Pradesh too. These puris are prepared slightly differently and require a fair amount of skill. Also, since they are heavier, there is more scope for them to get burnt or fragment. However, with these pro-tips, you can treat yourself to the finest ‘Dilliwallah breakfast’ in your own home. So here goes:

1. Bedmi Puri requires a longer preparation time than standard puris. First, make sure you soak the urad dal for at least 2-3 hours. Then, drain excess water and keep it aside and start working on the stuffing in the meanwhile, like peeling, cutting and parboiling potatoes.
2. Once your urad dal is well soaked, grind it into a coarse paste with ample water. Please do not use too much water; add it gradually because your paste cannot be a fine puree; we need a coarse paste.
3. Then add this paste to a pan and season it with your choice of masalas such as hing, jeera, amchur. You can also add ginger, green chillies for flavour.
4. Cook on medium flame until aromatic.
5. Once the mixture is cooked and appears slightly crumbly, please turn off the heat and transfer it to another pan to cool.
6. Now prepare a soft but pliant dough of wheat, semolina, the urad dal mixture and salt.
7. Make sure you rest the dough for 30 minutes.
8. Pull out small roundels from the dough and roll it flat. It shouldn't be too thick or thin; a thickness of half an inch is a bare minimum.
9. Once you have round pooris, deep fry the puris until crisp and golden brown.

Now pair these piping hot bedmi puris with your aloo ki sabzi and indulge to your heart's content.

Need a step-by-step recipe for Bedmi puri? Here you go.