Ras Poli

A  close cousin to the more popular Puran Poli, the Ras Poli is a coconut variant prepared for special Malvani occasions (especially in winter). Ras Poli is essentially served with flavoured coconut milk. Often, grated jaggery is added to the dish to amp up the sweetness. Powdered cardamom and turmeric are used as seasonings in the dish along with the coconut milk. The Poli (the flatbread) is made of chana dal that is soaked overnight and then made into a coarse batter.

Available mainly in the Sindhudurg area of Maharashtra, the Ras Poli is savoured both as a snack as well as a sweet dish. In fact, many locals love dunking the plain Polis into hot brews of Masala Chai in the evenings if the sweet variant gets too overwhelming for them. Despite being an authentic part of Maharashtrian cuisine, Ras Poli is a lesser-known version since Puran Poli is popular in food chains across the West Indian state. This automatically resulted in the Ras Poli not being part of standard menus in restaurants and roadside eateries in Maharashtra.

The Ras Poli is also known interchangeably as the Malvani Khaproli in some areas. The latter is perhaps best understood as a pancake; its batter comprises rice, Bengal gram, split black gram, split green gram, fenugreek seeds, cumin, puffed rice and salt. These ingredients must be soaked for at least 3-4 hours, then ground, and the batter left overnight to ferment. At the time of cooking, a ladle-full of the fermented batter is poured evenly into a hot pan and covered with a lid as it cooks. 

For the accompanying 'Ras', the milk of a whole coconut is mixed with 100 grams of jaggery, a little salt, and a dash of salt. The jaggery must dissolve completely in the thinned coconut milk. As mentioned above, depending on the cook, cardamom powder and turmeric may also be added to the Ras to give it a mellow yellow hue and an added layer of flavour. The Khaproli or Poli is then soaked in this Ras for up to 10 minutes before being served. (Khaproli may sometimes be had sans Ras and with a vegetable/curry dish as well.)

With its delicate taste and appearance, the Ras Poli/Khaproli certainly deserves greater patronage and popularity. Alas, the fame of the Puran Poli continues to overshadow this dish, especially outside of pockets of Maharashtra. (Curiously, neither dish is particularly quick in terms of method or time; one may argue that Puran Poli is far more laborious to make. So it isn't a question of one dish being more convenient than the other.) But, that's all the more reason to try and sample Ras Poli if you ever happen to be visiting Sindhudurg.