Bhopalyache Gharge-Pumpkin Sweet Poori
Bhopalyache gharge is a traditional sweet bread recipe of Maharashtra, India. It is a very soft, delicious, and deep fried pumpkin sweet poori.
Ingredients
- 1 cup Pumpkin cubed
- 3/4 cup Jaggery/Gur chopped
- 1/2 tbsp Semolina/Rawa
- 1 tbsp Rice flour
- 2 1/4 cup Wheat flour 2-3 tbsp extra, if needed
- 1/4 tsp Cardamom powder
- 1/16 tsp Salt
- Oil for frying and greasing
Instructions
- Peel the pumpkin and chop it into cubes. Cook the pumpkin in the pressure cooker for 3 whistles or steam it for 15 minutes.
- Puree the pumpkin when it is hot with a hand blender and add chopped jaggery. Blend everything well. If you don’t have a hand blender then, separate the pumpkin water and mash it well with a potato masher/back of the serving spoon. Mix the separated water back in the mashed pumpkin.
- Let the mixture cool completely and add salt, cardamom powder, rice flour, semolina, and add wheat flour little at a time. Mix everything well and make a smooth dough. You can add some more flour if the dough is sticky. Add 1 tsp of oil and cover the dough for 10 minutes.
- Knead the dough for 15 seconds and divide it into 6-7 equal sized smooth balls. Grease some oil on the work surface and to your rolling pin.
- With a rolling pin, roll a ball into a 10-12 inch circle in circumference. Using a round cutter, cut out 3 circles, remove the extra dough and keep it separate for using it later. You can divide the dough into 22-23 lemon sized balls and roll out each ball into a 4 inch disc as well. Do not roll the poori very thin or too thick - around ¼ inch in the thickness.
- Cover the rolled pooris with a clean cloth, so they will not dry out. Do not stack the pooris or they will stick to each other.
- Line a plate with paper towels to absorb the extra oil from the pooris.
- Heat some oil in a kadhai(pan) on a medium heat. To check if the oil is hot enough, drop a small ball of a dough in the hot oil. If it rises immediately that means oil is ready for frying.
- Once the oil is hot, slide the poori and press down gently with the back of a slotted spoon - it helps to puff up the poori.
- Once the poori is puffed up, flip it and cook the other side for about 30 seconds or until golden.
- Transfer the poori to a lined plate using a slotted spatula to drain off the oil.
- Keep on frying the rest of the pooris. Check for oil temperature before frying the next poori.
Notes
- Let the pumpkin and jaggery mixture cool down completely before adding flours or else your gharge will become hard after frying.
- Never dust flour on the surface while rolling the poori or else your poori will absorb more oil and may turn hard. Additionally, flour particles might leave some brown residue in the oil and will burn eventually.
- You can use grated pumpkin and cook for 8-10 minutes with 1 tsp ghee. Add chopped jaggery until it melts down.
- You can buy a ready-made pumpkin puree and warm it up in the microwave and add jaggery. Once it cools down add flour little by little. You may need to add some water to form a soft and smooth dough.
- For flavoring, add nutmeg powder instead of cardamom powder as well.