Karaisutir Kochuri / Matar kachori / Peas Puri – Cooking Delight –

Nothing beats the idea of  starting the lazy Sunday morning with a breakfast of puris or luchi with Dum Aloo (spicy potato curry). However, puris can be of different kind and known as kachori, bhatura , nun etc. Among all, Karaisutir Kochuri aka Peas Puri is my favourtie.

Since fresh peas used to be available only in winter months in India, Karaisutir Kochuri was more of a winter delicacy. I still relish the memory of my mother preparing this while waiting seemed too long for me. My expertise in the whole process, however was limited to peeling off the peas back then. Now it is indeed a bit arduous to prepare all by myself, but the end result is worthy. Here goes the recipe of ‘Karaisutir Kochuri’ which you will not be tired of trying again and again.

Karaisutir Kochuri/Peas Puri with Aloor dum

Ingredients for 15 pieces of puri :

For Stuffing :

1. Green peas – 500 gms. (with peel) or 2 cups (without peel)
2. Ginger – ½ inch piece
3. Green chillies – 2-3
4. Pinch of Asafoetida/Hing (or, ½ teaspoon powder)
5. Salt – ½ teaspoon
6. Sugar – 1 teaspoon
7. Homemade Garam masala powder – ½ teaspoon
8. Mustard oil – 4 tbspoon

Whole spices for Garam Masala Powder:

1. Cumin seeds – 1 teaspoon
2. Coriander seeds – ½ teaspoon
3. Bay leaf – 2
4. Dry red chilli – 2
5. Cinnamon – 1″ stick
6. Green cardamom – 3
7. Cloves – 6

For Dough :

1. Plain flour – 2½ cup
2. Pinch of salt
3. Oil – 2 tbspoon
4. Lukewarm Water – 1 cup (approx.)
5. Refined oil to fry the puris

Procedure :

At first peel off the peas and wash them well. Then grind the peas with ginger, green chillies, asafoetida, salt and sugar in a mixer grinder and make a coarse paste.

Coarse paste of Peas

After that, on a hot tawa dry roast all whole spices together and grind them to a fine powder. Our homemade garam masala powder is ready to use.

Now heat 4 tbspoon of oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the paste of peas into the hot oil. Stir the mixture well and fry for 2-3 minutes till it dries up. Then add homemade garam masala powder and incorporate it well with the peas mixture. Cook for a minute and then transfer to a bowl. Stuffing for the puri is ready. Let it attains the room temperature.

Stuffing is ready

While the stuffing is cooling let’s prepare the dough. Take the flour in a large bowl and mix it well with salt and oil. Now add water little at a time and make a smooth, soft dough, knead the dough very well. It should not be very soft like “roti” dough, rather should be little firm like a puri dough. Now coat the dough with little oil which prevents it from drying. Cover the bowl and rest the dough for 10-15 minutes.

After that divide the dough into 15 equal size balls and roll them between your palms. Flatten each ball evenly by your fingers to make a hole in the ball, put 1½ – 2 teaspoon full of the peas stuffing, close it from all sides and again roll them between your palms.

Stuffing process

Now apply little oil on your rolling board and rolling pin. Roll each stuffed ball into a ‘puri’ sized circle. Don’t give much pressure while rolling the stuffed balls as the stuffing may come out from the dough.

Then heat sufficient amount of oil for deep-frying and fry the puris in it. I don’t like my puris to be brown in colour, so I don’t fry them for too long. You can fry the puris according to your preference. All of my puris turned out absolutely round shaped as appear in the picture, so I was very happy and amused too. 🙂

Frying the stuffed puris in oil

Now you are ready to serve the mouthwatering peas puris aka Karaisutrir Kochuri. I like to eat it without any side dish to relish the flavour of the peas, but you can serve it with “dum aloo” or “aloor dum” (for the recipe look into my post Dum Aloo ).

Peas puris are ready to serve 🙂

Note :

1. Try to use fresh green peas.
2. Homemade garam masala can be preserved for 1 month and used in any recipe instead of market bought one.
3. If all whole spices are not available at your kitchen then use regular market bought garam masala powder. However homemade is always best.
4. Quantity of puris will depend on the size you made.

Tags:

• Bengali cuisineBreakfastPurisVeg