Friday 23 December 2011

Koraishutir Kochuri

Really the only difficult part about koraishutir kochuri is handling the stuffing. Stuffing, like free-range children from cannibal farms, should be tasted and not seen. Each portion must be small enough not to pop out of the dough while rolling, yet large enough to dominate the flavour of each mouthful.

And then, admittedly, there is the rolling. There's not trick to rolling out stuffed flatbreads perfectly but practice. If you want them rolled out thinly enough (so there are no uncooked thick lumps), if you want the stuffing to remain invisible, and most importantly, if you want your kochuris to be close approximation of the circular form, you must single make breakfast for your family every single Sunday. That's my prescription.

However, if you're fine with post-structual flatbread, you can skip the practice and dive right in. You will serve yourself kochuris mimicking fractured maps of continents, but they will be utterly deliciously works of art :-)

Grind together sweet green peas, green chilies, as much ginger as you like, some salt, and a teaspoon of sugar.

Cook this minced chilli-pea in a wok with half a tablespoon of oil, over a low flame. It will stick to the sides and base of the wok at first, but will make a little green self-contained ball as the chilli-pea cooks. You'll also smell the divine smell of toasty sweet peas as they approach doneness.

Once the peas are cooked, take them off the flame and add ground black pepper, mixing it well. Do this with a light hand and strictly according to your own taste, because too much black pepper will ruin the dish entirely.

Then make small green balls from the pea-dough. These, I might add, are quite delicious -- absolutely bursting with flavour.

Then make the usual flatbread dough -- a little moyaan, a little salt, a little sugar, and some hot water. Divide them into flattened balls, larger than each green one.

Make a cup of each flattened ball, and put a little green dough in it. Then seal it, flatten again, and roll it out on a flour-dusted rolling board. In any shape you prefer.

And voilĂ ! Perfectly deep-fried in hot sunflower or canola oil, with the green glowing through the crisp golden dough.

Serve in complementary colours. Green-gold kochuri, leftover stuffing, and Bengali mustard, for that extra zing.

Or, you could just eat it wrapped around more stuffing. Yum yum!

Go on, try it while the peas last. You'll regret it if you don't!

6 comments:

Sue said...

When frying, gently slide the rolled out kochuri into the hot oil (temp just below smoking is perfect).

The ideal kochuri fries into a perfectly puffed round on its own but you can help yours along by gently splashing the hot oil on the upper surface of the kochuri if it's floating above the oil. It will puff and that's when you gently press one edge down to help the kochuri turn over.

(Sorry, Priyanka, these are things I realise many beginner deep fryers have no idea about.)

Rimi said...

That's very thoughtful of you, Sunny. You're absolutely right -- I picked these up instinctively from my great aunt and mum, but most people starting out on their own mightn't know.

What Sue said, everybody. Please take note!

Dea-chan said...

"Free range children from cannibal farms" Rimi, you've made my life with that single sentence.

Rimi said...

I live to please, I live to please :)

Anonymous said...

Came via "Finely chopped" blog.

I was searching for Kachori, made by Bengalis. Years ago, I had tasted some,and wanted to learn.

The recipe is illustrated very well. The green stuffing is pleasing to the eye.

Thanks.

http://www.gardenerat60.wordpress.com

Anonymous said...

Me too came here via finely chopped to get the Bengali style kochuris ....