Bhaja puli is a traditional sweet made in Eastern India households typically on occasion of the Makar shankranti or the annual harvest festival middle of January. It is quite like the gujiya of the north, a deep-fried calzone stuffed with a sweet filling, most commonly grated coconut, khoya and jaggery.
Given we are now in mango season, I decided to give the traditional dessert a twist, stuffing it with Ratnagiri Alphonso caressed with a dash of aromatic mango-ginger and a generous sprinkle of freshly crushed black pepper. With a sinful chocolate-mango sauce to go with the puli.
Try my Aamer Puli, it shall leave your taste buds yearning for more !!
Aamer Puli (Fried Mango Calzones with a Chocolate Mango Sauce)
Ingredients
For the puli / calzone wrapper
- 1 cup plain flour
- oil for frying
For the stuffing
- 2 ripe alphonso mangoes
- 1 tsp mango ginger finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp black pepper powder freshly ground
For the sauce
- 40 g 70% dark chocolate chopped
- 1/4 cup mango freshly pureed
- 1/4 cup mango juice
- sugar (optional)
Instructions
For the puli
- Take the flour in a bowl, knead with water and a splash of cooking oil. Be careful with the water quantity - you do not want your dough to be soggy. The dough needs to be of a consistency where it doesn't stick to your finger.
- Cover the dough with a moist cloth.
- In the meantime, peel the mangoes, chop into small cubes, add the mango-ginger, black pepper and mix very lightly. Keep aside.
- Make small round balls of the dough, roll them to flat circles about 4-5 inches in diameter. Add 1 tbsp of the mango mixture and carefully fold to a semi-circle with the edges coming together. Use your fingers or a fork to crimp the dough along the edges thereby sealing the wrapper.
- Heat the oil in pan and deep fry the pulis till golden brown.
- Serve the hot pulis with the sauce.
For the sauce
- Take all the ingredients under sauce in a pan and cook on no flame till it form a smooth sauce of thick consistency.
To serve
- Cut the hot pithe (to get the oozing effect) in halves in a small serving bowl, soft gingerly mangoes will ooze out, add your hot sauce and serve immediately.
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