Alu Puri (আলু পুড়ি) is one of the best and delicious street food in Bangladesh! Alu means potato and puri means round fried dough with stuffings. There are no single street food shop that don’t sell alu puri, when it’s time for afternoon snacks! There are two different versions, one is with potato which I am going to describe today, another one is with lentils. Since I love potato, I have decided to make Alu puri.

There are two steps of making Alu puri. First we will make the dough and later we make the stuffings.

It is pretty easy to make the dough. You just need all purpose flour, salt, cooking oil and water. First combine the flour, salt, 2 tablespoon oil to a consistency when you press them on your palm, it sticks together (photo 1). Then gradually add lukewarm water to flour mix. Knead to a soft dough until you poke the dough with finger, it does not bounce back fast. Now cover the dough and let it rest for minimum 30 minutes.

For the stuffings, you need potato (obviously) and depending on your taste, lots of chili flakes, salt, MSG (little bit) and all other spices like, coriander, cumin, chili, turmeric and gorom moshla powder.

Boil potatoes and peel the skins. Combine everything and make a soft stuffing.

I have made two separate stuffings, one is with coriander leaves and another is without.

Now take the well rested dough, knead again one more time. Divide the dough into equal small ball sizes. Brush oil on dough balls so they don’t get dry and hard.

Now, its time to make the magic of potatoes and dough! Take a ball and flatten it with the help of your hand. Then take a tea spoon full of stuffings in the center of the dough and close the hole so that it form a ball again. In this way, prepare all the balls will stuffings.

I have made almost 22 puri balls from 500g of flour. You can make more than 22 if you make the balls little smaller. Brush with oil again to stop them from drying out.

Now, oil the surface where you want to roll the ball. Carefully roll it out into a thin circular shape, but it does not have to be perfectly circular, just be careful while rolling so the stuffings does not come out. Do not use any flour, only oil.

Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan in medium heat. Since Alu Puri is deep fried, you need a good pan to fry them. Also do not heat the oil too high, otherwise it will burn the surface outside but inside will be uncooked. When oil is warm enough, put the rolled dough in oil. Carefully stir with a spoon so the Puri does not stick to bottom. When one side is started to get golden brown and puffed up, flip carefully and fry the other side the same.

When both sides are golden brown like in the picture, carefully take them out from oil and put on kitchen towel to soak extra oil. In this way, it will take almost 5 minutes each to fry the puri properly. So if you have a bigger pot, you can fry them quickly.

Roll out all the other balls and fry in the same way, in low to medium heat for 5 minutes minimum. Brush oil on the surface where you will keeping the rolled balls, so they don’t stick to bottom.

Rest the fried Alu Puri on kitchen towels to soak extra oil.

To preserve or freeze for later:

Since making Alu Puri is a tedious process, you can freeze some for later. So use a plastic sheet in between the rolled stuffed puri and put them in ziplock bag under frozen section of your refrigerator. In this way, they keep fresh for 5 months. Next time when you want to have them, defrost first in a microwave or in a flat pan on a stove, so there are no water left in the puri. Sometimes, when you freeze stuffs, it gathers ice around them. So when you fry the defrosted food, the oil burst when it comes in contact with water.

Look, how crunchy and flaky the Alu Puri looking! I will have them dipping them in tamarind sauce. Alu Puri and tamarind sauce are the best combo ever! I will later give the recipe of tamarind sauce, but you can have Alu Puri with mint sauce, ketchup or some other favorite sauce of yours.

Recipe: Alu Puri, 3-4 Servings Prepping time: 30 minutes

Ingredients: 500g All purpose wheat flour 2 Potatoes Spices and Condiments: 2 tsp fine Salt 1tsp MSG salt (optional) 1tsp Cumin Power 1tsp Coriander Powder 1tsp Gorom Moshla Half tsp Turmeric Powder Half tsp Chili Powder 2 tbs Chili Flakes Fresh Coriander (optional) Oil to deep fry

For Stuffing: 1. Boil Potato til soft and then peel skin off. 2. Combine 1tsp salt and all spices with boiled potato and mash into a soft stuffings. For Dough: 1. Take flour, 1tsp salt and few spoon of cooking oil. Mix them all until the consistency is sand like. Add lukewarm water gradually, knead to make a soft dough. Rest for 30 minutes by covering with a cloth. 2. After 30 minutes, knead dough once and make small equal sized balls from the dough. 3. Take a ball and flatten them with help of palm, put a teaspoon full of stuffing in the middle of the dough, close the ball with help of fingers and make the ball shape again. Be careful so that the stuffings don’t come out. In this way put stuffings in all the balls. Brush oil on them to stop from drying out. 4. Oil the surface where you roll the balls. Carefully roll them in thin circular shape. Put them in well oiled surface. 5. Warm oil in deep heavy pan under medium heat. Fry flatten dough carefully until both sides are golden brown. Stir occasionally to stop burning at the bottom. Put on paper towel to soak extra oil. Serve hot Alu Puri with your favorite sauce!