These fleeting days

I love to cook. I am always on the hunt for new recipes to try (Well… not when I’m reading or writing). But I am not creative enough to come up with my own recipes. My mother-in-law is. She is a passionate cook (You’ll find her in the kitchen trying out one dish after another or surfing channels for cookery shows); Cooking traditional South Indian dishes is her forte but she also dabbles in inventing one of her own, with any ingredient at hand. Corn Puri is just one of the many recipes she created. This treat can be eaten as a snack or accompanied with a side dish like the normal puri.

I want to compile the recipes the mothers in my life have created and tried, so that I can pass them on to my children. So, expect more recipes in the future.

Here goes the recipe for Corn Puri:

Ingredients:

Corn – 1

Green Chillis – 3 (or more if you prefer)

Jeera – 1 tsp

Wheat flour – 2 cups

Sugar – a pinch

Salt – as needed

Water – just enough to knead the dough

1. Find the most tender corn available, preferably Indian corn which isn’t as sweet as the American one. Also, look for the one with more grains.

2. Remove the husk and the silk.

3. With a sweeping motion of the knife, remove the grains from the ear. This takes a bit of skill (which I lack) and can get a little messy (in my case, a lot). Chop the green chillis.

4. Grind the corn and chillis to a coarse paste. Add Wheat flour, Jeera, Sugar, Salt and Water. Knead the dough.

5. Pinch off lime-sized bits of dough and begin rolling puris.

6. Deep-fry them like you would, the usual puris.

They might not LOOK good but they taste awfully good! Try them…