Puri (food)

The word puri or poori, entered English from Hindi (पूरी). It originates from the Sanskrit word पूर (purah), meaning 'cake'.^[1] The Sanskrit word purika described a fried food more similar to modern papadam than puri.^[2] Terminology varies; food writer Madhur Jaffrey wrote that the bread that she called poori may also be called bevdi or—in the Gali Paranthe Wali neighbourhood of Delhi—paratha.^[3]

Puris are flatbreads prepared wheat flour^[4] along with either oil or ghee, enough water to form a stiff dough,^[5] and a small amount of salt.^[6] The flour is commonly atta; maida is used in some regions, though its use is often viewed as inferior.^[7] After kneading,^[5] the dough is rolled out in circles, about 10 to 12 cm across and 1 to 3 mm thick.^[4] This may also be done using a chapati press or using a dough sheeting machine that may produce thousands of puris per hour.^[8]

The circles of dough are deep fried in ghee or vegetable oil in a karahi,^[4][5] a type of pot whose shape uses less oil and avoids spillage.^[9] Common frying oils include rice bran oil^[10] and soybean oil.^[11] The dough is fried for about 30–40 seconds at about 200–220 °C (390–430 °F).^[12] While deep frying, puris puff up because moisture in the dough changes into steam, expanding to ten times the initial volume.^[13] As steam forms, a puri floats to the top of the oil, causing it to cook on one side at a time. This requires it to be flipped,^[14] and it is often pushed down to be coated in oil.^[15] The steam pushes the crust away from the crumb and results in partial starch gelatinisation between the layers,^[16] which is high due to the high temperature.^[17] Puri has a much denser crumb than yeast breads.^[16]

Puri is served hot.^[18] The texture is soft;^[4] Madhur Jaffrey writes, "it takes years of practice to make really fine, soft pooris. It is said in Benares that if twenty five pooris were stacked on a plate and a coin dropped on the lot, the sound of the coin hitting the plate should be heard with clarity."^[5]

Puri is categorised as a single-layer, unleavened flatbread.^[19] It resembles chapati in its ingredients and shape,^[20] but is instead fried and puffy,^[5] whereas chapati and phulka are toasted over a flame.^[12] A bread similar to puri, popular in Bengali cuisine, is luchi, which is made using white flour and deep fried.^[21] Another similar bread is bhatura, which is made with yeast and yogurt in the dough, while puri is made from unleavened dough.^[22]

Puri may be a breakfast, a light meal, or a snack.^[23] Like other Indian breads, puri is usually eaten with other foods, though it may be eaten on its own.^[24] It may be eaten with sweet or savoury foods.^[25] The most common accompaniments are chickpea curry or potato curry.^[26] Sweets that are commonly served with puri include pua, shrikhand, and jalebi, the latter of which is often eaten alongside puri and vegetables for breakfast.^[27]

A typical Bangladeshi puri, which is made of 50 grams of atta and 5 grams of oil, contains 219 calories.^[30] Due to being deep fried, puri contains more fat than other South Asian flatbreads, with a fat content of about 24%^[31] or up to 30%,^[4] including about 7.6% of trans fats.^[32] The fat content makes it high in calories.^[4] Puri has a protein content of about 12% and a starch content of about 40%,^[33] including a high level of insoluble dietary fibre.^[34] A puri contains about 300 milligrams of sodium.^[35]

Compared to chapati, puri is low in minerals, though this may be increased using fortifications such as amaranth.^[36] Though the flour used in puri contains vitamins, the cooking process results in a loss of 50% of folate and 40% of other vitamins, including riboflavin and niacin.^[37] Loss of water as steam results in significant loss of vitamin B₁₂ as well as fast degradation of vitamin D₃.^[38]

Puris may vary in size, method, and oil uptake.^[39] Oil uptake is high in puris,^[40] and it is higher in puris with lower water content.^[41] As puri floats to the top of the frying oil, it absorbs less oil than foods that are fully immersed while frying (as with a deep fryer).^[14] Puri is often cooked at a temperature above the smoke point of the oil, resulting in the formation of contaiminatns such as 4-Hydroxynonenal and acrolein. It is also common for the oil to be reused, causing buildup of such contaminants and further lowering the smoke point.^[15] The loss of water content is higher in white-flour puris than wheat-flour puris, the latter containing more fibre.^[40] Finer grains and more damaged starch are also correlated with higher water content.^[42]

The colour, flavour, and scent of puri are a result of the Maillard reaction during cooking.^[43] Compared to chapati, puri undergoes a faster Maillard reaction and contains a higher level of acrylamide.^[42] According to Mehrajfatema Z. Mulla et al., the Maillard reaction does not fully account for the level of acrylamides, which may partly result from lipid oxidation.^[44] The flour milling method influences this process as higher levels of acrylamide are correlated with higher levels of reducing sugar, more damaged starch, and finer grains.^[45]

Qualities desired by consumers of puri include moist texture, pliability, tearability, height, and yellow colour.^[46] According to Veeranna Hitlamani and Aashitosh Ashok Inamdar, flour milled using a chakki produces the optimal qualities.^[47] A study by S. R. Shurpalekar and V. K. Shukla found that mixing flours of multiple starches results in acceptable puris, especially using gram flour.^[7] A study by M. L. Sudha and G. Venkateshwara Rao found that adding hydroxypropyl methylcellulose to puri dough results in increased oil uptake and storage stability as well as improved textural qualities.^[48] A study by K. R. Parimala and M. L. Sudha found that adding guar gum increased water retention and decreased oil uptake.^[49] According to studies by Sukumar Debnath, the type of oil used for frying and the number of times it is reused do not significantly change sensory qualities.^[50]

According to chef Manjit Gill, puri has existed since the Vedic period.^[14] In ancient Buddhist India, a food called gulalalāvaniya was recorded, which historian K. T. Achaya describes as a small, round puri that may have had both sweet and salty varieties.^[51] Hindus in the Mughal Empire consumed puri and bhatura with vegetables such as spinach, but these breads were not adopted by the Muslim population.^[52] The sixteenth-century text Padmavat lists puri as one of the foods served by the titular queen at an elaborate dinner.^[53] The Mughal cookbook Khulasat-i Makulat u Mashrubat, written during the reign of Aurangzeb, includes a recipe for puri.^[54] In 19th-century British India, North Indian snack foods such as puri were eaten as tiffin snacks as part of an early form of Indian fast food.^[55] Puri and other flour-based foods became part of the cuisine of the Malabar Coast in the first half of the 20th century, when the region faced a famine and introduced wheat imports from the United States.^[56]

Puri is from the northern part of the South Asia,^[20] and it is consumed in countries such as India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.^[4] It is a staple food in much of the region.^[43] It is the second-most consumed flatbread in the region, behind chapati.^[7] Like chapati and paratha, it is often homemade.^[57]

According to the 2005 Bangladesh Household Income and Expenditure Survey, 28.5% of the country's households consume puri.^[58] It is a popular snack from street food vendors in the country.^[59] In the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, puri may be served alongside rice as part of a dham meal.^[60] In the South Indian region of Coastal Andhra, puri, served with potato curry or chutney, is eaten as breakfast, but is less common than idli or dosa.^[61] Puri is known in Burmese cuisine as a food served at tea shops.^[62] Puri is also commonly eaten by the Indian-Ugandan community of Kampala.^[63]

In North Indian Hindu culture, puri is traditionally classified as pukka, a type of food that is made with ghee, which is associated with purity, and is served when hosting guests or during festivals.^[64] In North India and West India, puri is served with sweets during Diwali.^[65] As some Hindu observances involve abstaining from typical grains, adherents of these fasts may make puri using amaranth grain.^[66] Puris, as well as sweet puris, are sometimes given as offerings to deities.^[67] In the folk religion of the Jad people of the Himalayas, puri is offered to certain deities who do not receive animal sacrifices, including Rengali.^[68] Puri is also eaten at weddings across India.^[69]

Puri made of wheat flour (left) and semolina (right), to be used in panipuri

There are many variants of puri.^[5]

The type of flour used in puri may vary.^[5] In regions where wheat is not common, wheat flour is mixed with local maize flour, jowar, or gram flour.^[7] Puri may also be made of millet flour.^[70] In some recipes, purées of spinach, tomatoes, carrots, or legumes are added to the dough.^[71] Kadak puri is made with a mixture of whole wheat flour and gram flour, as well as turmeric and chili powder.^[5] In the cuisine of Chhattisgarh, a type of puri called chausela is made of rice flour, and puris may also be made of a dough with wheat flour, rice flour, and leaf vegetables.^[72] In Kerala, rice flour and coconut are used to make a type of puri called nai-patthiri, eaten for breakfast.^[73] In some rural parts of North India, sweet puris are made of a dough with wheat flour and the flowers of the mahura trees.^[74]

In stuffed puri variants, the dough is rolled out, folded over a filling of vegetables and spices, then rolled out again. Masala puri is stuffed with spices and vegetables such as potatoes. Puran puri has a sweet stuffing with lentils, cardamom, and saffron. Gujhia is a sweet puri stuffed with milk, wheat, coconut, and nuts, and folded into a crescent.^[5] Another variant, largely popular in North India, is bedmi puri or bedai. It is prepared using stuffing of urad dal or moong dal paste.^[75] In the Indian state of Odisha, a large puri is made during Bali Yatra which is called thunka puri (Odia: ଠୁଙ୍କା ପୁରି).^[76]

Many types of chaat that are served as street food consist of puri mixed with other ingredients.^[77][78] The puris used for panipuri are smaller and rounder, and are sometimes made crisper by the addition of semolina to the dough.^[78] They have a filling that may include chutney, potatoes, and chickpeas;^[77] different ingredients are used for regional variants such as golgappa and phuchka.^[78] Sev puri is another version offered as chaat, similarly consisting of a puri with a filling. Other chaats use thin puris, such as bhelpuri and papri chaat. In papri chaat, flat puris are topped with other ingredients.^[78] In bhelpuri, thin puris are combined with onions, puffed rice, and fried lentils. Bhelpuri is one of the most popular snacks served by street vendors in Mumbai.^[5][77]

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  Puri Bhajji in Mumbai restaurant, served with potato bhaaji and coriander leaf chutney
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  Poori or Puri, traditionally deep fried from most Indian restaurants
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  Dal puri, a traditional Bengali version
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  Mini-puris are part of a panipuri snack. It is crunchier in texture.
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  Daal puri, Bangladesh
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  Thin bread is fried in oil and eaten with a salty curry of chickpeas, potatoes and sweet pudding.