A Holy meal for Holi
I remember the my childhood “Holi”. In Maharashtra, a major state of India, Holi isn’t a festival of colors(the colors are played on Rangapanchami i.e. fifth day after holi.), instead it’s a day of Holika Dahan, a day on which devil named holika is burnt in a bonfire. We used to gather woods for holika dahan for atleast a week before holi.
Holi is celebrated as a victory of good over bad, god over devil. Now a days they have collective large bonfires for a colony or so, which is good, but in my childhood, we used to have our own holi. Being a foodie by heart, ever since I remember, my interest in Holi was for a different reason. It’s the day on which my mother used to make “Puran Poli” - An indian sweet flatbread made up with chana dal(split chickpeas) and gul(jaggery).
On the day before to holi, she orders my father to bring all the grocery she needs for Holi naivedya(an offering made to fire). She used to warn me and my brother to sleep early so that we can get up early on the festival day. Her day started so early that till the time we got up, she had completed almost half of the meal preparation. The attraction of the meal is off course Puran Poli. I can still feel the smell of warm chana dal which she cooks first. Then the jaggery needs to be sliced. This task has been always the delicate one and needs expertise. If the slices aren’t thin, then it would take time to melt and that can be reason for overcooking the dal. So after slicing the jaggery, it gets mixed with the drained dal and put up on the gas stove again. The water from cooked dal is called “Yelawani” which is used for making a spicy curry to accompany the Puran Poli.
Once the dal and jaggery are cooked and mixed thoroughly there comes the time to make Puran. It’s our time! In every Maharashtrian home, kids are allowed to make puran and eat it too :) There comes a hand grinder which was used to grind the dal and jaggery mixture. The finely grinded mixture is called Puran - the basic ingredient of Puran Poli. When me and my brother were making Puran, my mother used to knead the dough for it. The dough has to be supersoft and same consistency as Puran so that the resulting Poli will be silk smooth to eat. Then she makes small portions of dough which in turn would be filled with Puran and flatened to make a round bread. It is then roasted on a pan using pure desi ghee(i.e. clarified butter) and my favourite Puran Poli is ready.
If the home doesn’t have Puran Poli once an year then you should probably guess that it’s not a Maharashtrian home, that much darling this dish is in Maharashtra. Puran Poli can be eaten with milk, with ghee, with spicy curry or you can roll it and eat it as it is! It’s your choice.
Puran Poli adds sweetness to the festive mood. Now when I’m living outside India, this one dish connects me to my country, to my roots and to my memories. I remember this because my mother used to make them on every holi. I prepare them so that when my son will be of my age, he will remember his childhood holi and a nice smile will appear on his face remembering how we used to eat Puran Poli and that will make his holi special.
------This article has been previously published on myheartbeatsfortravel