Bengali luchi is awesome breakfast which goes well with any type of gravy and sometimes one can eat it without any side dish. This is the staple lunch for one of my colleagues who is bengali and she finds preparation of this dish is easy. Came to know about this dish only from her during our lunch conversations and developed an interest towards bengali dishes just because of the fancy names it has like Dim posto, Rosogolla etc..,
Today we will see the preparation of Luchi. There is a slight difference between Bengali Luchi and Poori. Luchi usually in white colour(fried very lightly without changing the colour) prepared using Maida or all purpose flour whereas the poori uses wheat flour and fried till it becomes golden brown.
Basic Information:
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Idle Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Makes: 25 poories
Bengali Luchi Video recipe:
Ingredients:
All purpose flour / Maida – 2 cups
Vegetable oil – 3 tablespoons
Salt – to taste
Warm water – for making smooth dough
Oil – for deep frying
Oil or Maida for rolling
Method:
1) In a wide mixing bowl, add maida, oil and salt.
2) Rub it using your finger tips and make sure the oil mixed with flour well. Once you are down, you should be able to form a lump with the oil mixed flour.
3) Add warm water slowly and make smooth and soft dough.
4) Knead it for 10 minutes. This is must.
5) Once kneaded, cover it using a damp cloth for 30 minutes.
6) After 30 minutes, divide the dough into equal parts. I made approx. 25 to 29 big amla size balls.
7) Dust each dough ball using the maida.
8) Roll into approximately 3 inch round poori. Make sure the poori is bit thick.
9) Heat oil in a frying pan. Once it is hot and not smoking, add rolled poori and fry both the side without changing the colour.
10) Bengali Luchi should be white in colour and it should not be fried until it changed to brown colour.
11) Server hot with any of your favorite bengali gravy/curry.
Serving Suggestions:
It can be served with gravy/curry for morning breakfast or as a tiffin in the evening.
Notes:
1) Instead of oil, ghee can be used for frying and also for kneading the dough.
2) Once the luchi is fried, make sure to use the leftover or fried oil for stir frying vegetables or making dosa or just discard it. Do not use the fried oil for more than 3 times.
Luchi is quintessentially Bengali, no point in calling it Bengali Luchi. Its simply luchi. There is nothing like a Punjabi Luchi or a Odia Luchi. But it is still acceptable if someone calls Luchi as Bengali Luchi. But bracketing luchi and puri together and even worse, terming luchi as Bengali puri is as good as blasphemy. Luchi and puri are different things. While its ingredients and preparation method may have some similarity, there is hell and heaven difference on the cultural quotient of the two things. Please appreciate it.
Thank you Kalyan for taking time and explaining Luchi and your words expose how much you got annoyed for using the word bengali luchi or poori. I understand Luchi itself a bengali dish but I was in the assumption that even people from north part of oriya makes it in their own way. And majority of my viewers are from a particular geography and in layman terms I don't find an easy way of explaining it to them. I know the difference but I don't have the intention to make it as blasphemy as you said. btw, happy if you can explain the differences to my viewers and I am also happy to learn with them.