Mug Daler Bhaja Pithe or Muger Puli

May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back.  May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields.  And until we meet again, may God hold you in the hollow of his hand. 

 ~Irish Blessing

Today I am not in a frame of mind to write about a recipe. Today is a kind of day when everything seems obsolete, every daily chore feels like a task. Still am making this post as I promised to many of my readers that I will help them making Muger Puli on Poush Sankranti. And to keep my promise I prepared it day before yesterday and clicked the pictures. So here it is. A traditional sweet made specially for Makar Sankranti or the Harvest festival. This is a stuffed sweet where the case is made with mashed yeallo lentil which is dry roasted and boiled with little water.the filling is made with scraped coconut, milk solids and date palm jaggery. The half moon shaped sweets are then deep fried and soaked in date palm jaggery syrup.

Enjoy the recipe and pardon me for not being able to write much.

Muger Puli:

Ingredients:

Yellow lentil or Mug (mung dal) dal: 1 cup

Flour: 3 tbsp

Rice flour: 2 tbsp

Soda-bi-carb: 1/8 tsp

Salt; 1/8 tsp

Green cardamom: 2 pieces (crush to get a fine powder)

Filling:

Freshly scraped coconut: 1 cup

Milk solid or khoya: ¼ cup

Date palm jaggery or sugar: ½ cup

Syrup:

Date palm jaggery or sugar: 2/3 cup

Water: 1 cup

White oil for deep-frying

Method:

Mix in the date palm jaggery, scarped coconut in a heavy bottom or non-stick pan. Cook on low flame by stirring continuously. First a lot of juice will come out from the coconut. Let it all dry up by stirring and cooking for 7-9 minutes. When the coconut mixture starts to leave the sides of the pan add in the grated khoya and stir to combine all together. Take off from heat and let it cool.

While it cools start dry roasting the mung dal by cooking it on low flame. Stir occasionally so that its cooked uniformly. This should take 5-7 minutes and when its done a beautiful roasted aroma should waft from the pan with the lentils turning a couple of shades darker. Wash this under running water and add 11/2 cups warm water. Cover and let it become soft. You may need some more water so always keep a cup of warm water ready at hand. The idea hear is to make the lentils soft and mushy without any extra water. Once done, cover and let it cool.

In the mean time make the syrup by just boiling the ingredients for 5-6 minutes till they are little thick. Keep it warm.

When the boiled lentil is cold, take it out on a plate and mash it. Add the rest of the ingredients i.e. flour, rice flour, salt. Soda and crushed cardamom powder. Knead to get a smooth yet tight dough just like roti’s or puri’s.

Start making the puli or the half moon shapes by taking a golf ball size of dough. Press between your oiled palms and make a bowl by pressing it. Please refer to THIS.

Fill the lentil bowls with a little (marble size) coconut filling. Bring the two edges together and press to secure the shape. Again refer to THIS.

Repeat with the rest of the dough. You should get almost 12-14 pulis.

Once all the pulis are prepared cover it and keep it aside.

Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan. The amount of oil should be enough to cover the pulis (almost 3”).

The oil should be very hot so that once anything is put in, it should sizzle and bubble and immediately come on top. The idea here is to immediately seal the outside of the puli or it will break. Trust me on this as I have been there, done that.

Place one piece of puli and with the help of a spatula help to cook it on all sides. Once you see small brown spots on them place another one in the hot oil. Do not add many at one go as that wil decrease the temperature of the oil and the pulis fall apart.

Once a puli is fried take it out with a slotted spatula and place in the warm syrup for a few seconds. Place in another bowl and repeat the process for the rest.

Serve warm or cold with a spoonful of syrup drizzled on top.

A Homemaker’s Diary:

The temperature of the oil is very crucial. Bring it to almost smoking point and place one piece f sweet at a time. Making of this sweet takes up a lot of effort and if they get all mushed up during frying.

If you don’t plan to serve them just after frying then don’t dip the fired pulis in syrup. They will become soft once you do so and storing them becomes difficult. Store the fried pulis in an airtight container in the fridge. Once you want to serve, warm them in microwave and dip in sugar syrup.