Poornam Poli - Attempt 1

Today is the South-Indian festival of Bhogi. It is the day before Makara Sankranthi (also known as Pongal in Tamil Nadu), which is a harvest festival that occurs approximately 20 days after the Winter solstice. Bhogi is an important day for farmers and those whose professions revolve around agriculture. Since cows, bulls, and oxes used to help with most of the heavy labor involved in ploughing and tilling land, they are given a deserved day-off today. They are given a luxurious bath/scrub, their horns are painted in bright colors, new bells are tied around their necks, and they are paraded through the village/town/neighborhood to collect some gratuity from people. In cities, Bhogi is the day when people do their annual “spring cleaning”. Old things are discarded (and sometimes burnt), and houses are cleaned, dusted, and freshly painted. The tradition of burning old things started to contribute to the already high air-pollution in cities, so this little custom is not as practised these days. Still, most towns and cities will have a thick cloud of smoke and fog in the early morning hours of Bhogi.

Since most of our ancestors’ livelihood depended on agriculture and farming, our families still honor this festival in our own little way. A sweet, and a savory dish are prepared and symbolically offered as a thank-you to the Sun God. Every farmer rejoices the Sun and prays for the winter months to end soon. And we join them too - who doesn’t want the winter months to end sooner?

A popular Bhogi sweet is Poli. I have watched my mother make it plenty of times, but this is the first time I tried it out, thanks to my mother-in-law’s recipe. There are a few versions of Poli. This version is prepared by stuffing a sweet filling of jaggery and cooked lentils into a dough made of all-purpose flour. The stuffed dough is pressed thin and then baked/cooked with generous drizzles of ghee (clarified butter). After today’s attempt, I realize that Poli is definitely yet another dish that requires skill and practice to make it soft and tender! But the ingredients are simple, and the individual steps are easy.

Ingredients (yields 8 small polis)

1. ½ cup of Bengal gram dhal / kadala paruppu
2. ¾ cup of powdered jaggery (the ratio of bengal gram dhal : jaggery is 1: 1.5)
3. 1 tablespoon grated coconut
4. 1 teaspoon cardamom powder
5. 1.5 cups all-purpose flour (maida)
6. ½  teaspoon turmeric
7. ¼  teaspoon salt
8. Sesame oil - about 9 to 10 teaspoons
9. Ghee - as needed (approximately 6-8 teaspoons)
10. Water - as needed (approximately ¾ - 1 cup)
11. A banana leaf or a plastic sheet to form the Polis

Preparation

1. Preparing the stuffing
1. Rinse the Bengal-gram dhal in water. With enough water to cover them, cook the pulses until they are almost cooked. The dhal should remain whole, but when pressed with a spoon or your finger, it should get squashed.
2. Drain all the remaining water from the cooked dhal. Add jaggery and coconut to the cooked dhal and stir over medium-high heat until the jaggery dissolves. When the jaggery syrup starts bubbling, wait for 5-7 minutes, stirring the mixture continuously. When the mixture begins to thicken, switch off the heat and remove from heat. Let the mixture cool completely. As the mixture cools, the jaggery will thicken more. The cooled mixture will look as shown in the picture below
3. Grind the cooled mixture to make a paste. Do not add any water. Mix a spoon of cardamom powder into the paste and mix well.

Cooled poornam filling before it is ground.

This is the sweet filling.

2. To make the dough, mix all-purpose flour, salt, and turmeric powder, and knead together with a few teaspoons of sesame oil and ghee (2-3 spoons each), along with approximately ¾ -1 cup of water. Knead the dough well. The dough will be squishy and moist. Cover the dough, drizzle a spoon of sesame oil over it, and let it rest for 1 hour (and up to 3 hours).
3. When the dough is rested, start the poli preparation. Grease the banana leaf/plastic sheet (a ziplock bag will work fine) with a spoon of sesame oil. Take a small ball of dough and press it using the tips of your fingers, moving along the dough in outward motions starting from the center. When the dough is pressed out half-way, place a ball of the jaggery-dhal stuffing in the center. Pull the sides of the dough to close around the stuffing (as shown in the pictures). The dough will be stretchy and rubbery, making it easier to pull around the stuffing. Periodically dip your fingers in a small bowl of sesame oil and continue pressing out the stuffed dough into a thin circle. This step requires some practice. Don’t worry if the polis don’t shape into a circle, or if they tear a smidge in a few places (like mine did!). Just make sure not to unevenly press out the dough, for it will not cook evenly. Press the dough as thin as possible, without tearing the poli too much.
4. Now comes the tricky step. Reverse the leaf/plastic sheet onto your palm such that the poli touches your palm. Gently peel out the sheet/leaf to retrieve the pressed poli.Transfer the poli onto a hot skillet (cast-iron would be ideal). To ensure the poli peels out easily, be sure to liberally grease the leaf/sheet with sesame oil.
5. Cook the Poli on low-medium heat. Spoon a bit of ghee around the corners of the poli, and coat some on top of either sides of the poli. This helps it to be soft and aromatic. Cook the poli on both sides for about 2 -3 minutes each. Using the spatula, periodically press on the poli to help it cook evenly.
6. When cooked, the yellow color of the poli dough will turn golden. Transfer cooked Poli to a plate. Repeat steps 3-5 until the dough finishes.

Poli making steps - stuff, press, cook.

Polis definitely do turn out much better if they are slathered with ghee during the cooking phase. But even otherwise, sparing amounts of ghee will go a long way in softening the polis. Polis can be stored in the refrigerator for a few days. They are best consumed on the day they are made (especially if they don’t have as much ghee to prolong their soft texture). This dish is usually had on its own.

My polis are nowhere near perfect. I surely need more practice to knead the dough to the right consistency and to get them to be super soft and perfectly formed. I will be re-attempting and re-visiting this again.