Poori Kesari / Semolina Pops

        Today my niece is taking her 10 std board exam in India (finals). She is a v.smart and a v.sweet child, she enjoys sweets. I love her writing style, she has a way with words, she'll captivate the audience with her story. I'm sure she'll become a great author. She's having a story blog and started an interesting story, but was not able to finish it because of her hectic school work. God bless her!
        When i was young, we enjoyed summer holidays. My mom used to take us to a drive-in restaurant, my fav item was *poori *kesari (rolled poories stuffed with kesari). I love poori and i love kesari. 

Poori Kesari!

         Instead of rolling the poori with sweet kesari, i filled the dough with kesari and fried it. This bite size pops can be enjoyed as an appetizer or as a dessert. It won't fill us like a full poori. We can fill it with potato curry too. Click for potato masala recipe
*Poori: deep fried Indian flat bread
*Rava kesari: An Indian sweet made with semolina. 
Ingredients:
to make poori
1/2 cup             wheat flour/ atta
1-1/2 cups        all purpose flour/ maida
1/2 tsp              salt    
1 cup                hot water
2 tsp                 oil
enough oil to deep fry the poories.
to make kesari
1 cup                rava/ semolina/ suji
1 cup                sugar
1cup                 ghee/ melted butter/clarified butter
2 cups               water
1/4 tsp               powdered cardamom
10                     (chopped) cashews
10                     (chopped) raisins 
few strands        saffron (or) 1 pinch orange food color  
1 pinch              salt   
Method:
 To make poori dough:

1. In a bowl, combine both flours with salt.
2. Add water to it (few spoons at a time) and knead it till it becomes a firm dough.
3. Add oil and knead some more. Cover the dough with a wet kitchen towel and leave it for 20 mins.

Yummy!!!

Kesari:
1. Heat 1/4 of ghee/ clarified butter and fry the cashew and raisins, when it becomes golden brown remove it from the pan.
2. Add the rava to the same pan and roast the rava/ semolina till fragrant (nice roasted smell). Remove the rava/semolina from the pan.
3 In the same pan, heat 2 cups of water. Add sugar, cardamom powder and food color (if using saffron strands, soak it in 3 tsp of warm milk for a few minutes and add it to the water) 
4. When the water starts to boil, lower the heat. Add the rava/semolina gradually to the water with one hand and stir the pan in a circular motion with the other hand, making sure it doesn't form any lumps.
5. Switch off the heat when it starts to boil, stir continuously till the mixture becomes dry. Add ghee/clarified butter, fried cashews and raisins, mix it well and keep it aside.
6. In a separate pan heat oil to fry the kesari pops

Poori kesari pops:
1. Keep the poori dough on a slightly floured surface, knead it some more and divide it into two equal sized dough balls.

2. Roll out the dough into two circular discs- as thin as possible.
3. Scoop the kesari with a small spoon, make it into a ball and place it on a dough disk, repeat this process with the remaining kesari, allowing few inches of space between them.  

 

4. Cover the kesari with the remaining dough disk. Press the dough around the kesari balls.

5. Cut each kesari ball with a round cookie cutter or any small bowl. I used a plastic bottle cap.

6. Fry it in hot oil for few minutes, remove with a slotted spoon before it gets crispy. Place it on a paper towel lined tray.

7. Sprinkle powdered sugar over the kesari pop and serve it warm.

Thanks for visiting this page. Feel free to comment, i love your feedback. Enjoy ur cooking! Hav a blessed day :)