Fry Me A River: Wada-Pav

I just couldn't think of a title for this post. But when one of the kids started a rare whine-fest '....you promised you would fry something today etc. etc.' I had the title (lame as it may be).

Had we gone to Pune this year, we'd be enjoying a wada-pav right this minute.
Our favourite wada-pav comes from two small no-name places: one close to the Best Western Pride Hotel and the other at the intersection of Senapati Bapat Road and the road leading to Patrakar Nagar.
Much as we enjoy the wada-pav from these places, we cannot bear to eat them there.
Something about that ambiance and the sanitary conditions gets in the way. We enjoy them better in the comfort of our home.

This time I used AdhiPotoba's recipe ; which frankly is not too different from mine.

A must-have with wada-pav is lashni-chi chutney (dry garlic chutney) much like Nupur's.
This will tide me over till my next visit to Punya Nagari.

This wada-pav is crossing the pond as my entry to MBP:Street Food, hosted this month by Sia.

Who is Mohan and What is He Doing In My Puri?

The small amount of oil that is usually added to fried foods such as puris, chaklis, sev, bhaji (pakoda) batter etc. is called mohan. During frying season Diwali, the ladies in the kitchen would always talk about mohan. If the quality of the fried goodies was not satisfactory, it was mohan's fault....either too much mohan or not enough mohan. As kids, we found this incredibly hilarious.

I was reminded of this when at first what emerged from the frying pan were cluris and not puris.
Yes, I was frying puris today. The last time I fried anything was almost six months ago. A pretty good run, huh?
But when the lady in Delhi (not Madam President) issues an edict to either fry puris or consider yourself uninvited from the party you are left with no choice.

So here I was frying puris in the kitchen while the kids (who couldn't believe their good fortune) were doing the jig in the family room.

We enjoyed tikhat mithachi puri (masala puri). My aai usually pierces the puri with a fork before frying them. This results in a lovely crunchy puri; one that doesn't puff much.

Anita, hope there is place on your table for these?