Shortcut Pani Puri Party!

Winter is here and as such, that craving for a session of Pani Puri, Chaat and Pakora is running strong.  Our friends at Aachi have told us they have made it very easy to get that spicy-crunchy treat in minutes, and when its on a 2 for 1 special and at $3.21 at Ma Ka Kitchen, we just had to take it for a spin! (Click here to buy)

So we decided to pick up the 2 for 1 Aachi Pani Puri pack, and were keen to bust it open.  So here we go!

The packaging has instructions at the back that makes it really easy, and when you open it, they even have a quick reference on what to do on the packs itself. It very quickly took the stress away when we laid it out.

So we can break this down in the way they did.

Pack 1 - Pani Puri Pellets

So each pack of Pani Puri Pellets has around 24 Puris ready to fry, and plan for a few to break or not fry, so better to say a pack gets you 20 beautiful Puris. So 2 packs punches out 40 and that will feed 4-5 people as a meal and 7-10 people as a snack. The puris are flat and nice and firm to feel. 

What was amazing is how simple the frying process was to get that "Phooly" Puri! Don't believe it? Check this out! And this was my first time deep frying! I used Vegetable Oil but some suggest Canola Oil or others. I suspect its all fine.

 By the end, most of ours fried up real nice, but when I got lazy and put too many in, and they stuck together, the result was a flat puri. So.... that's on me. But it was a professional result, even Ma herself couldn't fault it!

 Pack 2 - Tamarind Chutney

This one was quite easy. Simply cut open the pack and squeeze it out into a bowl.  It may not look nice, but it was fantastic on the taste. As you can see below, it was quite thick, and whilst that is fine, we found adding a bit of water and stirring made the consistency better to pour into your puri.

 Pack 3 - Mint Chutney Paste (The Pani!).

This was also easy - just dump out the paste into a bowl and add 250ml of water per pack. We added a wee bit more water to make it less intense, but this is an individual preference. 

Pack 4 - Spice Kit for the potatoes

So a bit of work is required for this, but nothing you can't knock out in minutes (or more for boiling the potatoes!).

Prep for this is pretty straight forward. Chop an Onion and say 2 potatoes per pack (They aren't part of the pack!), and boil the potatoes (We were using 2 packs). Red onion is best, but we just used ordinary ones as we forgot.  We used the Microwave to Boil the potatoes. Simply stab the potatoes with a fork a few times all around, and then around 2 sets of 8 minute blasts in our microwave and we were ready to mash.  Then it was simply a matter of mixing the onions with the potatoes, and throwing the spice mix in. 

The spice mix was too spicy for us, we would absolutely suggest 3/4 packet per set and not the full as it would have made it better for our taste.  But I do know golgoppa savants love their heat, so leave that to you. Just go slow adding it!

The end result is a a nice mix waiting for you. If we were planners, we'd add coriander on top as well as some Sev, and would've had yoghurt as well!

The End Result

So the longest time was spent boiling potatoes and waiting for the oil to heat up, so this was definitely a very fast make, and the result was startingly good. We were amazed at how crunchy the puri was, how "real" the spices were, and how fast! Aachi has done some magic here.... Ma approved.