Aji

Last week Anika and I spent a lovely morning with Nikhil's Aji(grandma) and Ajoba(grandpa). They are here from India to visit their son Abhi, a dear friend of ours.

While growing up in Bombay/Mumbai I had easy access to tasty food made by friends' mothers from different parts of the country. One of my favorite foods growing up was 'Puran poli', a Maharashtrian speciality. I only got to eat it on festivals when some mothers would prepare it for poojas. My mother never made it because she didn't grow up with it in Punjab. A puran poli is basically a wheat roti(bread) stuffed with a delicious filling of gram dal(lentils) and 'gur'(natural sugar). YUM! Moving here reversed my fortunes with good, authentic, Indian mother made food. Abhi's mother is Maharashtrian and I thought learning how to make the dish from her would give me a chance to prepare it myself and introduce an authentic version to Anika. Aji very graciously agreed to teach me. Truth be told, I really just wanted to sink my teeth into a fresh, hot, delicious Puran poli myself.



The process was a lot harder than I expected. The stickiness of the sugar made it very hard to roll the dough into a round roti without breaking it. I watched in awe as Aji filled large amounts of yummy stuffing to a small circle of dough and gracefully closed it while turning it in her hand. She rolled it out into a perfect circle and transferred it off the 'chakla' or rolling surface onto a newspaper and gently slid it off onto the tawa(pan) in two fluid motions. Amazing to watch. My attempt was very clumsy and nerve wracking, after creating one lopsided, under filled roti, I offered to just watch the 'naazuk kaam' or delicate work. It was a good decision, because when it was done and ready for tasting..it was dream like.

Anika LOVED it! She literally danced after every bite and said 'yummy!'



I asked Anika, "Atta do you like it?"

Anika. "mmmmm..yummy!"

Me,"How much do you like it?"

Anika,"Too much!"

Aji said, " This is the reaction we mother's cook for."