Come rains, residents make beeline for mouth-watering ‘puras’

Customers here are lining up to grab varieties of ‘puras’, a traditional dish associated with the month of ‘Saawan’.

The dish easily qualifies for the category of heritage delicacy being rolled out in the Punjabi kitchens for years. It is a tradition in Punjabi homes to prepare ‘puras’ at home. After keeping a moderately sweet dough made from a mixture of condiments and milk for an hour or so, these are then deep fried with a pinch of ‘saunf’ (fennel seeds) and a piece of black pepper over it placed like a crown. Then it is consumed with ‘kheer’, usually during breakfast. Hence, this variety of ‘pura’ is called ‘kheer pura’.

This heritage food item is a gourmet delight, which is available in three prominent varieties here. In addition to ‘kheer pura’, its other varieties are ‘maal pura’ and ‘malai pura’.

‘Maal pura’ is a dish usually savoured in breakfast. Its circular shape and jumbo size brings an expression of awe on the face of an onlooker. Stuffed liberally with ‘khoya’, it is liked for its crispy outer layer and soft fluffiness from inside. Normally, sweet shops place the ‘maal pura” over ‘halwa’ and sell these together.

For the evenings, connoisseurs of food prefer to savour soft and velvety ‘malai pura’, which is dished out directly from a hot sugary dip.

Pricing of these varieties of ‘puras’ vary, depending whether its preparations is in pure desi, ghee or vegetable oils. Cooked in the latter, pricing of these three varieties can be found between Rs 200 to 280 per kg. The shops selling only in clarified butter price these between Rs 650 and Rs 700 per kg. However, temples which are operating sweet shops on no-loss, no-profit basis are selling all three varieties at Rs 440 per kg.

Ashima Seth, in her sixties, said decades ago the dish used to be first offered at a temple before being savoured by families at home.