As the name suggests it is a famous Tulunad style dish shaped like a bun. It is soft, gently sweet and is also called parndda puri in Tulu language as it is prepared using banana. It is soft and sweet and is usually consumed with tea in the evening. It is served with chutney, sambar or as such. This dish is available in every hotel in Tulunad.
Buns snack was first prepared in Udupi’s Sri Krishna Mutt. Many years ago the cooks of the Mutt started preparing this dish. Once, bananas were more than enough for cooking in the Mutt. So the cook there used to mix banana fruit with flour and fry it in oil and distribute it to the devotees in the form of Prasado (blessed food). People like this dish and it became popular not only in Udupi but also in every corner of Tulunad. At present it has become very popular even outside Tulunad.
- Eight to ten bananas (Mysore or Cavendish breed)
- 1 kg maida flour or all purpose flour
- A cup of yogurt
- Three to four spoons of sugar
- Two to three spoons of cumin seeds
- Salt to taste
- Baking soda
- Half spoon Cooking oil
Ten to fifteen buns can be made using the amount of ingredients mentioned above.
Take ten well-ripened bananas, peel them and put them in a bowl. Then put three to four spoons of sugar, salt to taste and two spoons of cumin in the same pot. Then squeeze it well to make a paste. Then add one cup of sour less thick curd and half spoon of baking soda to that mixture and mix well. Then add maida flour little by little to the paste and mix well. Add as much maida flour as required so that the mixed dough does not stick to the fingers and make a good mixture. 750 grams of maida may be required for this. There is no need to add extra water as curd and banana have sufficient water content. Then the surface of the dough should be well coated with coconut oil or any other cooking oil. Then put the dough in a vessel and cover it for seven to eight hours for fermentation.
After seven to eight hours, take the fermented dough and mix it well again. Then make onion size balls from that mixture. If the mixture sticks to your hands while making balls, cover your hands with dust of some maida flour. Then flatten the balls. While flattening, do not make it very thin like chapati dough, make it a little thick. Remove excess maida powder from the surface of the flattened ball before frying it in the oil.
Take enough cooking oil to heat the poori in a pan and keep the fire on medium flame. Then let the flattened balls in oil to fry, press the flattened balls under the oil for a moment to make it puff up well. Flip every now and then so that both sides are fried well. Remove them from oil when its surface turns brown.
It can usually be served with chutney or sambar.
Author: Mithun D