A few days ago I felt like having some pani puri. While the the puris are freely available and the chickpeas or white channa can easily be boiled with a little salt or pressure cooked to a semi pulp, its the sweet and spicy liquid that makes all the difference. My parishioner Rashida Noronha made this fantastic ‘pani’ for the pani puri. I just had to get my hand on the recipe and share it with you. Cheers and say a prayer for Rashida who shared this recipe. 

Ingredients
1) Black salt 1/2 Teaspoon
2) Salt – according to your taste
3) Green chillies – 6-7 
4) coriander a handful
5) Dates which have been deseeded (khajur) – 8 ot 9 or 25 grams
6) Tamarind – 25 grams
7) Jaggery – 50 grams 
8) Roasted jeera (cumin) – 1/2 teaspoon

Roast the jeera on a tava or girdle. In a blender, powder the roasted jeera, remove and set aside. Now grind the green chillies and fresh coriander adding a little water. Set aside. In a bowl add a bit of warm water and add the tamarind, dates and jaggery and mix well till you get a thick paste. You could also blend this if you like separately. Before you add the jaggery make sure you cut it into fine slivers so that it dissolves easily. 

Now take  about 750 ml of water. In it add the coriander and and chilli mixture, salt, black salt, ground roasted jeera  and the pulp mixture of dates, jaggery and tamarind. Stir all this well and taste for salt. Now pass this through a sieve and squeeze off any liquid from the residue mixture and  you have your golden liquid for the pani puri