Punugulu

Vijayawada street fritters of fermented rice and black gram batter with onion, green chilli, and cumin, fried into crisp golden balls and eaten with peanut chutney

Origin: Vijayawada & Andhra Pradesh, India

From the journey of Black Gram.

Punugulu are small fried balls of fermented rice and black gram batter, crisp and brown outside, soft and faintly sour within, spiked with chopped onion, green chilli, ginger, cumin, and curry leaves. They are the evening street snack of Vijayawada and the coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh, sold by the paper plate and eaten hot with palli chutney, a peanut chutney, or a sharp tomato one. They are, at heart, a thrift. The batter is the same fermented rice and urad batter that makes idli and dosa, and a batter left a day or two too long turns too sour for a good dosa but perfect for punugulu. Andhra cooks thicken it with a spoonful of rice flour, season it hard, and fry it, and the extra sourness simply sharpens the snack. It is appropriate that they belong to the Krishna delta. Coastal Andhra is one of India's great black gram districts, where farmers sow the pulse into the paddy fields after the rice harvest to grow on the moisture left in the soil, so the urad in the batter very often comes from the same fields as the rice.

Ingredients

Batter

200 g idli rice or other short-grain rice
100 g split skinless urad dal
0.25 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp rice flour

Seasoning

1 whole medium onion, finely chopped
2 whole green chillies, finely chopped
1 piece fresh ginger, 2 cm, finely chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 sprig curry leaves, chopped
0.25 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Frying

750 ml neutral oil, for frying

Palli Chutney

100 g roasted peanuts
2 whole green chillies
1 tbsp tamarind paste
0.5 tsp salt

Method

Soak the rice in one bowl and the urad dal with the fenugreek in another, each in plenty of water, for four to six hours.
Drain and grind the urad dal with a little water to a light, fluffy paste. Grind the rice separately to a slightly grainy paste. Combine them with the salt, cover, and leave in a warm place for 8 to 12 hours to ferment.
Stir the rice flour into the fermented batter to thicken it to a dropping consistency, then fold in the onion, chillies, ginger, cumin, curry leaves, and bicarbonate of soda.
Grind the peanuts, chillies, tamarind, and salt with enough water to make a thick chutney.
Heat the oil to about 170 °C. Drop in small spoonfuls of batter, or pinch it off with wet fingers, and fry in batches, turning, for four to five minutes, until evenly deep golden and crisp.
Drain on kitchen paper and serve at once with the peanut chutney.

Notes

Leftover idli or dosa batter can be used directly: thicken with rice flour and season as above. The fritters soften within half an hour; they are meant to be eaten straight from the pan. For a tempered finish, sprinkle over a little chilli powder and chopped coriander before serving, as some Vijayawada stalls do.

The Gastrographer

Name: Punugulu
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 14 h
Yield: 4
Cuisine: India
Ingredients: 200 g idli rice or other short-grain rice; 100 g split skinless urad dal; 0.25 tsp fenugreek seeds; 1 tsp salt; 2 tbsp rice flour; 1 whole medium onion, finely chopped; 2 whole green chillies, finely chopped; 1 piece fresh ginger, 2 cm, finely chopped; 1 tsp cumin seeds; 1 sprig curry leaves, chopped; 0.25 tsp bicarbonate of soda; 750 ml neutral oil, for frying; 100 g roasted peanuts; 2 whole green chillies; 1 tbsp tamarind paste; 0.5 tsp salt

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control