WHOLE WHEAT MULTI DHAL PURAN POLI

 Avani Avittam is a most important ritual for Brahmins. It is a ceremony of changing the sacred thread (poonal) The right name for this ritual is Upakarma and over a period of time it gets a name "Avani Avittam". It has been observed on different date by different brahmin communities. 

This is the festival for the brahmin males. Generally it comes in tamil month Aadi. Once the new moon day of Aadi month completes and full moon day comes, yajur avani avittam will come. For Rig veda brahmins it comes in the day prior to full moon day and that day should be a chathurthi day.. For sama veda brahmins, avani avittam will come on the day of vinayaka chaturthi or the previous day.

On the Avani Avittam day(the full moon day bearing the nakshatra “Avittam” in the tamil month of Avani)  Brahmins after a holy dip ,change the sacred thread and wear a new holy thread. This ritual is known as Upakarma, which means beginning. The sacred thread is referred as ‘Poonool,’ ‘Yajnopavita’ or ‘Janeyu

 The main purpose of the Upakarma function is to offer prayers and express our gratitude to those rishis who gave us the Vedas — the rishis through whom the Vedic mantras were revealed. These rishis are known as “kaanda rishis”.In the Upakarma Homam as well as in the tarpanam, the offerings are made to the kaanda rishis. In fact this tarpanam is so important that it is included as part of  ourdaily worship.

Paruppu Purana Poli is a traditional sweet dish prepared during  Avani Avittam.

Puran poli is a traditional festive sweet made using maida flour and chana dal stuffing. It is similar to a sweet paratha but the stuffing inside tasted so well. I have prepared this poli with whole wheat flour, instead of maida.Since the outer cover is made with wheat flour, it is healthy to give this to kids too. usually using channa dal for stuffing is common.But I used  both toor dal and channa dal for stuffing with jaggery. you can also use sugar instead of jaggery for the filling.

 
     INGREDIENTS FOR THE OUTER COVER

 Whole wheat flour    - 1 cup
Water                           - as needed
Ghee                             - 4 tbsps

Cooking oil                 - 3 tsps

Salt  a pinch
Maida | plain flour  - 1 tblsp (for dusting)
Ghee                           -as needed ( for preparing  the polis)

    INGREDIENTS FOR THE STUFFING

Chana dal                   -1/4 cup
Toor dal                      -1/4 cup
Jaggery                       - ¾ cup (powdered)
Cardamom powder| Elachi  2 pinch
Ghee                                       -2 tbsps

     METHOD

Soak the toor dal and chana dal for 30 minutes.
Cook this in a pressure cooker till 3 whistles.
Add 1/2 cup of water to the dal while cooking.
Drain the water completely after cooking. Put this in a strainer for 10 minutes so that the water will drain out completely.
In a bowl add the whole wheat atta and add a pinch of salt.
Add water and ghee  as needed to make it a smooth soft dough.
Cover it and keep  aside.
Grind the dal into a fine paste in a mixie. This will be dry .

Do not add any water while grinding.
In a pan 2 tbsp of ghee in a pan and add the ground dal.
Add the powdered jaggery and cardamom powder.
After adding the jaggery it will become bit watery, cook this for 10 minutes in a medium flame, it will come to a thick whole mass.
Allow this to cool completely and make it into medium lemon sized balls.
Make the dough also into equal sized balls. If there is extra poornam, you can knead some more atta to make use of the poornam or you can have as it as too.
Dust the dough ball with plain flour, dusting with atta will not give a smooth texture to the poli.
Place one ball of dal stuffing in the center and cover this.
Roll this gently into a roti. Do not add more pressure while rolling.
Heat a tawa and place the rolled poli on the tawa.
Cook on both sides smearing ghee on the poli.
Drizzle some ghee on the tawa and cook it for few more seconds..
Repeat the above process for the rest of the dough ..
Serve it hot.

NOTES
You can add sugar instead of jaggery.