Lal Bhoplyache Gharge

My aaji introduced me to these lal bhoplyache gharge as a kid. Lal bhopla is red pumpkin in Marathi and gharge are the sweet puris made from it. Mildly sweet, the whole wheat gharge are the perfect evening snacks that go well with tea or are just as good. One cannot stop eating at one and they vanish in no time. No matter even if they are deep fried 🙂 On top of that, they last upto a week, provided you don’t gobble them up all at once.

My aaji is associated so many of my food memories. She never got tired of cooking 4 meals daily. Breakfast, lunch, after-school snack for me and then dinner. Now when I reflect on it, I realize that she was amazingly efficient and made cooking seem like a breeze. Bhoplyachya purya (red pumpking puris) was one of the staple snacks in aaji’s repertoire. She used to make them both sweet(gharge) and savoury.

Here are the ingredients for the lal bhoplyache gharge as per my aaji’s recipe:

1.5 cup red pumpkin cubes – Peeled

1 cup whole wheat flour or more as needed to make a firm dough

1/3rd cup jaggery-grated

3 tbsp rava

2 tbsp rice flour

2 tbsp hot oil

a pinch of salt

1/4th tsp cardamom powder

1/4th tsp nutmeg powder (optional)

1 tbsp Sesame seeds (optional)

1/4th tsp roughly crushed fennel seeds (optional)

Oil for frying

Recipe:

Boil the peeled red pumpkin cubes till they are soft and till there is almost no water left in the vessel. Add the grated jaggery to the cooked pumpkin and mix it well so that the jaggery melts in the hot mixture. Allow it to cool and mash well to form a smooth paste.

To this paste, add the whole wheat flour, little at a time, and knead it well. Do not add water. It is not required at all as the pumpkin paste is gooey enough to help you form a dough. You can adjust the quantity of the flour to ensure a firm dough. Hence, it is important to add little flour at a time and knead it well. To this dough, add the cardamom and nutmeg powders along with the seeds and mix well. Adjust the sweetness as per your liking by adding more sugar or jaggery powder, if needed.

Lastly, add the hot oil and again knead the dough to mix in the oil well. This step is very important as it imparts a smoothness to the sticky dough and makes it easier to roll into puris.

Fry the gharge:

Rest it for 10-15 minutes and roll them into slightly thick puris. Keep them aside. Heat sufficient oil in kadhai and make sure it is ready for frying ( check by adding a small piece of the puri dough into the hot oil and if the piece floats up in the sizzling oil, then the oil is ready for frying). Once the oil is hot enough, add the gharge and fry them till they are golden brown in colour. The jaggery might impart a dark colour to the gharge. Some gharge puff up well but most do not because of the sesame and fennel seeds in the dough.

So this is the recipe of the traditional Maharashtrian lal bhoplyache gharge. A tad difficult for beginners but follow the recipe to the T and you will get to enjoy this subtly sweet delicacy in no time. They are best enjoyed with a side of spicy pickle.

There is another lal bhopylachi recipe that you might enjoy. A savory red pumpkin raita recipe. Do give it a try as well.