Luchi recipe with sada alur torkari | How to make Perfect Luchi and sada alur torkari – for Bengali breakfast

Name: Luchi recipe with sada alur torkari | How to make Perfect Bengali Luchi and sada alur torkari - for Bengali breakfast
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 35 min
Ingredients: 2 cups Maida / All-purpose flour; 3/4 tsp Sugar; 3/4 tsp Salt; 3 tbsp Vegetable Oil / Ghee / Dalda; Water (as required for kneading); 1.5 cup (≈ 375 ml) Vegetable Oil (for frying); 4 Medium to Big Aloo; 3 tbsp Mustard Oil; 1/2 tsp Paanch Phoron (Bengali five spice); 1/4 tsp Hing (Asafoetida); 1+1/2 tsp Sugar; 1 tsp Salt; 2 cups water (for cooking)

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Luchi is a refined wheat flour (maida) based deep fried soft & puffy Bengali bread, a West Bengal version of North Indian bread poori (puri). Sada alur torkari is a simple Bengali white potato curry that perfectly goes with bengali Bread.

Preparing luchi is very simple, just you need all-purpose flour/maida, salt, sugar & oil/ ghee to make its dough, and need vegetable oil for deep frying.

In the olden times of Bengali cuisine, at every Bengali house, luchi was mostly fried in ghee, however, we no longer carry that old tradition due to health. Still, frying luchi in dalda or vanaspati (vegetable fat) in Bengali biye bari or restaurants or misti’r dokan (Bengali sweet shop) are favourite to Bengalis.

In West Bengal (mostly in Kolkata), luchi is always popular to dish up with Bengali style potato curries like Aloo r dom, sada alur torkari, Aloor chorchori, or alu bhaja. Or Served with Begun vaja, Cholar Dal (Bengali chana dal recipe), Sooji (Suji ki halwa), Phukopir Tarkari – kosha Mangsho (Bengali mutton or chicken curry recipe) – Mangshor jhol – Ghugni (yellow peas curry). Those side dishes paired up with luchi are always considered the most scrumptious traditional Bengali meal for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

We also have many more yummiest curries in our cuisine which go very well with this Bengali poori. However, I love to eat luchi with aloor tarkari (aloo ki sabzi in Bengali) among all of those Bengali side dishes, due to the simplicity and quickly made nature of this potato curry.

What is Luchi?

Luchi is a very popular Bengali dish, basically a maida or flour based deep fried puffy Bengali bread. This Bengali bread has a crispy flaky top and a soft fluffy core. Tearing with the light pressure of two fingers & just melting in the mouth is a sign of a perfect luchi. For making a perfect luchi, a few techniques need to be followed from making a soft dough to a special technique of rolling and deep frying in oil to make it puffy.

Bengali Luchi and North Indian poori (puri) have quite similarities in looks but they are not the same. The main difference is, Poori is a preparation of atta or wheat flour, whereas luchi is a preparation of maida or all purpose flour. Poori has a brownish-yellow texture while luchi has a white tone. Poori dough is a little harder than luchi dough as a result poori is less soft than luchi as well.

How To Make Perfect Bengali Luchi recipe?

Tips 1: A Perfect Moyan – Luchi must have a perfect Moyan/Moyen. In Bengali, the word Moyan/moyen means nicely rubbing maida with ghee or oil before adding water for making any deep fried bread dough. A good moyan never allows this bread to soak much oil but rather makes this bread soft & fluffy. But luchi gets hard if less moyan is used, whereas if moyan is more, makes this bread super flaky. That super flaky luchi is called khasta luchi in Bengali language. So moyan is very important for making a perfect deep fried bread.

Tips 2: Prepare A Soft Dough – Luchi dough must be soft but not too soft dough that you can not roll it properly. To contain that softness a little bit of sugar is mixed with flour before kneading. Maida & water proportion must be perfect, that perfection comes with experience.

So if you are a novice must not add the water (whole water) at a time, rather gradually mix it while kneading the dough. Knead it until the dough is soft & smooth. As How long you will knead the dough, luchi will be soft & fluffy accordingly due to making more air pockets in the dough.

Tips 3: Keep The Dough At Rest – Need to keep the dough at rest minimum of 30 mins, covering it by a plate or moist cloth. Mainly dough should not come in contact with air while resting. Oil greasing over the dough is one more technique to prevent it from being in contact with air.

Tips 4: Perfect Rolling Technique – Due to the perfect rolling technique, every luchi must be puffy after putting in oil. Simply roll the dough up & down 3- 4 times then roll it again 2-3 times from the other side. Do not put too much pressure on rolling the dough. Otherwise, the air pockets get broken and luchi won’t be perfectly puffed up. If your luchi is not in a round shape, don’t worry it will be puffed for sure, & little more practice help you to make it round.

Tips 5: How To Fry Luchi To Make It Puffy or Fulko – Put the flat rolled dough in the oil once the oil starts releasing smoke. If the oil is not perfectly hot can not make it puffy instead get hard like papad. After putting in the oil, slightly press the top of this flat rolled bread with a perforated ladle and you can see immediately that the flat bread is completely puffed up. Then turn down the bread when the bread is golden from the back side and fry the bread until golden from both sides. This puffed bread is called fulko luchi, the name fulko/phulko most probably comes from Bengali word “fola” meaning puffed up in English. Preparing fulko luchi is not difficult but needs a lot of practice. When you can make fulko luchi indicates you are perfect at making luchi like a pro.

What is sada alur torkari?

Sada alu tarkari is a no-turmeric-added white and creamy simple potato curry very popular in West Bengal (especially in Kolkata) goes best with luchi. Made of cube-cut potatoes tossed in oil (mustard oil or any other vegetable oil) with the tempering of bengali five spice (paanch phoron) and a few whole red chillies. Flavoured with little hing (asafoetida), spiced up with green red chillies, and seasoned with slight sugar and salt. Due to not using turmeric powder make this potato curry white.

Check how to make luchi and sada alur tarkari recipe at ease for authentic Bengali breakfast. Hope my simple step-by-step method with detailed pictures will help you to make this recipe perfectly. So Make this recipe for this year’s Durga puja time breakfast.

Check a few Yummy Tarkari recipes for Luchi

Aloor Dum (With Onion & Garlic)

Niramish Aloor Dum

Aloo Potoler dalna

Niramish Phulkopir roast

Restaurant style Mutton Kosha

Chicken Kosha

Luchi recipe with sada alur torkari | How to make Perfect Bengali Luchi and sada alur torkari – for Bengali breakfast

Recipe by Moumita PaulCourse: BreakfastCuisine: Bengali, IndianDifficulty: Moderate

Servings

servings

Prep time

minutes

Cooking time

minutes

Calories

300

kcal

Total time

minutes

Luchi is a deep-fried puffy Bengali bread, in short, a Bengali version of poori (puri). Bengali alur sabji like aloo’r dom, alur torkari, aloor chorchori, alu bhaja, even Begun bhaja or Cholar Dal or Bengali chana dal also the popular best side dishes that go very well with this bread.

Ingredients

For preparing Luchi
2 cups Maida / All-purpose flour
3/4 tsp Sugar
3/4 tsp Salt
3 tbsp Vegetable Oil / Ghee / Dalda
Water (as required for kneading)
1.5 cup (≈ 375 ml) Vegetable Oil (for frying)
For Making Sada Alur Torkari
4 Medium to Big Aloo
3 tbsp Mustard Oil
1/2 tsp Paanch Phoron (Bengali five spice)
1/4 tsp Hing (Asafoetida)
1+1/2 tsp Sugar
1 tsp Salt
2 cups water (for cooking)

How to make perfect Bengali luchi recipe with Bengali sada alur torkari

For making Luchi
First, make the dough by taking 2 cups of maida or all-purpose flour. Add 3/4 tsp salt, and 3/4 tsp sugar in maida, and mix it well.
Add moyan of 3 tbsp vegetable oil (or ghee or dalda), and nicely mix it with maida (by fingertips) until making a crumbly mixture.
Gradually mix water and start kneading the dough until gets soft. I used almost 3/4 cups (≈ 182 ml) of water.
Then knead the dough continuously for 10 mins.
Grease the dough with 2 tsp oil & cover it for at least 30 mins with a plate or moist kitchen cloth.
After 30 mins of resting, take out the dough, make small lemon size balls, and again cover the lemon size dough until rolling.
Then take a rolling board, and grease it with little oil. Grease the rolling pin too.
Take a small dough, first, slightly press by hand, then gently roll it lengthwise 4 times.
Then slightly turn the rolling board, and again roll the dough from another side 3 times.
When rolling is done, keep it on an oil-greased plate (greased with 1/2 tsp oil).
Do not put too much pressure on rolling the dough. Otherwise, the air pockets get broken and luchis won’t be perfectly puffed up.
Then heat a pan (heavy deep bottom pan) on medium to high flame. Add a generous amount of vegetable oil (I used 1.5 cups of oil = 375 ml).
Let the oil release smoke, then put the luchi into the oil.
Then slightly press the luchis from the top with a perforated ladle until completely puff up.
Then turn it down, once get a golden texture from the back side.
Fry it until getting golden from both sides. Then remove the luchi from the pan with perforated oil.
Keep the luchis in a colander or tissue paper lined plate to remove extra oil.
Luchi is ready to eat with any side bengali dish, such as aloo tarkari or alu dum or bengun bhaja or cholar dal, or mangsho.
For Making aloo tarkari
First, wash, peel out & cut the aloo into small cubes pieces (like Ghugni’r style alu).
Wash the aloo 4-5 times or until clear off the water. Soak it in water to preventing from oxidization (get a black patch for direct contact with air).
Heat a pan on medium flame, once the pan releases smoke add oil. I used 3 tbsp mustard oil, can use vegetable oil too.
Once the oil releases smoke, add 1/2 tsp of paanch phoron and 2 whole red chillies.
When the paanch phoron crackles, discard the water from the soaked aloo & put it in the pan. Stir it well.
Then add 1/4 tsp of hing (asafoetida) and mix it well. Fry the aloo until the water dried up (released by aloo).
Then add 3 green chillies (making a slit), 1 tsp salt & 1+1/2 tsp sugar (as per taste). Give a good stir.
Just after a minute adds 2 cups of water (≈ 500 ml) to the pan, and mix it well.
Raise the gas flame to high and let the gravy starts boiling.
Then cover the pan, and keep the heat on medium.
Once aloo gets soft, raise the gas flame on high to get the perfect consistency of the gravy.
To make a creamy gravy, slightly mash a few potato cubes with a masher or the back of the ladle and nicely mix them with the gravy.
To make this aloo tarkari spicy, mash the green chillies too.
Cook the gravy until getting a slightly thick & slight slurry consistency.
Sada alur torkari is ready, serve it hot with luchi at bengali breakfast.

Notes

If you could not digest maida, must replace maida with atta by keeping other ingredients the same. Atta’r luchi is a favorite to many Bengalis.
How long you will knead the dough luchi will be soft, spongy & puffy due to creating more air pockets into the dough.
Oil greasing over the dough is one more technique to prevent the dough from being in contact with air.
After rolling the dough, must cover it with a moist cloth, otherwise, luchi gets hard after frying.
Store the extra luchi dough in a food graded airtight container and keep it in refrigerator for 2-3 days.
Remember, if storing the dough in the refrigerator, before frying keep the dough at room temperature, lighly knead again to make the dough soft as before. Otherwise do not get good luchi.

How To Make Perfect Bengali Luchi recipe (step by step with pictures)

For making luchi dough

Mix 2 cups of maida or all-purpose flour with 3/4 tsp salt, and 3/4 tsp sugar. Mix it well.

Add 3 tbsp oil or ghee or dalda as moyen.
Nicely mix with maida (by fingertips) until making a crumbly mixture. As shown in below pic.

Gradually mix water and start kneading the dough until gets soft.
Continuously knead the dough for 10 mins.

Grease the dough with 2 tsp oil & cover it for at least 30 mins with a plate or moist kitchen cloth.

After resting, take out the dough, make small lemon size balls from it.
Gently roll each dough by keeping it between your palms to make them smooth. As shown in the picture below.

How to roll it

Grease the rolling board and grease the rolling pin with a little oil.
Take a dough, first put it on the rolling board, and slightly press by hand.
Then gently start rolling it from the center, rolling lengthwise for 4 times.
Then slightly turn the rolling board, and again roll the dough from another side for 3 times.

After rolling, Keep it on an oil-greased plate.
In the same way, keep all the luchis on the same greased plate.

How to fry luchi

Heat a pan (heavy deep bottom pan) on medium to high flame.
Add a generous amount of vegetable oil (I used 1.5 cups of oil = 375 ml).
Let the oil release smoke, then put the loochi into the oil.

Then slightly press the top with a perforated ladle until completely puff up. Then turn it down.

Fry it until it gets golden from both sides. Then remove the luchi from the pan with a perforated ladle.
Then keep it in a colander or tissue paper lined plate to remove extra oil.