Thunka Puri is a popular dish made in the Bali Jatra, Odisha's Largest Fair. These puris are deep fried bread made with all purpose flour and served with chena tarkari.
The Bali Jatra is the largest trade fair in Odisha, and host to various artists and craftsmen of Odisha. 'Bali Jatra' literally translates as a journey to Bali or the distant lands where the sailors (known as 'Sadhabas' in local lingo) of Kalinga had established their trade links.
Bālijātrā (also Bōita Bandāṇa) literally means A Voyage to Bali. It is Asia's largest open trade fair. This festival is held in Odisha (a state in eastern India), in the city of Cuttack at Gadagadia Ghata of the Mahanadi river, to mark the day when ancient Sadhabas (Odia mariners) would set sail to distant lands of Bali, as well as Java (at the time of the voyage known as "Yawadvipa"), Sumatra, Borneo (all in Indonesia), and Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) for trade and cultural expansion. To commemorate this, the festival is celebrated every year from the day of Kartika Purnima (full moon day of the month of Kartika) according to the Odia Calendar. - Wiki
While Bali Jatra is famous for various other things, from a foodie point of view, I was thrilled to know that Bali Jatra is famous for its Thunka puri Chenna Tarkari that is served during this festival.
As usual, I don't remember how I landed in finding this recipe, I was so happy to have found a unique dish and a popular one at that. After a quick search on the internet, I came across many sites that showed how this puri is made, I picked up this video to adapt in my kitchen. Most recipes used only All-Purpose Flour, while this recipe used an equal measure of maida and wheat flour.
Since I have been deep frying and using maida a lot in recent times, I was fine using this recipe. I made Chena Tarkari as the side dish. This Thunka Puri is for T under the AtoZ Indian Pooris.
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Step By Step Pictures for making Thunka Puri 
Ingredients Used for making Thunka Puri
All-Purpose flour is used for making this poori, however, there were some recipes that used equal parts of wheat flour and maida.
The puris made in the Bali Jatra are very huge in size. Since we can't make it as large as those, we can still make big ones.
I used a wide Kadai so that the surface is wide enough to fit the big puris.
After frying, drain well on a kitchen towel for all the oil to drain off.
Serving Suggestions
Serve with Chena Tarkari, Paneer Bhaja Curry, and Alu Gobi which seems to be popular side dishes.
I served these pooris with Chhena Tarkari that has fried paneer balls cooked in an onion tomato gravy.
Recipe
Thunka Puri ~ A to Z Indian Pooris
Ingredients
- 1 cup Wheat Flour
- 1 cup All Purpose Flour / Maida
- 1 tbsp Cooking Oil
- Salt to Taste
- Cooking Oil for deep frying
Instructions
- In a bowl, take the flours together with salt and oil. Slowly add water to knead to a stiff dough.
- I used the whay water after making paneer. You can use regular water.
- Knead to a stiff dough. Divide the dough into equal balls. The balls will have to bigger than the regular pooris.
- Thunka pooris are very large in size, so you making it in at home, you can make it larger than your regular ones.
- Heat the kadai with oil, roll out the dough and gently deep fry on both sides.
- Drain and serve with Chena Tarkari.
This was part of the AtoZ series I did on Indian Pooris, for the entire collection of A to Z Indian Pooris, check the roundup.
If you are looking for different options for Indian Breakfast and feel adventurous about making it in alphabets, do see the roundup of A to Z Indian Breakfast dishes.
Vaishali says
Super find Valli ! The huge poori made with a combo of wheat and maida and specific to a tradition is new to me .Are these crisp or like our regular ones ?
Srivalli says
From the videos I saw, the thunka puris are really huge, they were soft to look at, and while serving they served torn smaller portions from the huge pooris. So maybe it remains soft as it is fried in large amount of oil. However, mine turned little crispy as the oil was not enough in the end.
Suma Gandlur says
That is an interesting find, Valli. Adding wheat flour makes it healthier and that paneer curry must have been a nice accompaniment.
Harini Rupanagudi says
Very interesting find. I am sure every state has its own version of 'jaatara' (fair). Very tempting pooris too.
Rafeeda - The Big Sweet Tooth says
Such a crispy poori, and so huge! Loving your poori list... Can't imagine that there are so many variations for this dish!