Suvali

Step 1: Stir 2 ⅛ oz sugar into the warm ½ cup full-fat milk until it has fully dissolved, then let it cool to room temperature. Warm milk with grains of sugar left in it makes dark specks on the puris.

Step 2: Put 9 oz plain flour (maida) in a wide bowl and pour in the melted 2 ⅛ oz ghee. Rub it in with your fingertips for 3–4 minutes until the flour looks like damp sand and a fistful holds its shape when you squeeze it.

Step 3: Mix in 1 tbsp white sesame seeds, ½ tsp ground green cardamom and 1 pinch salt. Add the sweet milk a little at a time and knead into a firm, smooth dough, stiffer than chapati dough. Cover and rest for 15 minutes.

Step 4: Divide the dough into about 40 marble-sized balls. Roll each into a thin 7 cm round, about 2 mm thick, without dusting flour; a smear of ghee on the board is enough. Prick each round 3–4 times with a fork so it stays flat. Keep the rolled suvali under a damp cloth.

Step 5: Heat 3 cups ghee or groundnut oil, for deep-frying in a kadhai over a low-medium heat to about 325°F. A pinch of dough dropped in should rise slowly with small bubbles, not shoot up sizzling.

Step 6: Slide in 6–8 suvali at a time and fry for 3–4 minutes, turning once, until crisp and cream-coloured with barely any browning. Common mistake: frying too hot; the suvali blister, brown at the edges and stay soft inside.

Step 7: Lift them out with a slotted spoon and drain upright in a colander lined with kitchen paper. Cool completely before storing in an airtight tin, where they keep crisp for 2–3 weeks.