Mishti Aloor Puli

Start by making the sugar syrup. Boil the sugar and water together to get a syrup like consistency. (It is totally up to you whether you want the sugar to be very sweet or mildly so.) Grate the coconut as well.

Heat a pan, then add the coconut, khoya and sugar and cook till the whole thing comes together. Remember the filling must be quite dry or the puli will split open.

Boil the sweet potato. I usually take the pressure cooker off the stove just seconds before it whistles. (The important thing here is not to overcook the potatoes or your pulis will not take shape. Once cooled, mash the potatoes.)

Slowly add the flour 1 tbsp at a time and knead. (The amount of flour will vary depending on how much the potatoes have been boiled. The lesser the flour, the better the taste.)

Heat oil for deep frying. Always do a test run before you shape all the pulis. Take a small bit of the potato dough, make a center and put some filling in it, carefully close the centre and make a smooth ball or oval shape.

There must be no cracks. Deep fry one puli first to test whether it's going to split open or not. Then deep fry the pulis and put them in the cooled sugar syrup.