Poha | Quick Breakfast

Not everyday do you get sufficient time to make dosa or rotis for breakfast. On days when you are in a rush or short of options, there are plenty of alternatives for breakfast. One of my most favorite options is the avil/ avalakki or poha. At home, we normally make it with a heavy lemon flavoring or a tamarind based like puliyodharai. Otherwise plain and simple with a tadka and lots of grated coconut. But i really like the maharashtrian way of making it- with potatoes.  I had some leftover corn kernels. So i decided to throw that in for a good measure along with the potatoes. Adding peanuts makes sure that you have a really crunchy poha.
What's more, if you try it the way i tried, it gets done fast, is great to taste and filling too.

Preparation Time: 5 Mins
Cooking Time : 10 Mins 

Ingredients:

1 cup of Beaten Rice , i used the thin variety
1 potato, chopped into thin pieces
1 onion, chopped
1 tsp Mustard
1 tsp Jeera
A pinch of hing
A handful of corn kernels
3 green chillies, slit
3-4 curry leaves
A few sprigs of coriander, finely chopped
1 tsp channa dal
2 tbsp peanuts
Salt to taste
Lemon for extra zing
1 tbsp oil

Method:

Wash and slice the potatoes into small thin pieces. Add the corn kernels to it, some salt, sprinkle some water and microwave for 2 minutes.

In a pan, add some oil. Once it heats up, add mustard. When it starts spluttering, add the jeera, hing, channa dal, curry leaves and peanuts.

Once they start browning, add the chillies and the onions. Add some salt to taste. Allow it to fry.

At this point, depending on how thick your beaten rice is, you will have to wash or soak it. I use the thin variety- the paper avil.

So all i needed to do is to put it in a colander run it under the tap. If you are using the slightly thicker variety, do soak it for a couple of minutes before using. It takes some trial and error to figure out the optimum soaking or washing time for the beaten rice. I have ended up with white color lumps at times when i have over washed :)
Once the beaten rice is moist, add it along with the potatoes and corn into the skillet. I turn off the heat here and leave it to cool for a few minutes. Mixing the really wet beaten rice along with the hot aloo with make the poha mushy. Once it cools down, add some salt and toss it well so that all the ingredients get mixed well.
Top it with some lemon juice and garnish with coriander leaves. If you want some more flavor, add half a tsp of sugar to it and mix well.
Serve hot!

PuLi Inji

One of my favoritestest traditional side dishes is PuLi Inji - literally translated to Tamarind Ginger. I have refrained from trying such a dish till date because these traditional recipes call for very minimum ingredients and one needs to get the mix and balance of all the flavors spot on for the dish to turn out well. The past week, i tasted it twice, first at New Krishna Bhavan then next when a friend made it.
And then the recipe came up as a suggestion when i was reading Chinmayie's latest post. It seemed like a sign and yours truly decided to make the PuLi Inji.
The recipe is adapted from here . I followed the same measurements.

Just that, i made a tadka with mustard, hing and curry leaves first. Added ginger and chilli next.

To it, i added the tamarind pulp and melted jaggery and brought it to a boil.

Then stir it well and let it simmer for a while.Adjust salt and jaggery and tamarind. Easier said than done. Each time you add one item, the other starts appearing to be less. So it will take you a couple of additions to get the right proportions that suit your palette best.  The consistency that you are looking for is gooey and thick. There will be a slight glaze on the surface of the syrup.

At this point, turn off the heat. Transfer to a box or a bottle. This can be stored for a while. But when the quantity is just a cup, be sure for it to be licked clean sooner!

Serve with Pongal/Khichdi, or with plain rice and a big dollop of ghee. Or better still, make it a perfect accompaniment for curd rice!

Quick Snack - Masala Pori

Every morning, breakfast is religiously eaten at home. 10 o clock snack and 12 o clock lunch is packed in different dabbas and off we go to work. The snack is normally some fruit or milk shake. Lunch comprises some mixed rice or roti-sabji along with curd rice. My body perhaps has some alarm clock internally that signals every two hours that food needs to be consumed. What happens is that the gap between lunch and the time when i return from work is much longer. As a result, first thing after freshening up every evening is to attack whatever is available to eat. Most cases, it will be a packet of cookies or dry fruit or some deep fried item picked off the shelf in the supermarket. While dry fruits are good, how much can one eat? Somehow for me, the snack should be of a large quantity- consumed before and after tea.
Pori or puffed rice is one such thing which is light, yet filling. You can eat a bowlful without upsetting your calorie count much. So it is wise to make it in big batches and store it for munching.
It is super easy, with most ingredients available readily. Just grab a pack of puffed rice and you are almost good to go!

Preparation Time: 10 Mins
Cooking Time: 5 Mins

Ingredients:

Puffed Rice/Pori         4 cups
Red chillies                 4-5 or according to your taste
Garlic                         4-5 pods, crushed
Mustard                     1 tsp
Curry Leaves             1 sprig
Peanuts                      1/2 cup
Dry coconut               1/4 cup, thinly chopped
Salt                             to taste
Sugar                          1 tsp
Oil                               for tempering
Turmeric                      1/2 tsp

Preparation

The sole intention of the above picture is to show off the newly acquired Pure Komachi chef's knife. She cuts like a dream!
All you need for this recipe is to get the ingredients ready, at hand.
In a large kadai or pan, heat oil. Add in all the ingredients except the puffed rice- starting with mustard first, everything else after the mustard crackles and then the sugar in the end.

Once the peanuts change color and look done, add the puffed rice. Now increase the flame and work on the kadai by stirring it constantly on high flame. This is to crisp up the pori. Turn off the gas after 2-3 minutes.

Check the salt and adjust. You could add some amchur powder if you want some tang to this. But it tastes good without that too - a little sweet and a little spicy. The flavors are mostly in the tadka ingredients, so make sure you mix the pori well to incorporate all the flavors.
Serve with a cuppa chai, munch it while reading your favorite book or simply eat it if you are bored! Top it with some bhujia if you are not really watching your waistline :)

Green Chilli with Besan

I remember tasting this for the first time in the Gujarati Thali at the Rajdhani Restaurant. They had served it alongside the fried snacks and pickles. I gingerly picked up the whole chilli and wondered whether i could stomach it. Let alone stomach, i was not sure if i could eat it in the first place. But the crispy chilies which were coated with besan and a nice sweet and hot masala were yum and left me asking them for more helpings. Ever since, i have wanted to make it as an accompaniment for the thayir saadam ( curd rice) that i eat everyday or for dishes that are not hot enough.
I found organic green chilies at the nearby supermarket and picked them up with this dish in mind. Got back home and immediately set out to make the green chilies with gram flour. The chilies were large, not too hot and were perfect for the side dish. It gets done without much fuss.

Prep Time - 5 mins
Cooking Time - 30 mins

Ingredients:
Green Chilies              About 10-15

For the masala
Saunf ( fennel seeds)          -  half a tsp
Ajwain (Carom seeds)       -  half a tsp
Hing ( Asafoetida )             - a large pinch
Coriander Seeds                -  half a tsp , crushed well
Salt                                    - to taste
Sugar                                 - 1 tsp
Jeera Powder                     - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric                             - One large pinch
Besan (Gram Four)             - 3 tbsp
Oil                                      - 2 tbsp

Preparation
Wash the chilies well.

Wipe and dry the chilies. Halve the chilies and then slit them lengthwise. You could also make diagonal slices if the chilies are too hot.

Heat a large pan and add 2 tbsp of oil to it. Add in the saunf, Ajwain and hing to it.

Stir it around for a minute and add the chilies to it.

Let the chilies cook and get coated with the tadka. This could take about 15 mins when you cover and cook it. Check whether the chillies have wilted and changed color.
Once it is done, add the rest of the ingredients. I like the nutty taste of the coriander and hence added the seeds. But many people don't like it as a whole spice. You could add coriander powder instead.

Make sure to stir it well so that the masala and the gram flour evenly coat the chilies and that there are no lumps in the gram flour. Fry until the raw smell of the besan goes off. If you want to speed up the cooking time, then you could add the besan after it is dry roasted.
Once done, turn off the heat and let it cool. You could store it in an air tight box and serve it alongwith paratha, khichdi, curd rice or eat it just like that :).