ninasnosh

Poha are dehusked flattened rice. They are very popular in India as they are easy to use and transform into a delicious dish. This is a good snack to take out if you are on your travels and can keep for a few days in the fridge. You can buy a bag of Poha at any good Indian grocery store and they normally come in 500g bags.

I made the above dish recently when we were busy packing and needed some comfort food to keep us going. 

Ingredients

Feeds 3 for a meal or more for a light snack

For the Vaghar:

• 2 tbsp of oil (sunflower or canola)
• 1/4 tsp hing
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds

• 200g of Poha
• 2 large potatoes: peeled and cubed (1.5cm)
• 1 tsp of fresh masala (or more if you like it spicy)
• 2 1/2 tsp of ground coriander and cumin (1 part cumin to 2 parts coriander)
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp salt ( alter to taste)
• Hot water from kettle

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large deep frying pan or saucepan
2. Once oil is hot add the mustard seeds and cover the pan with a lid – once they have popped remove pan from the heat
3. Add the hing
4. Return the pan to a medium heat – add the potatoes and spices, mixing so the potatoes are covered (see fig 1)
5. Now you need to add water so there is actually some liquid in the dish
6. Add about a cup of hot water so the  potatoes are nearly covered (see fig 2)
7. While the potatoes are cooking put the Poha in a colander
8. Cook the potatoes for about 10 minutes on a low to medium heat so that they are cooked through  – add more water if required (the liquid consistency will be needed later)
9. When the potatoes are nearly ready rinse the Poha with cold water – just run the cold water tap and rinse them in the colander
10. Then add the Poha to the potatoes mix through and cook on a low heat – they will absorb all of the water
11. Add more water if required – the Poha should disappear into the dish
12. Cook the dish for a few more minutes

fig 2. potatoes with water

fig 3. poha

This entry was posted on June 9, 2012 at 2:01 pm and is filed under Lunch, Recipes, Snacks, Vegetarian with tags asafoetida, chillies, easy, food, ground cumin, hing, hungry, indian, masala, mustard seeds, potato, recipes, simple, spices, spicy, vegetarian, yummy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.