Instant Poha

Instant Poha

With a busy work life schedule, as an adult or as a freshmen at college, you are always looking for recipes that ease the task of having nutritious meals that can be cooked in shorter span of time. These days my focus is in finding ways to make easy meals that my daughter can quickly make in her college dorm in a microwave.  As a parent, I often worry about the quality of food that a college kid has and so to ease that worry, I send her this dry Instant Poha mix made at home, for her to use it as a breakfast, in between meals or when you are just craving for home cooked meals.

This idea also germinated when we were travelling to Italy this summer, and my mother being a pure Jain, would not have much option to eat out there. So carried this mix over there too, but unfortunately I discovered Italy does not have much prevalence of microwave in hotels hence it became difficult to use this there, But later, I also discovered, that I could have used boiling water and got a similar cooking result as when done in microwave,

It seems using this as a meal when traveling in India is prevalent in southern India, as well as there are a lot of vendors selling this mix in Mumbai Railway stations too. Also recently there are a lot of instant  Poha, Upma, and Pongal Mix from Deep foods, MTR foods also available, All these products got me to make an attempt to try  the Instant mix at home, as I can then control the spice level and the ingredients quality, make it a a fraction of cost then what is available in the Indian Grocery stores. It also gave me the flexibility to make it to suit Jain needs, as the Deep Foods/MTR has onion flakes in it.

Having Poha in the morning is a comfort breakfast for many families including ours. With this Instant Poha mix, my mornings have become even more relaxed! For folks who  can access boiling water on gas, there are resources on web which suggest adding the whole measure of water at one time and cover it and let it sit for 15 minutes with a lid on it. For this option, they suggest that the water should be about  half a centimeter higher than the Instant Mix in a bowl. Unfortunately some college dorm rooms do not have the facility of kitchen, hence the experiment  with microwave based approach.

It took some trial and error but  found the right measure of water and time to cook to get the right consistency of texture and softness of Poha flakes. What I personally like about this recipe, that with very minimal supervision, I can cook it, and it frees me more time on a busy morning work day! The final outcome  of Instant Poha is pretty close to gas cooking so do keep this recipe handy for quick meals, vacation meals, college and lunch meals!

 

Print Recipe
Instant Poha
Instant Poha
Cuisine Indian
Prep Time 3 min
Cook Time 3 min
Passive Time 10 min
Servings
people
Ingredients
Cuisine Indian
Prep Time 3 min
Cook Time 3 min
Passive Time 10 min
Servings
people
Ingredients
Instant Poha
Instructions
Preparing the Instant Poha Mix
  1. In a flat pan, heat the oil. When the oil becomes warm, add cumin seeds and asafetida. As cumin seeds turn light brown, add chopped chillies, curry leaves, turmeric, fennel seeds and stir on low flame for 10-15 seconds.
  2. Add the poha flakes, salt, citric acid crystals and optional sugar and mix everything on a low flame for two minutes.
  3. Remove from flame and cool completely. Store the Instant Poha Mix in an airtight container or a ziploc bag and it should stay fresh for 3-4 weeks and hence can be pre-made and used later for easy convenient.
Making the Poha from Instant Poha Mix
  1. For 1 measure of Instant Poha Mix, you will need approx 1 measure of water. So I tried with one cup of dry poha mix.
  2. Heat half a cup of water for 1 minute high power in a microwave.
  3. Pour one cup of Instant Poha Mix in a microwavable bowl. Add the warm half cup of water and cover tightly for five minutes.
  4. Heat the remaining half cup of water for a minute, Add half of this warm water(1/4) cup to the Poha and again cover for another 5 minutes. Before adding the second round of water, flufff the rice with a spoon gently.
  5. After five minutes, sprinkle the remaining water , fluff the poha flakes and cook the poha in the microwave for 2 minutes, making sure that the bowl in the microwave is covered with a lid, so that the Poha does not become stiff.
  6. Enjoy the Instant Poha in your college dorm or work kitchen!
Recipe Notes

Tips

If the poha flakes are very thick you will need more water or less water if the poha flakes are very thin,

Add fried peanuts to the mix which will retain its taste over a period of time.

Make sure you clean the poha of any unwanted items , as you will not be able to wash before you prepare the Poha Mix,

Instinct Factor

If making it for next day consumption, one can add boiled peas ,  potatoes, grated carrots to make it more wholesome meal.

Feel Factor

Taste of home for a college kid, a quick lunch meal, and a lazy morning breakfast at home! My husband is happy with this approach as he is always looking for ways to shorten the cooking time of meals! Its a great taste for the time and the ease it provides, so I would definitely use this as a quick meal option.  But for someone who prefer the steam gas cooking, it will fall slightly  short of their expectations, as all flavors will not integrate that well , but you gain some ,you lose some! However the above recipe of Instant Poha is definitely a recipe for when you need to do a cooking without a kitchen or take food when travelling!

 

[contact-form-7 404 "Not Found"]

Dalvada Lentil Fritters

Dalvada Lentil Fritters

Dalvada Lentil Fritters, a specialty of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, is a highly nutritious, quick and easy snack that can be easily had in a place of a meal! You will find lots of people feasting on this as they are so delicious. I had been exposed to this delicacy during my childhood days,  eating the then famous dalwadas  at Natraj Cinema  during my college days at HL College. The snack is served with fried green chillies as accompaniment and is a popular street food of Gujarat, like the Vada Pav in Maharashtra.

This snack was made popular by the street vendors and made more famous by one vendor, Shri Ambika Dalvada. In one of the interviews with the owner, it turns out he is originally from Rajasthan, and  it is no wonder that a successful dish based on lentils would be coming from Rajasthani. As Rajasthan is known for Dal Bati, Moong Chilla etc. These Dalvada will also be appreciated by people who like Pesarattu, as it contains the same Split Green Gram Lentils as in the Moong Chilla or Pesarattu.

The addition of blackeyed peas (Chora Dal or Lobia Dal) gives it the extra crunch in the Dalwada. Split green lentil is already very high in protein and assists in lowering glycemic index. Black eyed peas or chora/lobia dal is  very high in phosphorous and magnesium along with high folate content. So together this is a great combination. The added spice of green chillies, ginger, garlic mix gives it a great flavoring.

What is interesting to know is that in southern food in USA, cowpeas(blackened peas) are known to bring good luck and so southerners insist on having them on the first day of the year, to bring them good luck. So why not have some luck coming your way on the upcoming Super Bowl weekend?!!

Hope your team wins as you munch on the Dalvada Lentil  Fritters, while watching the Super Bowl and also debating on which one was the most creative commercial of all! Have a great Super Bowl weekend!

Print Recipe
Dalvada Blackeyed Peas Fritters
Nutritious snack with split green mung lentils with skin and black eyed peas(chora/lobia)
Dalvada Lentil Fritters
Course Appetizers
Cuisine Indian
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Passive Time 3 hours
Servings
pieces
Ingredients
Course Appetizers
Cuisine Indian
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Passive Time 3 hours
Servings
pieces
Ingredients
Dalvada Lentil Fritters
Instructions
  1. Mix the lentils and wash them thrice. Soak them in 5 cups of water for at least 3 hours
  2. Make a paste of chillies, ginger, garlic by crushing them in a mortar pestle.
  3. Keep very little water in the lentils and grind the lentils coarsely. Add the ginger paste to it and grind further. Add fresh coriander to the blended lentils.
  4. Add salt for taste, and add some water if needed to arrive at a dropping consistency.
  5. Heat the oil to smoking point and lower the flame to medium low
  6. Drop the dalwada fritters using your fingers or an ice cream scoop. The finger method works better tor me.
  7. Fry on a medium low flame till golden in color on both sides, rotating as needed.
  8. Sprinkle some chat masala and black salt powder on top and serve hot with green chutney.
    Dalvada Lentil Fritters
Recipe Notes

Tips

Grinding consistency is important to crunchiness and so is the water level in the mix.  If the mix is too watery, it will not drop well.Starting with less water will always be easy as we can add more with required.

More commonly people now use, only yellow split moong dal, so you can try that recipe too. But the dal with the skin is more fibrous and nutritious than the yellow moong dal

Instinct Factor

It will have more flavor if green chillies are chopped and added to the mix along with coriander leaves. Since I was having kids as guests too, I decided to make a paste of it. Addition of Chat masala and Sanchal or black salt powder was purely instinct driven!

Feel Factor

Enjoying the delicacy from my distant past,!  Memories unfolded as I recalled all the carefree days of my college time.Truly a nutritious snack that I plan to make more, as the weather is still cold enough to enjoy warm snacks with a cup of tea and munching a handful while entertaining guests and having easy conversations. I would like to extend my gratitude to another friend at whose place I discovered the addition of blackeyed peas to dalwada, while enjoying Hindi Kavita and discussing literature with like minded folks! The best part of the Dalvada Lentil Fritters was the crunch in it, that promised to remain so even after they were cold.

[contact-form-7 404 "Not Found"]