Koot Avalakki

Pic from our Bangalore trip in Mar 2022

Our friends Ashwath Narayan and Parimala had invited us to their home for high tea. I was now officially a NRM ie. Non resident Mumbaikar as my kid bros teased me and was bored of the regular bangalore snacks of idli, dosa etc in the one year in Bangalore. But Koot Avalakki served by Parimala really brought a zing into our conversations that day with the tangy flavors and powdery texture. The excitement of being introduced to new flavors and textures is what all foodies love to experience.

Ingredients

• 1 cup rice flakes (pohe/ avalakki)
• 1 table spoon peanuts
• 1/2 table spoon roasted chickpeas (phutane)
• 1/4 table spoon grated desicated coconut
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon asoefotida (hing)
• 1/4 teaspoon red chilli powder
• 1 chilli finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon Pulp of tamarind ( lemon sized ball)
• 1 inch lump of molasses (jaggery)
• few curry leaves
• One handful chopped coriander leaves
• salt to taste ( 1 teaspoon)
• 1 cup water
• 1 table spoon oil

First grind the pohe to a coarse powder and keep aside. Then in a kadhai heat the oil and splutter mustard seed in it. Then in goes the hing, curry leaves, peanuts, phutane, coconut fry till golden. Now in goes the chilli powder, chopped chillies, salt stir for a min. Add the powdered pohe and mix well. Splash the mix with water and keep mixing. After fininshing the water cover with a lid for 5 mins so that the pohe powder is softened. Then is the final tangy step not to miss. In the tamarind pulp add molasses and dissolve in a bowl. Remove the lid from the kadhai and sprinkle this tangy sweet sauce on the pohe and stir to mix well. Cover with a lid and cook still soft. Remove from stove and serve hot with cilantro garnish.

Dadpe Pohe

Dasara is over and soon it will be Divali. One breakfast that is a must on the Abhyanga Snan day is Dadpe Pohe. My Mom used to make this really nice. We loved it more at this time of the year as even before Divali itself we would have eaten too many sweets so this savory breakfast was a good change.

Mom also made sure we drank enough of water extract of Wawding, now even Google does not have information on this tiny fruit of ayurvedic importance. It looks like white pepper and tastes like wood bark. We kids hated it. I don't know from where Mom learnt this. She told us after too many sweets Wawding helps to take care of the tummy infected with worms. Now Mom is not around and I don't have worms in my tummy so Wawding no more finds a place in my kitchen. But I can tell it worked well for after the dose the following morning Mom had to handle a little girl running helter skelter with stringy white live things trying to find their way out.

I have heard of a no cook Dadpe Pohe recipe but this one is from memories of my Mom's style.

Ingredients


1 cup thin rice flakes/ patal pohe
1 onion
1/8 cup peanuts
1/8 cup roasted and split gram/ dahale
1/8 cup grated fresh coconut
handful of chopped fresh cilantro
2 red chilies
1 teaspoon oil
1/8 teaspoon mustard
a big pinch of turmeric
and chili powder
1/4 cup water

salt to taste
Lime wedges to be served on the side.

Heat oil and splutter mustard in a wok. Roast the peanuts till golden. Toast the split gram in Marathi its called dahale. Add in the red chillies by breaking into big pieces, chopped onions stir fry for a min then add the rice flakes. Stir and mix in the turmeric and red chili powder. Sprinkle about 1/4 cup of water. Cover for 5 mins. Just to let the flavors seep in. Remove the lid and put off the heat.

Serve in a plate garnished with grated fresh coconut and cilantro with a plump wedge of lime atop. My cuz would meditate on the plate while he squeezed the lime mixed the pohe well with his fingers to get even flavor for a good 5 mins then washed his hand and ate one spoon at a time without speaking to anyone. But for me whenever the other type of pohe the Kande pohe is mentioned at home, I go, "Uh....no ...lets make something else. Uth sooth pohe kon khanaar!" (Who will eating that pohe!). To which Mom would say yeah give her bread instead with a smirk.

Then there is Karnataka version of Avalakki bhat that taste quite different from the Maharashtrian cousin due to the udid dal in the seasonings and the light touch of turmeric unlike the yellowish green marathi pohe. I love to eat Avalakki bhat with butter milk that is kannad influence I must say but only sometimes.

Here is proof of maharashtrain pohe craze

• IFR
• A Cook at Heart
• Food For Thought
• Matar Batate Pohe
• Sudamache Pohe
• Jugalbandi's twist
• Never heard of suggestion
• A Pohe series at GV Barve's
  
  

Note:
Bee has asked a good question, Why are patal pohe used for Dadpe pohe?

Traditionally Dadpe pohe does not call for soaked pohe or cooking, at the most a little tadka so patal pohe is used as it is easy to soften them by just sprinkling some water or with the juices released by the onions and lime.

Also you will see that the pohe in the plate are not really thin like Marathi patal pohe. Here in Blr. the thick pohe are just like rice and the patal pohe are medium thick. We have to order for marathi patal pohe as it is not readily available. So I use whatever variety available.

Madhur Chivda

This is a chivda I learnt to make from an old lady whom I used to call Tai (sister in marathi). She lived in Suman Nagar Colony in Mumbai and it was a treat to visit her. She always made special things for me. Though in Mumbai her ground floor flat had the previldge of a garden. There was a coconut, mango, gauva, Bilimbi and Kavathi Chapha trees (Type of Champa flower) that smelt so sweet.

Whenever I visited her I spent the whole day at her home so she would make this chivda and stocked it for me to munch on. This one is absolutely yum with a sweetish taste so it gets the name Madhur Chivda but it is high on calories. Nowadays we get a baked chivda like this one which is a better option I need to try it out at home someday. I like to indulge in this one once in a while. It goes straight to RCI June: Maharashtrian Cuisine! as it is brand Marathi.

Ingredients

2 cups beaten rice (thick)

2 tablespoon roasted split chickpeas

2 tablespoon ground nuts roasted

1 tablespoon chopped green chilies

1 handful curry leaves

1 tablespoon powder sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoon raisins

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1/4 teaspoon asafoetida

1/2 litre of Oil

You will be shocked just reading the ingredient list. No don't worry we are not using that much oil. However you do need it to deep fry the beaten rice/ poha. The poha too should be Gavache pohe as Tai would say what she meant was the poha should be thick like the ones we use for Kande pohe. The thicker one puffs really nice when deep fried.

Now take the oil in a deep wok and heat on medium. Keep a strainer at hand as you will be frying the poha in the strainer it self in small qauntities at a time. They will puff real quick in hot oil. Remove when the color is still white. It gives this chivda the special charm. Drain on mesh lined with lots of paper napkins. Yeah you need lots to get rid of the excess oil. After frying all the flatened rice lets prepare the seasoning.

In a large heavy bottom vessel a cooker should do. Take about 1 tablepoon of oil and heat. Add the asafoetida, splutter the mustard seeds chopped green chilies and the curry leaves. Now put off the heat and add sugar, salt, roasted peanuts, roasted spilt chickpeas, raisins and fried beaten rice. Mix well. Cool and store in airtight container.

This Chivada is addictive and you won't be able to stop munching so take small helpings. Have a large Masala tea by the side. This one is just right for a rainy day and cold weather.

Sudamache Pohe

and Amar Chitra Katha.

How do parents know what a child would like to read? I am not a parent yet so this question. Dad must have done some research I guess. Did he anticipate that I would be hooked to serious reading at the age of 3 yrs. I remember my first book was Noddy but what made me a voracious reader from the age of 6-7 was the fact that in school we had to read one book a week and write a review on it for our English class. I don't know how many schools did it then and now but my school was different in many ways than one. I guess you have read that before.

I literally grew up on Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle like most my age. Uncle Pai was like a family member who put children to sleep daily with the dose of ancient history and legends. I meant it literally. After the lights off time I read every night in the beam of street light that came through my window. Thank God my bed was near the window. It was an ordeal Mom went through everyday of getting me out of bed the next morning and to eat without the book in hand. Neither did her rules work nor did the complaints to Dad. Dad was too busy at the time and after all he was the one who got me all those books so to Mom he too was a culprit. As a result by Standard X I had a prized possession for life my pair of glasses. Mom fretted her girl with spectacles how would she get married. Dad as always said with a nod, that I looked like a scholar now (the similarity ends there me think).

So Amar Chitra Katha it was for every occasion in addition to other gifts. Living in Colaba and Fort one had access to the best things and IBH as it was called was in our back lanes. I had collected so many ACKs that Mom finally got them bound into 4 Huge Volumes. We lent them to some one and that person probably started a library of her own ;).

My favorite ACKs were Krishna, Sudama, Anirudha, Birbal the witty, Shivaji, Kanakdas, Narad, Sankaracharya, Ganesha. They were not just comic books but deep down they moulded a child's personality. It was a boon for all children who lived away from their grandparents. Ancient History became so accessible and easy to understand and entirely fun to read. I was a loyal till I went to college and slowly the next phase of a different set of books/ picture books of the K series and the Marina Santi and the TDH kind took over for all the frivolous reading.

ACKs completed the reading pleasure when parallelly one would read some serious books and the non Indian authors whose settings were alien to me as a child. ACK was my earth and my people literally('amchi maati and amchi manase' do you get it?). It moulded a child who grew up to love travelling to explore India to appreciate its ancient art and culture and value it. When one travels there are always reference to those old Amar Chitra Kathas and then one lives those times only to etch on the mind indelible memories.

Here is a recipe of Sudamache pohe that fascinated me so much credit to ACKs:

Ingredients

1 cup rice flakes

water to wash

1 cup curd

1 tablespoon sugar

Wash the rice flakes in water in a bowl. Drain the rice flakes on a mesh for 10 mins till soft. Remove on a plate and top up with the curds and sugar. To be eaten mixed.

This is also served as naivedya on Janmashtami ie Lord Krishna's birthday and as a packed meal for Lord Ganesha when we say goodbye to him at Visargan time telling him to comeback next year.

Matar Batate Pohe

In Maharashtra Kande Pohe is an everyday breakfast umm...I would say actually an anytime snack yet mostly a breakfast dish. When guys go to meet future brides this dish is the standard welcome dish at the girl's home so mischievously they comment on the weekend "Kande Pohe khale" masking the fact they went to meet a girl!

Since it is so common not my favorite but I like this version called Matar Batate Pohe which is made at our home. Try it. Its yummy and filling.

Ingredients

1 cup beaten rice/ pohe
1 onion slivers
1/2 cup fresh green peas/Matar
1/2 cup boiled and diced potatoes/ batata
1 pinch asofoetida
2-3 green chillies
handful fresh coriander
1/2 cup grated fresh coconut
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoon oil
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
hand full curry leaves
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1-2 teaspoon sugar
salt to taste

First of all soak the beaten rice in water for just 5 mins and drain on a mesh. Leave it there.

Then Heat the oil in a vessel. Splutter the mustard seeds add the asofoetida. Add in the chopped chillies, curry leaves and then add the onions. Fry the onions till translucent. Then add in the green peas and cook covered till soft. Add in the turmeric mix well follwed by boiled and diced potatoes. Finally add the soaked beaten rice. Mix thoroughly but with a light hand not to crush the beaten rice too much. Add the salt and sugar and cover and cook till you see steam over the pohe.

Garnish with lemon juice, coconut and coriander. Enjoy!!!