Mama’s Punjabi Recipes: Chivda Gobi Mutter (Flattened Rice Snack)

Discovering the precise issues to snack on could be a irritating factor – it’s both too candy, like chocolate or too plain like tortilla chips and salsa; and Lord is aware of Punjabis wish to snack! Discovering the  proper mixture  that may not solely be satisfying between  meals however filling with out placing on energy could be a tough proposition.

Fortuitously, there are some choices, just like the Gujarati dish chivda which has turn out to be fairly widespread in North India too. There are various types of chivda  made throughout India – like makai (corn kernels), South Indian murmura, bhajlela (Marathi yellow chana bulk), corn flakes, oats, potato, candy, blended dry fruit and spicy chivda – and these principally use the thick  poha (flattened, dry rice) available in supermarkets.

Within the Punjab, chivda is each the dish and the dehusked rice, flattened into flat gentle dry flakes used to make it. However in different  elements of India, the flakes are referred to as poha. They arrive within the costlier, skinny, virtually translucent sort or the fatter, almost 4 instances the thickness of regular rice. When added to a liquid they swell up and are simply digestible. Poha is widespread throughout India, Bangladesh and  Nepal the place it’s used to organize snacks and  quick meals. Poha may also be eaten with plain water or milk, with salt or sugar to style, or flippantly fried in oil with nuts, raisins, coconut, cardamom and spices.

This chivda recipe is for a fast snack that may eaten with chai (tea) and is made with mutter (peas) and phul gobi (cauliflower) – or just gobi – a favourite vegetable amongst Punjabis. When blended with dahin (yogurt) or acchar (pickles), it may well even be eaten for lunch or a light-weight dinner. And if blended with tamater (tamotoes), chopped piyaaz (onions) and dhania (coriander) leaves, it may be eaten as a chilly salad. It’s made with little or no oil and spices, and when you begin, you gained’t have the ability to cease consuming it!

Substances:

2 cups poha (thicker sort flattened rice) – serving is for 4 folks
1 cup phul gobi (cauliflower)
1 cup mutter (peas) – frozen or contemporary
1 tbsp tael (olive oil or vegetable oil)
¼ tsp sarson til (mustard seeds)
Spices (to style): namak (salt), mirch (purple pepper), haldi (turmeric), amchoor (floor inexperienced mango powder)

Instructions:

1.  Put the poha in a bowl of water and let it soak for 20 minutes. Then run it by a strainer to drip.
2.  Take away the outer stalks of the gobi after which minimize off the florets.
3. Reduce the florets into nice small items. Peel the potatoes and minimize into nice items. Place each in a strainer, wash after which allow them to drip dry.
4. Take the frozen peas out of the freezer and allow them to thaw out.
5.   Warmth the oil in a  karai or wok over medium excessive. Throw within the mustard seed and let it roast for 30 seconds, then add within the haldi and stir.
6.   Now add within the gobi, potatoes and peas. Combine properly and canopy over medium warmth for two or 3 minutes.
7.   Take away the quilt and add the drained poha. Add the salt, pepper and amchoor to style and blend. Let it cook dinner for two minutes, stirring often.
8.   Serve in a plate by itself or with yogurt or pickles.

MAMA’S TIP OF THE WEEK

FOLD THE ATTA TO MAKE SOFTER PARANTHAS

Who doesn’t like these delectable Punjabi paranthas? The ultimate reply typically is determined by how the paranthas are made. Some eating places make paranthas which have the precise colour and measurement even, however one chunk into them and also you understand they’re skinny and difficult. Others make them simply too crisp and arduous with a lot of oil. But others make them tender and rubbery.

Even home made paranthas can have the identical issues, although the commonest criticism is that they’re too limp and uneven. The key is not only in making the dough; it’s also in the best way the dough is rolled out.  After the primary roll, you  should fold over the pancake twice to make a rectangle after which fold the rectangle in 4 fold right into a sq.. Now roll in out once more right into a pancake and throw it on the tava. You’ll see the parantha will come out softer.

Shakuntla Malhotra is a talented cook dinner of Punjabi dishes made within the old school model that she learnt as a younger lady in her ancestral residence in Lyallpur (since renamed Faisalabad), India earlier than it turned a part of Pakistan after the Partition in 1947. Folks have typically admired her cooking for its simplicity and style that comes with every mouthful. Even in her mid-eighties, she continues to cook dinner day by day and agreed to share a few of her delectable Punjabi recipes.