CHILLI “KOTHU” POROTTA

Today was a long day, and we finally reached home late evening. Priya was busy with the kids, and I had to rustle up something for dinner to give her a reprieve from the kitchen.

But all I found was a few potatos, a few onions in the larder; a few old ‘porottas’ in the freezer. What could I make that’s edible with these? Read on.. this dish is a common enough one in all the ‘pure vegetarian’ restaurants run by Tamilians in Kerala.

Preparation time: ½ hour

Difficulty level: Simple

Feeds: 3 adults

Ingredients:

1.       Potato – 3

2.       Onion – 3

3.       Green chilli – 3

4.       Coriander leaves – a bunch (for garnish)

5.       Soy sauce – 2 big spoons

6.       Olive oil – 1 oz. (Any cooking oil will do)

7.       Green peas – a handful

8.       Pepper – 1 tsp.

9.       Hing – 1 pinch

10.   Coriander powder – 1 tbsp.

11.   Garam masala – 1 tsp.

12.   Turmeric – 1 tsp.

13.   Salt – to taste

14.   Sugar – 1 pinch

15.   Porotta – 4 nos.

16.   Mustard, jeera, curry leaf – for ‘spluttering’

I had some able assistance from Ashu who was very excited to be assistant chef! We first washed the potatos, wiped them clean, skinned them and immersed them in a bowl of water. (This is so they don’t turn black ‘cos of enzymatic action after cutting). I then peeled the onions, washed and wiped them (to get off the black powder you find under the skin once you peel them), cut them into thin rings, and put them aside. I also sliced the green chillis vertically into halves. We then washed and minced the coriander leaves. That was all the preparation required..

Meanwhile, the porottas came out from the freezer; ‘cos they were hard, I steamed them for 5 minutes in our steamer. 

While this was happening, I ‘spluttered’ some mustard, jeera (cumin seeds), udad dal, the chillis and the curry leaves in oil in a wok (large pan).

When the mustard spluttered and the cumin browned in the hot oil, I added in the potatos that I had sliced into small finger-joint length strips. When these were fried, in went the onions, and the ingredients 5 – 13. Stirred these around so everything mixed and got cooked evenly. Added a pinch of sugar (a trick to make the veggies look more glossy, as also to make the dish less hot). Covered with a lid, and let it fry a while.

The porottas came out soft and fluffy from the steaming, and I shredded them with Ashu’s help into small oblong strips. (The thinner these are, the better.) 

 

Once that was done, Ashu helped by putting in fistfuls of these into the mixture in the wok, while I kept stirring. Added a small bowl of water as well, and covered it up again and let it cook 5 minutes.

 

At the end of this time, decorated with the coriander leaves, and it was ready for eating along with tomato sauce.

 

Easy-peasy, ain’t it? And it was really yummy too! Hope you too enjoy this as much as we did.

My fav bowl of noodles!

Here’s how I make Maggi noodles – and my preparation is preferred by my wife(the chef at home) and my kids as well, so I guess I pass the test!

This is comfort food (for when I am real tired at the end of a long day), filling food (for when I am hugely hungry, and impatient to make anything else) and spicy food (my pet love!)


I have also tried out noodles from Maggi(Nestle), Top Ramen, Feaster’s(More), Wai Wai(Nepal) and various North East noodles. Somehow Maggi turns out best, in both looks and taste. Maggi noodles are also fluffiest – that’s important to my kids!
Preparation time: 15 minutes; great for amateur bachelor cooks as well, cos there’s nothing great involved!

1. Put a Wok to boil over the gas stove. Add 3 cups water (for 2 packs of Maggi noodles). Put a teaspoon of salted butter (tastes best) or vegetable oil in this. Add a pinch of salt & half a teaspoon of turmeric powder. Throw in a handful of thawed frozen green peas. Cut open the Masala packets that come with the Maggi and chuck in the Masala powder. Add some ginger-garlic paste (available off the shelf in food stores) and a teaspoon of any other masala powder you like (that’s not very hot) – Kwality Noodles masala works well for me.

2. While you wait for the water to boil, in another shallow pan, fry (in a couple of teaspoons of oil) slices of carrots, potatos and onions. Add this when slightly browned to the boiling water. Half a carrot and potato each, and one medium-sized onion would do.

3. The water would have boiled by now. Break up the Maggi slabs into quarters and throw them in. Stir till the noodles are immersed in the water. Put the flame down to simmer. Cover the wok with a plate so that steam cooks the noodles better. (This is what makes them fluffy!)

4. Now add a bunch of chopped-up coriander leaves, stir the noodles again, and cover up. When nearly all the water has been absorbed / evaporated, switch off the flame and carry the wok off to the table. Don’t wait till all the water is gone and the pan is dry – the noodles stick to the bottom of the vessel and are difficult to scrub off! And if you or your friend like noodles soup, (like my wife does), ladle some into a bowl with the water before most it is gone, and then do the rest till dry.

5. You can even get adventurous here, try adding some garnish (I have even used cashews and raisins, fried potato wedges, bhujia etc: you name it, I have tried it!)

Note: if you don’t like it spicy, go slow on the masalas. Or you can add half teaspoon of sugar to the boiling water – makes the noodles look more golden too!

Spicy PURIS with a mild veggie KORMA!

Woke up this cool to cold morning, felt a pica for some hot spicy stuff!

Planned for Puri Bhaji. My bitter half would not have allowed me to make my fav greasy platter if she had known, so waded into the kitchen before she got up. Though to be fair, she came right into the spirit of the thing once she was up and had twisted my ears till they nearly came off!

So the puris are mine, and the korma her creation.. I chopped up the veggies for the Korma, and then kneaded and rolled out the puris while sweetiepie made the korma.

Spicy PURIS with a mild veggie KORMA!

Preparation time: 1 hour (needs 2 adults that don’t get in each other’s way)

Feeds: 3 adults & 2 small kids (who don’t like food at this time!)

Difficulty: Simple (you can’t mess it up!)

Ingredients:

For the puris:

1.       Wheat flour – 3 big cups (made about 15 big puris)

2.       Salt – 2 teaspoons

3.       Hing (asafoetida) – 1 pinch

4.       Black pepper powder – 1 teaspoon

5.       Oil – 1 teaspoon (to coat your palm & fingers, so the flour doesn’t stick!)

For the korma:

1.       Potatos – 5 medium-sized ones, washed dried and peeled, then diced into 1cm squares.

2.       Beans – a bunch of crunchy ones (I took about 2 dozen) – cut into 1 cm-long pieces

3.       Carrot – washed peeled and cut into itty-bitty pieces

4.       Green peas – a cup, frozen ones put into water right from the freezer

5.       Ginger & garlic – both peeled and grated, about 2 tablespoons

6.       Onion – 3 medium sized ones, cut into slender half rings.

7.       Green chillies – 2 long fresh ones, sliced vertically. (More for decoration!)

8.       Chilly powder, salt, turmeric, garam masala – to taste (MS Office says “Chilly” is wrong spelling, but I’ll use Inglish, so there, Bill Gates!)

9.       Coriander powder – 1 tablespoon

10.   Saunf (Aniseed) – 1 teaspoon

11.   Mustard – 1 teaspoon

12.   Coreander leaves – a bunch (to garnish; chop these up fine after washing)

13.   Coconut milk – 2 cups (made in the mixi by grinding & sqeezing out grated coconut from the freezer)

Okay, the puris first. I threw in ingredients 2 to 4 in a tall vessel with a wide mouth, then poured in wheat flour right from the bag (so my measures would be approximate). Kneaded these together, trickling in water to keep the whole thing just sticking together. (For those of you amateur cooks, dough for chapatis need more water, that for puris less.. More water means the puris drink more oil when you fry them!) Towards the end, wiped oil on my fingers to make the ball of dough soft and the stuff sticking to my fingers off.

Then rolled these out into balls (each should be pressed smooth with no cracks, perfectly round and of the size of a lemon – yes, I am a perfectionist and a sadist, but you’ll understand why when your puris roll out nice and round!)

Get a rolling board / stone and a rolling pin, coat the board with a bit of powdered wheat flour (only for beginners – so the dough doesn’t stick.) Flatten each ball of dough into a round pancake, then roll it out, dipping it in flour in between. Set out the puris on a big platter / paper so they don’t stick to each other.

This is what mine looked like:

Meanwhile, Priya (Purnima) was in the kitchen, with the vegetables I had chopped up.

She boiled the vegetables with a little bit of water, in a glass-topped kadai for 5 minutes on our induction cooker, stirring them in between. Keep the top on while the veggies steam, so you lose none of the nutrients and they turn out softer.

She stopped when the veggies were soft and shiny, and put them aside in a vessel.

In a kadai, heat 5 ml of sunflower oil; throw in half spoon aniseed, the ginger garlic paste, chopped onions and green chillies. Roast these till the onion looks golden brown and the chillies look glazed. 

Put in a table spoon of coriander powder, quarter teaspoon of turmeric powder, chilly powder to taste, a pinch of garam masala powder. Roast these again.

Add the boiled vegetables, 2 cups of coconut milk and salt to taste. Baste these together, add chopped coriander to garnish, and serve hot (with lots of love!) Don’t stint on the coconut milk, as that’s what gives the sweetness and mildness to this curry, making it edible to our little ones and old parents.

I ladled out some of the korma into a bowl, arranged 3 fluffy puris on a plate, and handed the smoking-hot platter to our 8-year old, Ashu. The way her face bloomed with a big happy smile made the whole thing worthwhile!

Now go out there, collect all the ingredients, and start cooking up a storm yourself!

Cooking and eating lovely FOOD!

The two of us love making food and eating it - isn't it relaxing to undertake the whole process of cooking tasty, hot, scrumptious food? 

To taste your creations, enjoying them more and more - till your belly swells, your buttons pop & you can't down another bite? Can't get up from your seat, but you don't mind at all, and signify your ecstasy by burping loudly - or worse!

Come, embark on these culinary journeys with us - and hope you get as much pleasure out of them as we did!