Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Coconut Poha (Flattened Rice)

Breakfast is a tricky time of day. When I'm rushing out the door, I want to be able to eat something that is super-quick and dirties the least number of dishes. None preferably... but cooking without dirtying dishes is an oxymoron in itself! Most weekday mornings, we eat cold cereal... Cherios, Special K, Honey Bunches of Oats and the likes. I know they are processed and loaded with salt, sugar and what not... but better than most options out there, no? I try to avoid eating packaged cereal bars and granola bars, since most of the commercial chewy ones contain gelatin as part of their 'Natural Flavors'. The most creative I can get on winter mornings, in my cold kitchen is toast some bread and fix us a classic PB&J sandwich.

On the weekends, we usually make it a point to start the day right with some breakfast over hot chai. In fact I get out of bed only when I have a clear picture of whats going to be on for breakfast! I love poha or flattened rice. It's quick, easy and delicious. Now thats not a combination we see that often. Poha can be flavored in many different ways, anything you put in an upma (oh no not that again) can be used in poha. Buy thick flattened rice for this as they tend to be plumper and not fall apart. To prep poha, rinse it under running water in a colander making sure all the grains are moistened. Then allow to drain.


Coconut Poha
2 cups thick poha or flattened rice
salt to taste
Rinse poha, allow to drain. Add salt, toss and set aside
2 tsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp black gram dal (soaked in water for 2 mins and drained)
3 dried red chillies
3 green chillies minced or chopped fine
Heat oil in a skillet, add the other ingredients, allow to sputter.
3/4 cup grated coconut (thawed if frozen)Add and fry till coconut turns a reddish brown
Add poha and cook till dry

Enjoy with a steaming cup of tea. If you don't have poha, you can also substitute cooked rice. Just increase the amount of coconut and you'll have coconut rice.

Coconut Poha - my entry to From my rasoi breakfast event hosted by Meena of Hooked on Heat.

10 comments:

GourmayMasala said...

Hi Meena - I have emailed you the link. Looking forward to your round up!

Ashwini said...

Love poha too GM!

GourmayMasala said...

Ahh... I experienced my first case of comment spamming... Word verification is now on :)

Shammi said...

Garam Masala, I just LOVE the stuff... tomato poha, lemon poha, coconut poha, masala poha - you name it, I love it! I'm just not too fond of sweet poha, that's all :)

Kay said...

Hmmmmm! I love coconut rice, I'm yet to try coconut poha!

Looking for some nice coconuts. My supplier of organic coconuts have run out of those! I dont like dried coconut much! Have to find a new means of coconut.

Ashwini said...

Just read your avocado paratha thru Indira's blog and liked it. Made more sense to leave a comment here. Will let you know how they turn out

Shilpa said...

Nice recipes. Thanks for visiting my blog. I have added u to my blogroll. Keep visiting.
shilpa

GourmayMasala said...

Shammi -

You said it. Poha is your best friend when you don't even have time to cook some rice and you can't get your self to swallow another bite of upma :-)

Kay -

organic coconuts huh? I gotta ask you this burning question... how do the non-waxed vegetables from the Indian grocery stores compare to the organic produce? Is it my ignorance to think that most of the pesticide/chemicals in commercial produce is mostly an American thing?

Ashwini -

I am glad you liked the avocado parathas! Do let me know how they turn out for you!

Shilpa -

Thanks for stopping by my blog! I love your easy and homey recipes.

Kay said...

well, GM, I dont think the vegetables from Indian stores are imported from India. Many of the Indian grocery shops also do business with oriental grocery shops. (They buy for cheap and sell expensive!) Most of these come from Mexico / California / Florida / some Latin american countries and some from China. I dont think these are any less pesticide free than the American grocery store bought ones. Amercian grocedries go in for the extra waxing and pay a little higher to acquire these groceries. But Oriental/Indian stores want to keep their prices low and the veggies wont be sitting long in their shelves - so they go wax-free.

And one thing really sucks! In India, we still use a LOT of pesticides that are banned in other countries. Like DDT, for example. This has found to be causing birth defects and has been banned in many countries. But still we continue to use them. I recently read a study on flax seeds. and it suggested to avoid flax seeds from India (the largest producer of flax seeds) because of the indecent amount of pesticide exposure.
Wish it was just an American thing!
And last year, in India, I read magazine reports on carrots being colored, watermelons injected with sacharine, and many horror stories.
Maybe the only way out of this is tthat everyday start a small organic garden around their house!

workhard said...

You have compiled a great blog. like the recipes..


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