Batata Poha

Poha and Paav is like Idli and Dosa for the Maharashtrians. I have spent some years of my childhood in Maharashtra surrounded with so many marathi people. I have seen everyday along with a bottle of milk, a packet of paav gets delivered. They start their day with a tea and paav.

That reminds me - in maharashtra we used to get milk in bottles. Daily half litre glass bottle used to be delivered with milk. And we have to return the previous day's bottle. So that was recycling of bottles. It would have been good if that trend had continued. I don't know why milk was introduced in plastic covers later... 

So we have all these famous paav related recipes like paav bhaji, vada paav, batata paav, masala paav, misal paav etc.... Hmmm I have to post all these recipes. And since Maharashtra is one of the largest potato farming state, the maharashtrians use potato in almost all their recipes. Batata is potato in Marathi.

Batata poha is again served with plain paav or paav roasted in ghee. Since I didn't get paav I served it along with bread slices. I am posting this for kid's delight - colorful dishes since I felt yellow and red are a good color combination. This recipe has potato and groundnuts. 

Ingredients:

Poha / Aval / Beaten rice - 250 grams

Potato (cubed) - 150 grams

Onion (finely chopped) - 75 grams

Green chilly (finely chopped) - 1

Curry leaves - 1 sprig

Mustard - 1 tsp

Cumin seeds / Jeera - 1/2 tsp

Peanuts - 2 tbsp

Turmeric powder - 1 tsp

Oil - 2 tbsp

Salt - to taste

Method:

• Rinse the poha in clean running water. Use a strainer to rinse the poha. While rinsing, the poha absorbs enough water and it becomes soft. The poha must become soft but remain intact, whole and separate. If the poha does not become soft, sprinkle few drops of water on the poha in the strainer.
• Sprinkle the turmeric powder and little salt in the poha. Mix gently.
• Roast the peanuts in a small pan till they become crunchy and keep aside.
• In a kadai, heat oil. Before sauting the aloo/potatoes, just sprinkle some salt and mix it well with the potatoes. Immediately put the potatoes in the hot oil. By using this technique, the potatoes will have salt in them and yet do not loose water and become moist before sauting.
• Saute the potatoes till light golden color and crisp. Keep aside.
• In the same kadai, add the mustard seeds to the hot oil.
• When they splutter, add the cumin seeds. when the cumin seeds sizzle, add the onions. Saute the onions till they become translucent and soften.
• Now add the curry leaves, green chili and roasted peanuts. saute for a minute.
• Add the fried potatoes and then the poha. Mix gently with the rest of the mixture.
• Saute the entire poha mixture for 2-3 minutes on a low flame, stirring gently in between.
• Switch off the flame and cover the pan tightly with a lid for the poha to get steamed for a few minutes.

Note:

• We can also add lemon juice to this poha. Once the poha is done, sprinkle approx 1 tsp lime juice on the batata poha. Mix it well with the poha. Or serve the batata poha with cut lemon pieces.
• We can also garnish the batata poha with little grated coconut and coriander leaves.

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