Kanda Poha

Maharashtra's ten-minute breakfast of flattened rice tossed through a mustard and curry leaf phodni

Origin: Pune & Maharashtra, India

From the journey of Curry Leaf.

Half of Maharashtra eats this for breakfast, and the whole dish takes ten minutes once the tempering is in the pan. Poha is rice that has been parboiled, rolled flat, and dried, a process that goes back a very long way in India and produces a grain that needs no cooking at all, only rehydration. Kanda is onion. The dish is flattened rice folded through a phodni, the Marathi tempering, with onion, turmeric, and green chilli, and finished with lemon, coriander, and grated coconut. The technique that decides it is the wetting, and almost everyone gets it wrong the first time. The poha is rinsed in a sieve under running water for a few seconds and then left to stand for ten minutes, during which it absorbs what clings to it and softens through. It is never soaked. Poha left in a bowl of water turns to a grey paste within a minute and there is no recovering it. The Maharashtrian tempering differs from the Tamil one in small consistent ways: groundnut oil rather than coconut or sesame, asafoetida always, turmeric in the oil rather than added later, and often peanuts fried in the fat before anything else. The curry leaves go in after the mustard has popped and before the onion. Regional versions differ sharply and the argument is real. Indore's poha comes with fennel-scented jeeravan masala and crisp sev; Pune's is plainer and sweeter; Nagpur adds tarri, a spicy gravy poured over.

Ingredients

Rice

  • 250 g thick poha (flattened rice)
  • 0.5 tsp ground turmeric
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp caster sugar

Phodni

  • 3 tbsp groundnut oil
  • 1 tsp black mustard seeds
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 50 g raw peanuts
  • 0.25 tsp asafoetida
  • 2 sprigs fresh curry leaves
  • 3 whole green chillies, slit
  • 2 whole onions, finely chopped

To Finish

  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 4 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
  • 4 tbsp fresh grated coconut
  • 4 tbsp sev (crisp gram flour noodles), optional

Method

  1. Put the poha in a large sieve and rinse under cold running water for about ten seconds, turning it with your fingers.
  2. Shake off the excess and leave the poha in the sieve to stand for ten minutes. It should soften to the point where a flake crushes easily between finger and thumb.
  3. Toss the softened poha gently with the turmeric, salt, and sugar until evenly yellow.
  4. Heat the oil in a wide pan and fry the peanuts until golden, then lift them out and set aside.
  5. Add the mustard seeds to the oil and wait for them to pop, then the cumin, then the asafoetida.
  6. Add the curry leaves and green chillies, which will spit for a few seconds, then the onions immediately.
  7. Cook the onions over a medium heat for six to eight minutes until soft and translucent but not browned.
  8. Add the seasoned poha and the fried peanuts, fold through gently, cover, and steam on a low heat for three minutes.
  9. Take off the heat, add the lemon juice, and scatter with coriander, coconut, and sev if using.

Notes

Thick poha, sold as jada poha, is what this needs. Thin poha disintegrates on rinsing and is used for chivda and other dry snacks instead. The rinse-and-stand method is the single thing to get right. Soaking ruins it. The sugar is not there to sweeten but to round the lemon and salt, and it is standard in Maharashtra. It does not keep and is made to order in ten minutes. Serve with hot sweet tea. In Indore it comes with jeeravan masala and a great deal of sev; in Nagpur with a ladle of spicy tarri poured over.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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