Potatos & Pohey -- easy,quick and wholesome

Hungry Kya? Here's the phataphat  aaloo pohey

Aaloo Pohey

Pohey  in North India, chidwa in Maharashtra, aval in South India and pounded rice in  English. God bless whoever thought of pounding rice and  thus making it a raw material for  some of the quickest wholesome meal ideas !

The aloo pohey I made for breakfast on Sunday does not take more than ten minutes to assemble and make. Of course, this presumes there are boiled potatoes cooling off in the fridge, in their jackets! And frozen peas handy.

Pohey, washed and drained

Potatos,onions,peas,coriander and curry leaves

And green chillies soaked in vinegar

Ingredients

Pounded rice-1 cup

Boiled potatos- one or two

Peas(boiled or thawed in Microwave)—a quarter cup

Onion-1 large

Green chillies- two or three (I used what I had soaked in vinegar)

Green coriander and curry leaves—a little bit

Refined oil-2 teaspoons

Mustard seeds- half a teaspoon

Jeera- half a teaspoon

Hing/Asofeatida- a pinch

Turmeric- a quarter teaspoon

Salt- to taste

Optional: tomato, lime, peanuts

The pohey has just to be placed in a sieve or strainer, and placed under  the open tap for a  few seconds, to wash them off the starch etc. Let them rest in the strainer as you chop an onion, peel and dice one or two potatoes into cubes, chop  one or two green chillies, and some fresh coriander.

Heat a frying pan, add two teaspoons of refined oil. When it is hot, add half a teaspoon of  each of mustard and jeera, a pinch of hing, a teaspoon of urad dal--- I like the crunchiness of  aroma and crunchiness of these. When urad turns golden, add the curry leaves,  chopped green chillies and onion. Saute for half a minute, add the potato cubes and the peas. Saute for a minute, add  the turmeric and salt, stir till they potatos  look light yellow.

Now add the drained pounded rice, and gently fold it into the potato-peas-onion. It’s done. Garnish  with some green coriander, and it is ready.

Aloo pohey

In Maharashtra, they may add roasted peanuts  along with the urad, sprinkle the juice of a lime when they are folding in the pohey. In Gujarat, they may sprinkle a bit of sugar as well. In Punjab they may throw in chopped ginger, and a few cloves of garlic. In Karnataka, they may add a chopped tomato. In Tamil Nadu they may skip the onions, peas and potatos. That’s how adaptable the aval /chidwa/pohey/pounded rice is.

And few wholesome dishes are easier to make, and take less time. It tastes as well with a lovely green chutney as it does with a cup of plain dahi—yoghurt.