Poha and Me

From the beginning, I have had a love-hate relationship with poha (also called Powva, Avil, beaten rice etc. in various languages) and its various preparations viz. Kaanda Poha, Batata Poha etc. As in, I love eating all these dishes but hate making them! (Since both the raw material as well as the finished product are called 'poha', for clarity I'll call the uncooked poha 'poha' and the finished dish 'Poha'. (Its yumminess justifies the capital P, don't you think?) From the time when I learnt to cook as a single working woman to the present when I can boast of being able to cook a range of dishes for multiple persons, somehow I never could make good Poha - that light and healthy snack that people seemed to rustle up in minutes! I'd feel ashamed, even, to tell someone that I didn't know how to make Poha; it's almost like saying I don't know how to make chai! But whenever I tried, either the poha grains would get too soggy and stick together in one gooey lump or would be hard as nails and stay stubbornly separate, not just from each other but also from the oil, the spices, the veggies, the taste. . . you get the drift. . .

Until this morning. . .

Today after dropping off R at the bus-stop, I hurried home to respond to the 'rumbly in my tumbly' - as my son used to say about his hunger when he was a preschooler. Usually this is one time of the day when I can't think of anything but 'what do I eat for breakfast!'. Today I decided I won't give in and grab the nearest, easiest thing possible but instead have a sensible, healthy and light breakfast. As I opened the kitchen cabinet and mulled over what I could feed myself, I mentally crossed out muesli (healthy, but don't feel like it today), bread (had it last night), fruit (too cold for morning), kaju katri and mysore pak (don't even think about it!!!). . . Finally my eyes rested on a container that had poha, lying there all forlorn and neglected. I decided to give it one more try. After all, I hadn't made Poha in a long time and during this time I had gathered tips on what to do and what not to do. So out came the green chillies, the curry leaves, the boiled potato and of course the poha. Somehow, the grains turned out soft and moist and absorbed all the flavours of the spices and the tadka. Yay. . .success at last!!

To cut a long story short, I finally managed to make pretty decent Batata Poha (even if I say so myself) that I wolfed down in a matter of minutes. And since no one else was around for me to brag about it, I decided to blog about it, feeling a little bit like Julie in "Julie & Julia". . .By the way, it just occurred to me that this is my first ever post about food or recipes. Hmm. . .