Poha

Hello, boys and girls!

Welcome to a fresh edition of cooking with Varun! Remember what it's like to live at home? Sleeping in on weekends. Your mom asking you to wake up. Pestering you with questions about what you want for breakfast. You grunting incoherently. Somewhere along the lines of, 'No eat.. Sleep.. Go away.. Grr', until your mom coaxes you out of bed and feeds you a big plate of freshly made breakfast. You do? Good. Because today's recipe is the very simple, very quick, staple breakfast, poha.

A lot are you doubtless shaking your head going, poha? Really? This from the guy who's been putting up recipes for butter chicken and baked salmon and whatnot? To you I say, 'Aye!', and why not? This blog is 'Cooking 101' after all! It's not always about the fancy cooking with a load of ingredients. Sometimes, it's the simple stuff that hits the spot. On that note, full steam ahead!

For my Poha you will need the following:

Poha (rice flakes)	300 gms
Onion	1 medium
Green chillies	2-3
Raw peanuts	big handful
Potato	1 medium
Haldi (turmeric)	1 tsp
Red chilli powder	1/2 tsp
Rai (mustard seeds)	1 tbsp
Sugar	1 tsp
Salt	to taste
Oil
Coriander leaves	few sprigs
Lemon

Prep:

1. Peel and chop the potato into cubes. Not very big, not very small.
2. Throw the potato cubes into a bowl.
3. Top the bowl up with boiling water.
4. Chop the onions. Not too fine!
5. Chop the chillies.
6. Chop the coriander.
7. Run the poha through some water to moisten it and drain all the water. You don't want it sopping wet or clumpy!

Method:

1. Turn the gas on.
2. Bung on a pan.
3. Splash in some oil.
4. Count to 10.
5. Add in the mustard seeds.
6. Run like hell to find a lid as the seeds start to ping out of the pan.
7. Add in the chillies.
8. Breathe in the pungent odour.
9. Cough.
10. Add in the onions.
11. Move the onions around for a couple of minutes.
12. Add in the peanuts.
13. Cook for a couple of minutes.
14. Drain the water from the potatoes.
15. Accidentally drop a few into the sink.
16. Look around to see if anyone is watching.
17. Distract the watchers.
18. Rinse the sink potatoes.
19. Surreptitiously slip them in with the rest of the potatoes.
20. Tumble the potatoes into the pan. (These will now cook faster since they've been soaking in hot water.)
21. Sprinkle in half the haldi.
22. Sprinkle in half the red chilli powder.
23. Mix well.
24. Cook until the onions go transparent and the potatoes are cooked.
25. Bring the heat down to low.
26. Add in the poha. 
27. Mix well until the poha takes on a light yellow colour.
28. Add in the rest of the haldi and red chilli powder.
29. Mix well.
30. Add salt to taste.
31. Sprinkle in the sugar.
32. Mix and cook for about one minute.
33. Turn off the gas.
34. Garnish with the coriander leaves and a squeeze of lemon.
35. Proudly view your handiwork.
36. Miss your mother.
37. Realize the poha is getting cold so stop missing your mother.
38. Stuff face.
39. Bask in the glory of your successfully executed dish.

Tip: Don't toast the peanuts too long or they'll get bitter! Also, don't mix the poha in too hard or it will start to lump together and that's just not nice! 

And remember, overeating is a myth. A full tummy is a happy tummy!