A Small Achievement!

I am so excited! My article got selected for publication in the Winter 2011, Volume 16, Number 3 edition of  "Education About Asia," and is out now! Well, this is only for the online version, but, for a first timer, this is pretty big! I wrote on FOOD- of course; specifically on Poha and its relation to Krishna.

Here goes my Vote of Thanks: 

• I owe it first of all, to my brother, for giving me that much-needed push. Thanks, bro!
• Next, I owe it to all those umpteen Amar Chitra Katha comics that I read back as a kid, that means- thanks to my folks for spending all their hard earned money on those comics- totally worthwhile, I must say! 
• And of course, I owe it to EAA for accepting my article and putting it up in their Winter edition!!

Now, if you are interested, please do go check it out at:
http://www.asian-studies.org/EAA/Archives-06-11.htm

Click on the very first one on the right under Volume 16 (2011) and you should see it listed under the "Online Supplement." 

Paani Poori- SLURRRRP!

Paani Poori is an extremely popular street-food in India. Paani means water and poori is basically fried, puffed up Indian flat bread. Uh, yeah, flat bread that is puffed up! In this case, the poori is nice and thin and crunchy. And oh, bite sized and made with (correct me if I am wrong) a combination of semolina flour and all purpose flour. Another name for paani-poori is golgappa; plural: golgappe or golgappas.

The main idea behind this snack is to poke a hole in the tiny little poori and dunk the poori in this very tangy, spicy, tamarind water so that the poori is filled with that water (paani) and keep popping one poori after another into your mouth, until you are full; rather, until you are satisfied, which could actually take a while, just so you know.

Here's how you do it: You put one poori filled with the paani into your mouth, close your mouth and gently pop the poori with the help of your tongue onto your palate. What follows is this really "loud" explosion inside your mouth, with all that delicious spicy tangy water gushing into your taste buds and you literally shudder and close your eyes in ecstasy, followed by some major lip-smacking (remember, this is street-food we're talking about!). You do the same with the next poori and the next......and yeah, you got it- the cycle continues! 

Now along with the paani, you can add certain other fillings such as cooked garbanzo, potato, mint chutney and perhaps finely chopped onion, green chilies, cilantro etc.

And here is my take on paani poori and believe me, you'll see that it is extremely EASY!

Ingredients:

1. I buy the (paani) poori package from the Indian store. That just made the whole thing easy, didn't it? (Oh, by the way, don't worry about the spelling....... poori or puri--- doesn't matter, sort of like tomAAto Vs toMAYto.......)

Paani Poori (or Pani Puri) box from the Indian store

2. Cooked garbanzo beans- easiest way is to open a can of garbanzo, all ready to use!

3. Tamarind concentrate (available in any Indian or Asian store).

4. Mint leaves, a couple green chilies, a clove of garlic and some lemon juice for mint chutney.

5. Potatoes- cooked (pressure cooker works best for this or the m-wave may be used) and chopped.

6. Salt, Red chili powder/cayenne pepper, black pepper powder, cumin powder, pinch of garam masala powder (optional), pinch or more of sugar (depends on individual taste preference), pinch of aamchur (dry mango powder)- optional.

Note: The spices are really your choice.

Steps:

1. Open a can of garbanzo beans. I like to wash them in running water to "freshen" them up a bit. I add a pinch of salt, cumin powder, garam masala powder and just mix it all up.

Chickpeas/Garbanzo

2. Next, I get the potato ready. If it is just the four of us, then I just take 1 medium potato, wash it, poke it a bit with a fork all over and then cook it in the microwave. Takes about 3 to 5 minutes. I then peel it, chop it up and season with salt and perhaps some garam masala powder or even just plain simple ground black pepper.

Potato

3. For the paani (the spicy tangy tamarind water), I take a teaspoon of the tamarind concentrate, dilute it with 1/2 a cup of warm water (makes it easier to thin out the concentrate) and then add salt, cumin powder, red chili powder and a pinch of sugar. If you like it sweeter, then add more sugar. And then I stir it all up, and add some more water (room temperature) to thin it out completely. There, the paani is ready! (Of course, I do taste it and adjust accordingly).

Paani- Spicy Tamarind water

4. For the mint chutney, I pluck leaves from my very own home-grown mint plant (how much more organic can you get?!) and then wash the leaves and make a quick not-too-thick chutney in my food processor. It is very simple, really: mint leaves+a clove of garlic+1-2 green chilies+a dash of lemon juice+salt+1/4 cup of water. One or two pulses in the food processor and voila, mint chutney is ready.

My mint plant (as proof!)

Mm-Mint Chutney!

5. And, last but not the least, I open that box of (paani) pooris to get the party going!

Pooris!

Like I explained earlier, you poke a hole in a poori, stuff it with some garbanzo, potato and mint chutney and then dunk it in or spoon in some of that lip-smacking delicious tamarind water into the hole and pop it into your mouth and just keep eating........

Paani Pooris- SLURRRP!

Sometimes, we eat paani pooris for dinner. Yes! I just pick up a couple boxes of pooris from the Indian store and it works out great. The kids love it too! Light, satisfying and totally slurpilicious!

P.S.: Thanks to the lack of sunshine and the cold temperature at this time of the year, my mint plant is not doing very well, though I am trying to keep it alive and kicking........ gotta see how that goes!

Kashmiri Eggplant- Marzwangan Kurma, from the story, "Mazzoo Mazzoo"

Have you ever cooked up a delicious dish taking inspiration from a children's story book? I have!

A few years ago, my kids' grandmother gave them a little story book- a Kashmiri folk tale titled, "Mazzoo Mazzoo," by Sandhya Rao. The entire story is about 10 pages long. Perfect read for a little kid and even for little kids' mommies! The story revolves around a very famous Kashmiri dish called Marzwangan Kurma and in fact, has this lovely little poem, that I assume is written by the author or perhaps translated from Kashmiri into English by the author. Funnily, this little poem is actually the recipe for this beautiful dish! Here, take a look at the poem below:

Recipe for Marzwangan Kurma

And so, the other day I suddenly remembered the story and the dish in particular (of course) and I just had to make it. I went to the store specifically to buy eggplant (brinjal) and meanwhile, the previous night, I soaked a handful of almonds so that it would be easy for me to peel them the next day. I had ginger and cardamom and of course, turmeric powder, tamarind paste and salt. I did not have Kashmiri red chillies (famous for their deep color and mild flavor) and therefore swapped those for some normal red chillies that I had bought at the Indian store. I did not have cinnamon either and so decided to just make-do without it.

I literally followed the poem. Here are the pictures which are pretty self-explanatory:

Almonds, cardamom, ginger, eggplant, tamarind paste

& red chillies too. Eggplant sliced and ginger chopped.

Red chillies & Cardamom ground together in my nifty little grinder

Almond & Ginger Paste (using my food processor)

Note about the almond and ginger paste: I added just a tad bit of water to allow for a paste. When the paste was ready and I opened the lid, I was hit by this astoundingly divine aroma and upon tasting it, I thought to myself that this itself is super delicious and maybe if I add some sugar to this, it will turn into a beautiful dessert! I mean, it was just that yummy!! (Of course, one has got to love ginger to love this almond-ginger paste).

Eggplant tossed with turmeric and salt, being fried in some oil.

In goes the almond ginger paste & the red chillies+cardamom powder

& tamarind plus some water, just enough to barely cover the eggplant

Simmering away for 15 minutes-- divine aroma, BTW!

Marzwangan Kurma ready (the gravy is thickened).

In less than 20 minutes, I had made Marzwangan Kurma, from a Kashmiri folk tale! I sure felt mighty pleased with myself and the dish- it tasted beautiful. The eggplant was nice and juicy and tasted delicious in the gravy that was tangy from the tamarind, and had this flowery aroma from the cardamom, while the red chillies added some heat. I did not miss the cinnamon, but I bet that would add to the overall flavor of the dish. And you can never go wrong with almonds! I served the kurma with rotis.

Funny how I followed that book to make a dish, huh? Well, hey, one can derive inspiration from anywhere, anything- even a simple little children's story!

Title change

My brother, my only active reader (haha!), suggested a title for my previous post where I explained how I made paneer. And I love it- "When life gives you sour milk, make paneer!" How apt! Thanks, bro!

Paneer Scramble!

Remember that paneer I made a couple days ago? Well, for lunch today, I made paneer ki bhurji or paneer scramble from that same paneer that I made. It is quite similar to tofu scramble and in fact is pretty much like scrambled eggs, except all jazzed up with onions, tomatoes, green chilies and some spices. (http://yetanotherfoodie.blogspot.com/2011/01/masala-bhurji.html)

If you go take a look at the above link for "Masala Bhurji," this paneer ki bhurji is the same. Extremely quick and easy and delicious!

• I chopped up a medium size onion, a couple tomatoes and 3-4 green chilies. 
• Fried this in a little bit of oil and mustard seeds (cumin seeds work too) and then added the home made paneer, followed by salt, turmeric powder, some red chili powder and just a pinch of garam masala.
• I crumbled up the paneer in the pan itself with the spatula. While doing so, I delighted in the fact that the home-made paneer was of excellent quality- oh yeah! I gave everything one last stir and then covered the lid. Simmered for about 5 minutes and turned off the stove.
• And that's it-- paneer ki bhurji or paneer scramble was ready. Before serving, I garnished with some fresh cilantro.

Simple ingredients

Paneer Scramble

Ready to eat!

*One could add green peas to this dish too for color.

Our Sunday lunch comprised of rotis with paneer ki bhurji, followed by a glass of buttermilk. Simple, delicious and satisfying!

I made Paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese)! Thanks, Priya!

We consume a lot of dairy in our household. In fact, my shopping cart almost always has 2 gallons of 2% reduced fat milk (for the kids), 1 gallon of plain soy milk (for us) and at least 1 gallon of buttermilk, with the occasional pint of low fat yogurt thrown in. Oh and everything is organic [They really should have come up with a different term. I mean, isn't all food organic anyways?!]. And this lasts us for about 10 days.

Quick note on the soy milk--- the husband switched to soy milk a few years ago because he claimed that regular milk made him feel all bloated. And soy milk seemed to work fine. So then he introduced it to me and at first, I hated it. But then, slowly, as with anything else, I got used to it and now I prefer my chai and coffee with soy milk.

A few days ago I did my usual dairy shopping. The next morning, my kids complained that the milk tasted bad. I smelled it and yes indeed, it smelled funny. The first thought that came to my head was, "Great! Now I have to go back to the darn store to return it!" After going back and forth on whether or not it made sense to drive all the way back to the store and waste time (and gasoline!), I decided to pick up some milk from my back-up store--- you know, our neighborhood store. Meanwhile, for some reason, I put that "weird" smelling milk back in the fridge. Well, guess that worked out, because I made paneer with that milk yesterday and really, I am so proud of myself!

Paneer is basically cottage cheese, except that it is firm, not loose like cottage cheese. Very popular in North Indian cuisine--- am sure you are familiar with dishes such as Saag Paneer, Matar Paneer and Paneer Butter Masala! Yum!

Now many of you might be already adept at making paneer at home and so this might be a no-brainer to you. But to me, it is quite a deal. This is probably only the second time in my life so far that I have made paneer at home! So yes, it is a big deal for me!

I took: 

1. That gallon of "funny" milk
2. A cup and quarter of vinegar (I used rice vinegar)

The Method:

1. I poured in all that milk into a fairly thick bottomed pot (which happens to be my cooker) and got the heat going. I kept it on low first and then after about 10 minutes, when the milk was beginning to warm up, I increased the flame. This was to prevent any kind of scorching-at-the-bottom-issue.

"Funny" Milk

2. Soon (this depends on where you live, how intense your stove is, what kind of a pot you use etc) the milk came to a little boil. At this point, I added a tablespoon of vinegar to the milk and immediately, the milk started coagulating.

Coagulation

However, something wasn't right. I remembered how my mom used to make paneer back when we were kids...... and I knew that this wasn't looking quite right. And so I picked up the phone and called my very dear friend, Priya, since she is an expert at paneer-making. She said that I need to add at least a cup of vinegar and that will lead to complete coagulation, leaving a greenish liquid behind. Aha! Thanks, Priya!

3. And so I added a cup of vinegar, bit by bit, while stirring the milk, until there was some major coagulation action going on and I began to see this translucent greenish colored liquid. I was so excited! That was cottage cheese right there, separating from the whey!

Now we're talking- cottage cheese in the making!

4. I needed a muslin cloth to collect the cottage cheese. But since I didn't have any muslin cloth at  home (err, I still don't!), I took this fairly thin wash cloth (made sure it wasn't smelling like laundry detergent!) and poured in the contents from the cooker, so as to drain off the greenish liquid, aka, whey, while retaining the cottage cheese in the cloth.

My substitute for muslin cloth

Fresh Cottage Cheese!

P.S.: I collected the whey in a bowl so I could take a picture and show it to you, if you too happen to be a novice at paneer-making like me. In the picture it looks more yellowish than greenish because of the lights in my kitchen and I forgot to turn on the flash in my camera!

The Whey

5. And then I tied up the cloth, so as to drain any remaining liquid from the cheese. The key to good paneer is to have it nice and firm and devoid of any whey.

Draining off excess liquid

6. I then took this heavy iron tortilla maker and pressed the cheese (that I placed on a plate) with it--- so as to flatten it a bit and of course, drain off every bit of liquid from it. 

Pressing the cheese

Top View

7. I left this on the counter top to set and after 5 hours or so, I checked it. I was overjoyed to see paneer!! Yes, real paneer! I took a little piece off and tasted it and it tasted so good!!

Paneer!!!!

8. I then wrapped it up with some plastic wrap and put it away in the fridge. 

Home Made Paneer!

And this is how, ladies and gentlemen, I made paneer at home from that "funny" milk. Would I do this again? Umm, only if there's weird tasting milk at home. I mean, though this is great, since it is home made, it does take quite a bit of time, effort, and cleaning up, especially the scrubbing you have to do to clean the pot in the end! So I think I'll stick to buying my paneer from the store.

Note: Not sure what to label this post as....... any suggestions?

Apple Halwa

My brother and sister-in-law were here last weekend and sure enough, the weekend went by very quickly. It is always fun to have them here and it is always fun to visit them in Spokane. My SIL and I had some heart-to-heart conversation this time on various interesting topics......OK, who am I kidding? Our conversations basically involved gossiping and we quite enjoyed it! Yeah, yeah, I know, "small people talk about other people;" but hey, it is OK to do it once in a while.......

My SIL got a bag of apples all the way from Spokane--- the plan was to make this dessert called halwa with those apples. Halwa is a dessert, that I think resembles fudge since it is so dense, that is traditionally made out of semolina/cream of wheat (sooji ka halwa). Then there is gajar ka halwa made with carrots (now available in Costco! Oh yeah!), potatoes, beet root, bottle gourd, apples.... you name it. And so, since I am not a very "dessert-person," she said she would make some.

Ingredients:

1. 6 medium sized apples (any red kind, not the granny smith kind)

2. A few almonds (blanched and powdered would be good)

3. 1-2 teaspoons of clarified butter/ghee- this is optional, apparently-- but I think it imparts a lovely aroma to the halwa.

4. Sugar (this is really per taste- I prefer not-very-sweet, some might like it sweeter, some might just prefer the sweetness from the apples themselves.......)

5. About a cup of milk (again, this is not needed, but I think it adds a better overall consistency to the halwa)

6. A pinch of cardamom powder for the mm-aroma!

Method: 

1. So she (my SIL) washed and peeled the apples and then cut them up into tiny pieces.

Peeling

Ready to go into the food processor

2. These pieces were then put into the food processor and err, I helped with this. So I ran the food processor to basically chop up the apple pieces into tinier pieces. We decided that the next time, it would be better to just mince everything up in the food processor.

Ready to be cooked

3. And then she took a pot, put in a couple teaspoons of ghee/clarified butter. She added some chopped up almonds to this and quickly fried them.

Almonds in

4. Then she added the finely chopped apples to this and started the cooking process.

Apples starting to cook

5. After about 15 minutes on medium flame, by which time the apples were looking nice and soft, she poured in a cup of milk (we used 2% reduced fat milk) and kept stirring everything up.

Milk added

6. She continued to stir for another 10-15 minutes until the liquid evaporated and the apple mixture was all nice and sticky. Towards the end, I added some sugar to it (just eyeballed it), while she continued to stir, so as to mix it all up. And that's it!

7. At the very end, she added a pinch of cardamom powder.

Apple Halwa ready to be served!

I tasted the apple halwa and oh, it was divine! It reminded me of "dumroot" that they make on special occasions back home-- you know, the halwa that is made out of bottle gourd. It is such a delicacy.

Apple Halwa- pretty close to dumroot!

The halwa was a perfect blend of sweet as well as a hint of tart (from the apples of course) and those almonds added a nice crunch to the dessert and of course, the cardamom powder made it smell heavenly. Delicious treat indeed!

Thanks, SIL, for making Apple Halwa for us-- it was excellent. Oh and I enjoyed our heart-to-heart conversations........ next time, we shall discuss ideas, like great people do! ;)

P.S.: This is not a dessert-of-sorts-- this is REAL dessert!

Chicken Soup for my boy!

My son was feeling a bit under the weather the past couple days. Apparently "there's a bug going around." I have never really understood this statement- I mean, there are bugs around us all the time (yes, I know that, thanks to my degree in Microbiology) and therefore these bugs are probably "going around" all the time, then why do doctors give you the same old sentence? No, really! If your child has a temperature, it's because of that darn "bug that's goin' around." Cold, cough, cold and cough, cold cough and fever, cold cough fever and tummy upset.........yep, everything is blamed on the same old "bug that's goin' around!" And oh, this happens throughout the year. Guess that's doctor-lingo for us, Moms and they probably figure that the best way to explain things to us is by saying, "There's a bug going around!"

So on Friday my sick little boy was all tired and for lunch he wanted soup. He asked me if he could have some chicken-noodle soup from Safeway. I said sure and then thought, hey, how about some home-made chicken-noodle soup for my boy? Home-made meaning from scratch of course.

I took:

1. A couple boneless, skinless chicken breasts- cut up into nice little bite-sized pieces

2. 1 veggie stock cube (chicken stock would be great), 2 cloves of garlic

3. Some on-the-go seasoning such as onion powder, garlic powder, italian seasoning (you know, whatever I thought would add more depth to the overall flavor.......), pepper powder, salt

4. Water, splash of olive oil

5. I did not have noodles and so I used some farfalle pasta (made sure my boy was OK with that!)

6. 1 Carrot- chopped up

How I made that lovely soup:

1. I took a pot, added the chicken into it and poured water enough to cover all the chicken. I added a splash of olive oil to this, 1 cube of veggie stock and also threw in a couple cloves of garlic. Oh and I added a pinch each of onion powder, garlic powder and some italian seasoning. I switched on the stove and cooked the chicken. Took only about 10 minutes for the chicken to get done.

Chicken soup on its way!

2. Once the chicken was done, I added 1 chopped up carrot as well as some farfalle pasta. Added some salt for the pasta. Covered the pot and let it all cook for 11-12 minutes (the time really depends on how long the pasta takes to cook). And that's pretty much it!

Chicken soup ready!

Right at the end, I sprinkled some black pepper powder and then served.

Chicken soup made with Mommy's love

My little boy simply loved the soup. It was so comforting. Not just my boy, but I loved the soup too! It was so simple and full of flavor. My boy said that it was way better than Safeway soup! Well, of course, it had to be--- it was full of Mommy's love.........(well, that's what I claim!)

It is official...........

.......... that I dislike Brussels Sprouts!! Yes, the very ME who always goes around lecturing people on how important veggies are and how one has got to try different vegetables, how they are so healthy for your body, blah blah-di-blah........ I never thought that I, of all people, would ever dislike any vegetable- EVER! But sadly, this fact dawned upon me last evening when I made those darned mini-cabbages (yeah, they look like miniature cabbages) as a side dish, with much enthusiasm, I must add. No, it wasn't the odor. It was just that the taste was simply indescribably pathetic- ugh!

Ugh!

I chose to just cook them on the stove and so this is what I did:

1. I prepped them up by cutting them into halves and then giving them a quick wash.

2. I poured in 3 teaspoons of oil in my pot and go the heat going.

3. I added a teaspoon of cumin seeds and when they spluttered, I threw in those Brussels Sprouts.

4. Added salt, some red cayenne pepper powder and sauteed it all for a minute or so and then covered the pot with the lid.

5. After 5-7 minutes, I switched off the stove. The lovely green color was retained and I was all happy!

Looks beautiful, sure!

Before serving, I added a dash of lemon juice. Sounds lovely, doesn't it? And it looked really good too.

My son took one bite and scrunched up his face and said, "I can't eat this, Mom!" Meanwhile, my daughter was quietly eating, though her face was all scrunched up too and she looked very uncomfortable. Now under normal circumstances, I would force my kids to finish whatever it was, even if they didn't like it. This time, to their surprise, I said, "OK," and took away their plates and dumped the horrible vegetable into the trash can. I ate some and put on a very brave face (while in reality I was all scrunched up inside!) and gave them a little "Mom Lecture" about how they need to stop being so fussy. Well, now call me a hypocrite, but I couldn't come to admit to them that yeah,  mom too hated it! Hey, I bet you have heard of this thing called, "Mom ego!" For a change, their Dad ate it up and even said he liked it. That was probably the why-make-my-wife-unhappy situation going on!

So there, after last evening's fiasco, I know I am not going to buy any more of this vegetable. Yep, I, very reluctantly, announce that I hate Brussels Sprouts!!

Kanda Pohe

I am back after a 10 day quick trip to India. My dad was not well, my mom had a fall, our dog died, leaving my parents very sad. My daughterly instinct kicked in and I had to go see them. And I sure am glad I did. The visit was very pleasant and I think I cheered them up a bit.

During my 10-day stay with them, my dad discovered this restaurant called The Peshwa Restaurant that specializes in Maharashtrian cuisine. Of course, we got all excited and set off in search of the restaurant. Driving in all that horrendous traffic, my dad finally took us to our destination. Mom and I rushed inside (you see, we were a trifle bit too excited!), while Dad parked, re-parked and then finally locked the car. We entered the restaurant and found only 2 guests sitting at a table. Disappointment set in as we thought that perhaps the restaurant is shut or maybe it is not that good a restaurant after all! But the red interior was far too inviting to just leave. And so we sat at a table, the waiter came and as soon we saw the menu cards, we knew it was going to be good! We ordered their "Gavran Jevan," that literally means "Village Food"--- food that is eaten in rural parts of Maharashtra. It was a feast! Here, you can check out their menu @ http://thepeshwa.com/.

I was thrilled to find "Pohe" on their menu. Out here, I have never found this dish in any Indian restaurant, ever. The only time I have seen anybody mention Pohe/Poha and cook it was in one episode of The Iron Chef, where Chef Floyd Cardoz made it. Incidentally, poha is known to be Lord Krishna's favorite food and in our family, we all love poha. Oh before I forget, for those of you who might not be familiar with poha-- it is basically flat beaten rice and available in varying degrees of thickness, ranging from very thin to thick. Yes, there's a medium variety too.

I have been having emotional withdrawal symptoms the whole of this past week and living so far away from parents certainly is no help. And so this morning, thinking about my short and sweet India trip and The Peshwa Restaurant, I decided to make some Kanda Pohe. "Kanda" in Marathi means Onion and so Kanda Pohe means pohe made with onion(s).

Ingredients:

1. 1 onion, finely chopped
2. A couple (or more) green chillies- chopped or slit- your choice
3. Peanuts- about 1 tablespoon
4. Cumin seeds- a teaspoon
5. About 2 cups of poha-- I used thick poha today
6. 4-5 teaspoons of oil for cooking
7. Salt, turmeric powder, pinch of sugar

Method:

1. Take 2 cups of thick poha in a colander and give it a quick wash in hot water. Alternately you could soak this thick poha in room temperature water for a few minutes, so as to soften the poha flakes.

Thick Poha

Quickly washed in hot water to soften the flakes

2. Take a pan, pour in a few teaspoons of oil and then add some peanuts and fry them. As they begin to turn brown, add a teaspoon of cumin seeds and just as they begin to splutter, throw in the finely chopped onion and green chillies. If you have curry leaves, you could add some, like I did today.

Peanuts

Onion, green chillies frying away

3. After about 5-7 minutes of sauteeing the onion, add salt per taste, a pinch of turmeric powder, followed by the softened poha and fold it all in. After mixing up everything, add a pinch of sugar and give it one more stir. For thick poha, you might want to add a quarter cup of water before covering the pan, just to make sure that the poha is nice and soft, else it might end up becoming hard and chewy.  


Note: This addition of just a pinch of sugar is very Maharashtrian. It just brings out the flavors even more (well, OK, I admit- when I don't know why something is added, I just say it brings out the flavor.......hey, even those Food Network stars say that!).

4. Cover the pan, cook it all together for about 5-10 minutes. And then eat and enjoy! You could garnish with some fresh cilantro and grated coconut--- mmmm! delicious!

Ready to be folded in

Almost ready!

Kanda Pohe-- delicious treat!

This morning's breakfast was lovely and while I sat all by myself at the table, savoring the deliciousness, I was transported back to my parents' place and the wonderful 10 days I spent with them......... 

Going  back to The Peshwa Restaurant- as we were enjoying our "Gavran Jevan," people started pouring in......... so I guess it is quite popular amongst the Maharashtrian crowd in Bangalore. Good discovery, Dad!