Poha: Savory rice flakes

This picture shows black mustard seeds (rye)

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Snack food in India probably deserves an encyclopedia of its own. An amazing variety of fritters (telebhajas, pakoras or bhajis) is prepared from all kinds of vegetables, even vegetable peels -- in Bengal, fish, shrimp; small dosas called utthapams; varities of dried rice and rice flakes known as poha and muri are lightly spiced and served with hot tea; bhels and sevs -- dried fried dhals are another snack basic combined with all manner of nimkis and puris to make chaats; and then there is the paani puri or puchka of Bengal; vadas of the South and vada-pavs of Bombay to list just a few of India's commonly available snacks. In fact even the humblest tea stall in India will have a few glass jars of flaky pastry biscuit, or the hard nankhatais or even just simple rusks to accompany the tea. In the streets of Calcutta, evening tea stalls often sell hard boiled eggs or omelettes as accompaniments to the little bhars of cha.

I remember stopping at a picturesque tea stall on the winding road up from Siliguri to Gangtok with my husband, the little wooden shack that served as a tea stall sold hot sweet tea and crisp homemade savory biscuits studded with onion seeds.

Poha or rice flakes, are actually rice grains that have been parboiled, flattened by heavy rollers and then dried (also known as 'habalapethi' in Sri Lanka). Poha is eaten as a between meals filler in both north and south India (though more commonly in the north) and is easily available at all Indian groceries. My recipe uses typical southern Indian ingredients and takes a few minutes to prepare.


The Recipe

2 cups poha washed and drained in a colander
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
a few curry leaves
1/2 a small white onion finely diced
a handful of chopped coriander leaves
1 small tomato chopped fine
1-2 green chillies diced
oil for frying
salt to taste

Heat the oil till smoking, add the mustard seeds and when they start to crackle, the onion and tomato. Fry till onion is soft and transclucent and tomatoes pulpy, add curry leaves and chillies. Mix in the poha. Fry well for a minutes, add salt to taste and sprinkle with chopped coriander leaves before serving.
Serve hot with masala cha