I decided to make something to munch in the evening as we had a simple lunch on our anniversary day. Me and K mutually decided to make these from I am posting the same with Indira’s kind permission. K did most part of rolling of the dough , so half the credit goes to him .The description was simple and easy to make and I kneaded the dough and made the curry. What I didn’t do was as indira mentioned , to grind the peas coarsely . I kneaded the dough with all purpose flour, a little salt and a few drops of oil. While the dough was settling down, I made the stuffing by boiling 2 medium sized potatoes and then mashed them . Also sauted onions in oil , added a green chilli and then added whole peas and then potatoes. Mixed the well and added salt and a pinch of turmeric to complete it . The stuffing was perfect, just as in store bought samosas. What didn’t work for me was the dough after I went back to look at it half hour later. K and I realized the the dough should have been of a harder consistency like we knead for pooris instead of kneading it like for chapatis. I didn’t get the perfect shape of the Potlis because of the way I kneaded . Next time, I would be extra careful. Everything else worked fine and they tasted every bit fantastic!

Click here for the original Recipe

* Update on 04/02/2008

I tried making the dough harder than the chapati dough and I didnt have to use corn starch , instead just used water to bind the potli and used a deep fryer to fry.

K would do anything for Pulihora. His normal reaction would be to scoop very little pulihora with a spoon or hand if its clean, onto a plate and shove it across me and gobble everything without even taking it into a plate. He is that greedy when it comes to Pulihora. It was our first wedding anniversary and he couldn’t take a day off due to work and so I fixed a simple lunch for him to devour on. I decided I’d make pulihora but was sceptical about the flavour. I was rummaging through my fridge and saw a packet of marble sized lemons that were given by my mom’s friend who lives in the same city as I do. They have this wonderful garden where they grow a few vegetables and lots of oranges and grapefruits. I decided its easy enough to make as I was juggling between phone calls of my dear family, friends and extended family and cooking lunch and thinking of a good snack for us to nibble on in the evening. My Pulihora is normally crunchy as I’d like to add more popu to it ,lots of peanuts and a dash of dhaniya powder too.Here I go…

1 cup of uncooked rice
3 marble sized juicy lemons
1/2 cup of peanuts
1/4 cup of curry leaves
4 green chillies , slit length wise
For the Popu :
3 teaspoons of Chana dal
1 1/2 teaspoons of Urad dal
2 dry chillies
1 teaspoon of Mustard seeds
1 teaspoon of Hing(asafoetida)
1 teaspoon of dhaniya powder
Oil and Salt to taste

Cook rice separately and add a teaspoon of turmeric and the juice of the lemons, dhaniya powder and keep aside. Do the popu in the order of adding chana dal, urad dal, mustard seeds,hing, dry chillies ,green chillies, curry leaves to the oil. Saute and wait for the mustard seeds to splutter. Remove from fire and add to the rice . In a skillet , add oil and saute the peanuts until golden brown and add to the rice. Mix Well and Serve hot.

The best way to eat Pulihora , according to me is to add a dollop of curd . Trust me, it would be yummm!!!!

My survival techniques were simple. Skip breakfast and gulp loads of coffee until lunch, lunch at work place and for dinner, B, my good ol‘ landlady would normally give a dish of this and that and depending on what she gave me , I would make rice or dosa and be done with it.I never would bother to ask her the recipe and sometimes not even ask what she gave me, Just gobble it up! Man! She was an amazing cook. This is how life was until K came along. Mom called and said “Mm… The boy is going to come home for dinner!! Do a good job of the cooking” My reaction was “Dammit, How can he expect me to cook after a hard day’s work? ” That’s what I exactly thought when my would be fiance was coming to my place for Dinner for the first time . Both of us were living in the same city alone and our parents mutually decided the K would be eating in my apartment after having a tough time in the US . I decided I would woo my man to take me out for dinner once he arrived and didn’t cook anything ,but on a safer side, called my ammakkaya and asked for a few easy and simple recipes , in case my charm wouldn’t work!

K came and we got talking, never realised the time and I had to get cooking because he was tired of eating out and it was too late to go out.”Rrreal problem started then” I was a confident of whipping up a decent meal, even though I was impatient and didn’t know the real stuff. What came out of my 1 hour of hard work in the kitchen was half cooked methi dal ( I didn’t know you had to pick the methi leaves instead of cutting them) , half fried alu (too impatient and hungry to let it fry completely) , Store bought curd and decent enough plain rice. K said it was a wonderful meal and ate it all and rated me 2 on a scale of 10 because I pestered him for feedback ( my customer service mind). The journey had begun a year and a half ago and no longer my meals are half cooked but I get normally a rating of 8 on 10 unless I’m jittery or not in the right frame of mind.

This blog is a tribute to my aunts, amma and my M-I-L and K who is a better cook than I am. The tribute seems a little weird , but I learnt most of my cooking from my eldest cousin and aunts more than amma. Amma, being a working mom had little time to spare and whip up exotic dishes, unless during festive times. Her dishes were simple, healthy and fried food was taboo in her kitchen. My ammakkaya would always serve the dish and explain how she made it and what could be added more to make it a better dish, that’s how I learnt it from her. Thanks to them that I know a few things to whip up a fairly good meal .

My Cooking fairly improved after I moved to the US. Here I must thank , Indira of www.nandyala.org/mahanandi who posted wonderful recipes on her site. She has been truly inspirational for me and K to start this blog. Thank you Indira!