Dadpe Pohe

Sometimes I like to make pohe raw, especially if they are the super thin kind. The fresh crunch of the onion and the oil tempered with spices pair nicely with the soft pohe. This is a very healthy recipe as nothing is really fried or greasy, yet it packs a great flavor punch. You can make these with brown rice pohe too. If you're looking for these in the Indian grocery store, they might be called Aval or Red Aval (brown rice).

Ingredients:

2 cups pohe/red aval

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 Thai green chili, finely chopped (these are the tiny chilies which are usually pretty spicy so I de-seed them. If not available, can use a jalapeno)

3 stems of fresh cilantro (finely chop the stems and the leaves)

1/4 cup shredded coconut (preferably fresh, but if not available can use frozen or dessicated)

Juice from 1/2 a lemon

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

6 dried curry leaves

1/2 tsp turmeric pwd

Pinch of hing (asafoteida)

2 tbsp oil

1 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

Preparation:

Place the pohe in a bowl. Wet your hand and mix the pohe with it, until slightly damp. They don't need to be completely soaked in water, but just a few tsps of water should be enough. They will start to stick to each other, which is fine.

Add the chopped onion, chili, cilantro, shredded coconut, lemon juice, salt and sugar.

Mix well so that all ingredients are combined.

Cook (this only involves tempering the oil, which means we add the whole spices to hot oil to bring out their flavor):

Heat oil in fry pan on medium heat.

Add mustard and cumin seeds.

Once start to pop add hing and curry leaves. After curry leaves turn brown turn off heat and remove pan from stove (this will happen very fast, probably 15-20 seconds).

Let pan cool for a minute then add turmeric and stir quickly so dissolves and cooks slightly in oil. Don't let it burn and go black, if this happens, start the oil tempering process again! Burnt turmeric is not nice... very very bitter.

Add this to the raw pohe/onion mixture and stir.

ENJOY!