Breakfast In Sindhi homes

Before the oats, cereals, muffins, pastries and sandwiches made their appearances at our breakfast table, Parathas, Puri, and rice ruled the kitchens. Early mornings, tea or coffee was paired with home cooked meals.

There was a great variety of paratha made with most inovative fillings, sometimes stuffed with potatoes, sometimes with radish, then, there were cauliflower, cottage cheese, peas and sometimes even fenugreek. There were great varieties of puris too. From plain salt and pepper to more elaborate puris that were stuffed with colorful lentils. Curds, pickle and papads were included with puris and parathas.

But I enjoyed Parathas the most, especially those of potatoes mixed with coriander leaves, green chilies and cumin seeds.

Parathas are basically unleavened dough stuffed with spiced mixture of mashed potatoes/vegetables, which is rolled out and cooked on hot plate with butter. Paired with pickle or curd and a hot cup of tea, it made a perfect Sunday morning.

Puri on the other hand is the unleavened dough usually prepared with wheat flour (atta) or refined wheat flour (maida) or coarse wheat flour (sooji), deep-fried in hot oil till they bloat like a balloon. They can be paired with lentils, or potatoes or pickle and sometimes even with sweets like halwa or jalebi.

In my house, Loli was regularly made. This was made with wheat flour where little ghee/or butter was added before kneading, plain loli had only salt and pepper, while masala loli had finely chopped onions, coriander leaves, pomegranate seeds and chilies. This too tasted great with pickles, papads or curds, but I would enjoy it best with fried eggs, (sunny side up) or sometimes with mutton cooked in spinach and tomatoes.

Pakwan was another great delight where the dough was rolled paper-thin and deep-fried. This was relished with lentils and fried papads.

Nowadays we are too health conscious and will avoid fried stuff out right. Now I see youngsters skipping breakfast or relishing baked crisps of rolled oats stuffed with nuts, honey, raisins, flaxseeds, etc. I too prefer a glass of fresh juice in the mornings. 

Cooked meal early morning is never preferred by today’s youth. Wonder if they know the taste of leftover food that was revamped into different dish the next morning.

Leftover Chappatis were cooked in green masala of coriander leaves, garlic and tomatoes to make a dish called 'Mani seyal'.

Rice was fried into yellow rice by adding garlic, mustard seeds, tomatoes, onions, coriander leaves, green chilies and turmeric powder.

While German households had salami, bacon, ham, eggs and varieties of cheese, French German rolls paired with jam, marmalade, honey. In my house, on the other hand, it was simple dried leftover bread cooked with onion, tomatoes, green chilies and coriander leaves called 'Daboroti seyal'. It tasted heavenly with a hot cup of filter coffee.

In Spain, no matter where I went, at every breakfast restaurant was tortilla Esponola. But in my house, we had delicious omelets of onions, coriander leaves and tomatoes, even a simple omelet with just salt and pepper tasted great. Sometimes we had leftover rotis dipped in egg and fried on skillet.

A typical Italian breakfast is made of hot beverages and something sweet to eat like croissant, pastries, cookies and maybe some fresh juice too, but in my house there was thin sweet vermicelli called ‘Sayoon’ cooked with sugar and cardamom.

Every country that I travelled, I saw people relishing different breakfast but there was always similarity between their food and ours to some extend, especially if they were cooked or fried.

Some years ago, One early morning, in Hongkong, it was 5am and I couldn’t go back to sleep. I decided to take a bus to far off busstop and enjoy the breakfast. I still remember the beautiful taste of Congee I had on the street. The congee is a simple rice broth that contained pieces of chicken and some deep fried shrimps. I had seasoned it with vinegars in chilies and some soy sauce. In my house congee is also made but we just add crackled mustard seeds and we called it ‘Kweerni Khichdi’ I love this with sour curd and deep fried papad.

Breakfast is the important meal of the day, but now I shudder to eat fried food, bread and potatoes is too much carb, chappatis and puris are too heavy, so I have reduced my diet to just one glass of fresh vegetable juice with a simple toast or cookie. Lunch is when I will eat heavy food and dinner is just soup and fruits and sometimes if the mood is right, will eat the breakfast selection of parathas, puri or rice..during dinner time….

Our elders would eat four heavy meals to survive, and they had no diet issues, I just cannot eat so much, but then, I don’t work physically that hard like my granny or other women in my family used to do…

Here is sharing a leaflet from my book on #SindhiCuisine…..

Patatey ji manni

    (Potato Paratha)

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 potatoes, boiled

3 cups wheat flour

2 tablespoon oil

Salt to taste

½ teaspoon cumin powder

½ teaspoon red chilly powder

1 tablespoon onion, finely chopped

2 green chillies, finely chopped

1 tablespoon coriander leaves, chopped

Method

1. Mash the boiled potato and add salt, cumin powder, red chilly powder, onions, green chillies and coriander leaves. Keep aside.
2. Knead the dough for paratha adding salt and 1 tablespoons of oil to the wheat flour.
3. Roll it on a floured board to about 2 inch circle. Put 2 tablespoon of potato filling in the center and gently pick up the sides, press together to form a ball, covering the filling completely.
4. Roll out carefully into round paratha, cook on tava on a medium flame till light brown, using small quantities of oil.
5. Serve with curd and papad.

Colorful Vegetarian Briyani

Okay, You might say, where are those beautiful rainbow colors of the briyani?

Briyani is supposed to be colorful with red, green and yellow colored rice, layered one on the top of another with variety of vegetables glimmering through the grains, but No! Thank you! I don’t use food coloring in my cooking, I use colorful vegetables instead, differently-colored-vegetables can also give a colorful effect. And, of course, if you still  insist, I do have an option to use natural food colors like turmeric for yellow, beetroot juice for red color and crushed spinach for green, but that is unnecessary.

Every responsible chef will agree that food coloring is not good for health. I, too, am very much against those bright color dyes used in toffees and ice-creams. Sure, those colored food look very appealing and makes food look brighter, but at what cost?

Food dyes—used in everything from M&Ms to Manischewitz Matzo Balls to Kraft salad dressings—pose risks of cancer, hyperactivity in children, and allergies, and should be banned, according to a new report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. A top government scientist agrees, and says that food dyes present unnecessary risks to the public.

If your child is hyperactive, or has a behavior problem, blame it on dyes and stop his artificially colored candies immediately.

The food will taste good if it is nutritious and made with interest, color is just a feast for the eyes.

I believe that every vegetable has its own taste and its own cooking point. If we cook all together, there is uneven tenderness in vegetables that is good only if you wish to mash them up to make ‘Pav bhaji’, but if you wish to bite each vegetable and relish them, then its better to cook each one differently, some to cook the proper way, with/without gravy as you wish, some to stir-fry and some to deep fry, its just the matter of understanding what kind of taste would suit your dish.

I agree my Briyani does not look beautiful, but it was so tasty that I was very happy that my family enjoyed it.

It takes me about 2 hours to cook Briyani and I really have to be in a very good mood to cook it for you.

Ingredients:

2 cups Basmati Rice

4 medium size Onions

6 tsps Olive oil

1 tin(200gms) Soya chunks

1 cup Yogurt

3 tsp Garlic

2 tsp Ginger

2 tsp Coriander powder

1 tsp Cumin powder

1 tsp Turmeric powder

1tsp red chili powder

2 Cumin sticks

4 Cardamom

4 Bay leaves

4 Cloves

A pinch of saffron strands

1 medium size Carrot(diced)

1 medium size Capsicum(chopped)

1 large Potato (diced)

1 medium size Eggplant (diced)

2 medium size Tomatoes

1 tbsp chopped Coriander leaves

2 tbsp chopped mixed dry fruits(almonds, cashew nuts, walnuts, raisin)

2 tbsp lime juice

4 tbsp milk

oil for deep frying

Salt to taste

So this is how I make……

Step one: Deep fry 3 medium sized onions (sliced evenly) till dark brown, keep it aside.

Step two: While the onions are frying, start chopping other vegetables, and marinate soya chunks in yogurt, 1tsp garlic, 1tsp ginger, coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder, red chili powder, and salt.

Step three: Par boil the rice (that has been soaked for 30 minutes before parboiling), strain the water, spread it on a big plate and add cumin sticks, crushed cardamom, bay leaves, cloves, saffron strands and 1tsp olive oil

Step four: Fry 1tsp garlic in one teaspoon of olive oil, and stir fry carrots and capsicum, add salt and keep it aside.

Step five: Deep fry potatoes and egg plant

Step six: In a pan, fry one (finely chopped) onion in 2 tsp of olive oil till light brown, add ½ glass of water, cook till onions are tender, add 1tsp garlic and 1tsp ginger, add marinated soya chunks, add tomatoes and cook till oil separates.

Step seven: Grease the pot with 1tsp olive oil, arrange fried onions at the base, cover it with ¾ of spiced rice, add the layer of stir-fried carrot and capsicum, add the layer of cooked soya chunks, add the layer of fried potatoes and egg plant, cover it with remaining rice.

Step eight: Garnish with remaining fried onions, coriander leaves and dry fruits, sprinkle lime juice and milk and I tsp olive oil. Cover with aluminum foil, then with a lid and keep it on low heat for forty-five minutes

Serve with onion raita and potato chips.

Rice Stew with Capsicum and Black Olives

When you find a bowl of left over rice in your fridge, you tend to get creative.

Hundreds of variation can be made with plain rice; all we need is just imagination and ingredients.

I surf my fridge to see what else can I find? 

Hmmn! There is capsicum, , lime leaves, green chilies  and a tin of black olives……and yeah, I also have onions and garlic.

Okay, that should be enough to create a dish and then suddenly I see this small packet of Ching’s secret:  ‘New Chowmein Miracle Masala’

Now this packet has been lying in my fridge since it came with a magazine as sample piece - some two months ago - and I had been meaning to try this one but never had a chance…there is a graphic of noodles on the packet, but there is no hard and fast rule that I must use noodles, is there? The print is so fine that I can hardly read the instructions or the ingredients.

I cut open this packet and smell..okay…reddish brown masala smells quite good. (I am hoping it's vegetarian and does not contain any animal fat or some useless bone powder.) I take a pinch of this masala to taste…its salty, spicy and contains agnomoto so I decide to use this too…..That means I must not use too many chilies and not use any salt at all…..

I quickly slice the cucumber and tomatoes and keep it aside to go with the rice dish….

Then the cooking begins

Step one:

Crush 3 garlic pods with 3 dried red chilies in the pestle.

Step two:

Slice one medium onion, one medium tomato, one medium capsicum, 2 green chilies, 6 olives

Step three:

Heat one tbsp olive oil and fry the crushed garlic and red chilies, add onions, tomatoes, capsicum, and 1 cup cooked rice, stir well

Step four:

Add the Chowmein Masala, and 4-5 lime leaves, mix and then add corn flour solutions (1 tbsp cornflour to 1/2cup water) Stir till the sauce thickens.

Step five:

Add the chopped black olives.

Step Six:

Transfer the stew rice in the plate, arrange the cucumber and tomatoes

Click the picture for your FB profile to share with your friends whom you didn't invite and sit down to eat…hot, hot…

You may have a cup of green tea if you find the masala too hot……just tissue to wipe the nose will not suffice.......

Khichri. A Complete Meal by Itself

“Kya Birbal ki khichri paka rahe ho?”

How often had you heard this comment whenever you were slow in getting the work done?

Well, according to the legend, during the time of Nawabs in Awadh, Birbal, one of the wisest and the wittiest men in the court of the grand Mughals had taken infinitely long time to cook a perfect khichri. It had to take long because he had substituted almonds slivers for rice and pistachio granules for the green moong lentils.  

That rich khichri could pass for Mughals and elite but for a common person like me, a khichri is just the mixture of lentils and rice with the tadka of mustard seeds to be eaten with curd and papad during the time the stomach is too bad to digest any spicy food.

This delicacy is enjoyed in every culture, mostly during fast when cereals and grains are taboo and Saboodane ki khichri is preferred. In the month of Magh, it is considered obligatory for every pious Hindu to eat ‘Maash ki Khichri’ at least once during the month.

Indeed! This is one dish that is relished in all parts of India. You travel to the different parts of India, you get to see the variation of this dish. 


Go to Hyderabad, and you will be served breakfast with Khichri and Kheema, go to Rajasthan and you will have an unusual Baajre ki Khichri served with glass of Lassi, In Bengal it has its own version of Khichuri  ritually prepared in a celebratory way which is in no way inferior to pulav or briyani.

And this exactly is the dish I enjoy during DeviMata festival, when I go for langar (community meals) and this delicious kitchri is served with fried eggplant, lime pickle, and rosgollas.

It’s easy to make too

All we need is the right ingredients and the will to cook

Step one

Soak the mixture of 1 cup rice and 1 cup moong dhal for half an hour

Step two

Collect all the ingredients.

Step three

In a pan, heat 1 tbsp oil, add 2 bay leaves, 1 inch cinnamon sticks, 2 split green cardamoms, 2 cloves, 1 tsp cumin seeds, 1 tsp crushed garlic, 1 tsp crushed ginger, 3 chopped green chilies, stir and add 1 finely chopped onions, 1 chopped carrot, 1 chopped potato, 100gms peas, 2 finely chopped tomatoes.

Step four

Add the mixture of soaked rice and lentil, add salt, 1 tsp turmeric powder, 1 tsp garam masala, 1 tsp red chilie powder,  mix and add 2 glasses of water and let it cook

Step five

Mash it when cooked; keep it covered on a low flame for 5 minutes

Garnish with lime juice and coriander leaves

Serve with deep fried eggplant and deep fried rice wafers.

Remember: Khichdi can made into a gooey texture, a porridge like consistency, by increasing the quantity of water by approx 2-4 cups

Vegetarian Risotto

Italian Restaurants are good for Pizzas or Pastas. I am happy to munch on garlic bread and try few starters with assorted sauces and pesto’s.

But I have never really relished risotto because I find them too bland and too rich with butter and cheese. I have seen people dumping various sauces to improve its taste, to suit their palate, but eventually, destroying the authenticity of a real risotto dish.

A properly cooked risotto is normally rich and creamy, still has some resistance or bite and should have separate grains. Its’ traditional texture is fairly fluid but still not too watery like a broth. It is served on a flat dish and it should easily spread out but should not have excess watery liquid around the perimeter.

The rice that is used in this recipe is short-grained type which has good absorbing properties, has an ability to release starch to make it stickier than the normal rice, giving it a creamier effect.

Italians use rice like carnaroli because this variety of rice keeps its shape better than other forms of rice during the slow cooking, that is required for making risotto .

For me, a rich dish is rich if it contains not only assorted vegetables but also the right quantity of cheese and olive oil. A tasty dish for me is one that is spicy too. 

Normally, in a traditional risotto, they use wine and vegetable/meat stock to cook rice, but I have not used wine, (wanted to make it completely vegetarian) and also have used vegetable stock ‘cubes’ instead of vegetable stock that they normally make.

Oh! And yes, I love green chilies.

Since no restaurant will serve me the way I like, I prefer making it on my own.

What you need to prepare before cooking

As usual, chop all the vegetables required for this dish and bring out all the other ingredients from shelves or fridge or wherever you have stored them......

5-6 garlic pods, 

1/2 inch ginger, 

2 green chilies, 

1 vegetable stock cube, 

1 cup rice.

2 tbsp olive oil

5-6 mushrooms, 

1 carrot, 

1 medium green capsicum, 

1 medium Zacchini, 

1 medium red capsicum, 

1 tsp dried basil leaves

1 tsp 5-spice-powder

1 tsp red chilly flakes

1 tbsp black pepper sauce

10-12 olives, 

1 cup grated cheese,

So now that you are ready, lets begin.

Step 1

Pound garlic, ginger and green chilies in the mortar

Step 2

Fry the garlic, ginger and chili in olive oil

Step 3

Add rice and vegetable stock cube and toast it well

Step 4

Add water, let it cook on slow flame.

Step 5

In a separate pan, stir fry vegetables in olive oil 

Step 6

Add basil leaves, red chilly flakes, 5 spice powder, black pepper sauce and salt.

Step 7

Transfer the stir fried veggies into the rice pan

Step 8

Mix it well and add 1 more cup of water and let it cook till the rice is tender.

Step 8

Remove from flame and add grated cheese and chopped olives, mix it well.

It must be eaten at once as it continues to cook in its own heat and can become too dry with the grains too soft.

Hope you like it. I had made chilies in vinegar, which tasted quite good when I sprinkled on it.