Breakfast for mommy

This morning, for a change, I decided to cook an Indian breakfast for myself. Tired of making pancakes, waffles or french toast on Sunday mornings, I decided it would be Poori-Sabzi day. Why? Because I wanted to eat it.

Sabzi, is Hindi for vegetables and is often used in colloquial language to describe some kind of vegetable dish that is eaten with some form of Indian bread. This morning the lucky vegetable was potato. Poori, is a round deep-fried Indian bread, the making of which, is a very complicated process of dough making and rolling. But thanks to a very dear friend of mine, I learnt the quick way of preparing this at home. Although the shape of the poori was not round in this case, it tasted equally good. Anurupa, this is for you!

Ingredients:
Frozen uncooked wheat flour tortillas
1 big russet potato
Onion seeds - a pinch
Shallot -1 chopped
Thai green chillies - 5-6
Olive oil - 5-6 tbsp
Turmeric - 0.5 tsp
Paprika - 0.25 tsp or a pinch
Salt to taste
Oil to deep fry poori

While hubby kept the toddler busy with a sticker book, I quickly chopped the shallot and slivered the russet potato. There are several varieties of potatoes in the world. Trial and error has taught me which potato to use for which kind of recipe. I have found that russet potatoes are great for any fried type of cooking as they soften and cook easily. Red potatoes are great for curries whereas yukon gold fingerlings are awesome for roasting.

On heating the olive oil in a deep dish pan, I added the onion seeds, green chillies and chopped shallots. After cooking the shallots for about 5 minutes, I added the russet potato, salt, turmeric and paprika and let it cook on medium heat covered. I needed to stir it from time to time to ensure it did not get burnt or stuck to the pan.

While this was cooked halfway, I heated oil in a mini-wok. Using a pizza cutter, the frozen tortilla were quartered. When the oil was hot enough so that I could see the vapors, I reduced the heat a bit and fried each quarter of the tortilla one by one to golden brown. On pressing the air bubbles inside the dough piece slightly, the bread becomes puffed. Both sides needed to be fried.

The breakfast was ready in a matter of 20 minutes and mommy had a very satisfactory breakfast today. Daddy joined the feast as well. Did the kiddo eat it? Ofcourse she did! Anything that is not made exclusively for her is well accepted. I can tell she liked it from her nodding -- I know that is the maximum appreciation I am going to get for now :-)