This is a snack present in my home all days, all seasons. It serves as a filler everytime you think "kuch khana hai". This is the most loved dish by friends and family, and mom does not even remember to how many people she has taught this one!Ingredients -
Half Kg chooda/poha/ rice flakes (the large sized lighter ones, not the thick ones we use for
poha)
4 or 5 green chilies slit length wise
Meetha neem / kari patta leaves - cleaned, in plenty
Handful moongfali dana/peanuts - raw, not roasted one
Cashews, Raisins - optional, as much as you like
Salt as per taste, a pinch of sugar
half tsp haldi
1 tsp each of jeera,rai
2 tbsp oil
Method -
1. Take a kadhai/wok and dry roast the poha/rice flakes in it on a sim flame. They will start to turn crunchy and give a typical roasted smell. If you over do it, u will notice it starts to get brown, STOP!!
2. Spread the roasted flakes on a newspaper (in India) or a kitchenpaper (in US :). This is for easy mixing later on.
3. In the same kadha/wok, heat oil. When hot, put in peanuts, cashews, raisins and shallow fry them. After 5 mins, take these out and put on the roasted flakes spread on the paper.
4. In the remaining oil, put haldi, jeera, rai, green chillis , kadi patta, cook till the green chilies look cooked, this should take 5 mins.
5. Now switch off the gas, pour this oil mixture on the spread flakes. Spread salt, sugar too.
6. Now with both your hands, mix all of it softly, lest the flakes break and becomes powdery. It all should get mixed evenly, some of the flakes remaining white, some of it getting too yellow is a bad sign. Another good thing is that excess oil will be absorbed by the paper.
7. Taste and add additional salt if you want.
8. If u think the kadi patta is too much, remove it at this step. It has already lent its flavor.
My mom removes most of it, but crushes a few and lets it remain.
9. The chiwda is ready. However, if you want, go ahead and add some plain, salted (haldirams) bhujiya to this. In typical Marathi homes, they would fry aaloo ka kees (the drie done that is prepared in homes along with aaloo ke chips) and add to this, but it increases the oil content of the whole thing.
10. A quick fix - if u think some of the poha remained white and there is too less oil in the mixture, reheat some oil in the same kadhai, add haldi and pour on the mixture, mix again.
11.Once completely cool, store in an air tight container.
