First, a word on this dish
When you need a real breakfast in under half an hour, poha is hard to beat. The rice has already been parboiled and flattened, so it needs a rinse and a few minutes in a hot pan, not any boiling, and even with the chopping the dish is done quickly. Two technique points decide how it turns out. The flakes need the right amount of rinsing, so they soften without collapsing, and they go into the pan near the end, because all they have to do is warm through and take up the flavour of the tempering.
There is also Indori poha from Madhya Pradesh, a regional favourite worth knowing even if you cook the more widespread Maharashtrian style below. It tends to be a bit sweeter and comes topped with fine sev and pomegranate seeds, and in Indore it is sold from street carts as a breakfast in its own right. This recipe gives the everyday home version eaten across Maharashtra and much of western and central India, with a note at the end on how to steer it towards Indori style.
The story behind the dish
Poha has no tidy origin story, and it would be a mistake to invent one. Flattened rice has been made in much of India for centuries as a way of keeping rice and cooking it fast, and savoury poha is an everyday staple in both Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Indore in particular built a street-food identity around its own sweeter, sev-topped version, certainly by the middle of the twentieth century. Writers on regional Indian food, K.T. Achaya among them, observe that flattened rice dishes turn up independently in many parts of the country, with different names and spicing, instead of radiating from a single starting point. That makes poha a good case of a dish that is pan-regional in outline while holding strong local identities in particular cities.
The method, in order
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Prep
Rinse the poha with care
Put the poha in a colander and hold it under running water for 15 to 20 seconds, only long enough to soften the flakes. Do not let it stand in a bowl of water, which waterlogs it and makes it pasty. Leave it in the colander for 5 minutes so it drains and keeps softening from the moisture it holds. The flakes should be tender and separate, bending without snapping, and neither wet nor clumped.
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Prep
Season the flakes directly
Sprinkle the turmeric, a little salt and the sugar onto the drained poha and toss lightly with your fingertips, without crushing the delicate flakes. Set it aside while you make the tempering.
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Cook
Fry the peanuts first
Place a wide pan over medium heat with the oil and add the raw peanuts. Stir them often and fry 2 to 3 minutes, until they turn golden and crack crisply between your teeth. Scoop them onto a plate with a slotted spatula, keeping the oil in the pan for the next step.
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Cook
Make the tempering
In that oil, put the mustard seeds, and when they pop, add the cumin seeds, curry leaves and asafoetida. Stir in the chopped onion and slit green chillies and cook over medium heat for about 4 minutes, until the onion is soft and see-through.
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Cook
Add potato if you like
Potato is optional, and plenty of households skip it, but it gives the dish body. If you use it, add it with a splash of water, put the lid on and cook over low-medium heat for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring from time to time, until a fork goes in without resistance.
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Cook
Add the poha and warm it through
Add the seasoned poha and the peanuts together. Using a folding motion, not a hard stir, turn everything over for 2 to 3 minutes on low-medium heat until it is evenly coated and hot. Check the salt.
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Serve
Finish and eat straight away
Take the pan off the heat and add the lemon juice with most of the coriander. Keep a pinch of coriander for the top. Eat it hot. For the Indori way, sprinkle fine sev and pomegranate seeds over each plate just as you serve it, so the sev stays crunchy.
Ingredient stand-ins
Thin poha can be used instead of thick, though you must rinse it more gently: just a few seconds under the tap, with no resting in the colander, since it drinks water fast and turns to paste. Roasted peanuts can go in for raw; leave out the frying and stir them in with the flakes. Carrots, peas and chopped capsicum are common next to the potato, or instead of it.
Making it milder or fiercer
Poha is normally gentle, and its heat comes only from the slit green chillies. Chop them small instead of slitting them for more heat, or omit them for a very mild plate that suits children. A pinch of red chilli powder added with the turmeric spreads the heat through the dish instead of leaving it around the whole chillies.
The slip most cooks make
Soaking or over-rinsing the poha is the usual fault, leaving it gluey and lumpy where it should be light and fluffy; a brief rinse and a rest in the colander are all it needs. Adding the poha too soon and stirring hard breaks the flakes into mush, so it goes in last and gets folded gently. And if you do not season the flakes themselves before they join the tempering, the dish tastes flat, because the flakes take on salt poorly once mixed in; salt them during the rest.
Storing what is left
Fridge or counter: Poha is a dish for eating right away. The flakes lose their texture once chilled and warmed again. If some is left over, put it in a closed container in the fridge and finish it within a day.
Bringing it back to life: Warm poha in a pan over low heat with a light sprinkle of water, covered, for a few minutes to loosen the flakes, or microwave it briefly under a damp paper towel. Either way it will be softer than freshly made poha, so it really is a dish to cook just before eating.
Handle with care
This is a dry, pan-cooked dish with no dairy or raw egg, so the risk is low. If you add potato, handle it as you would any cooked potato: cool it soon and refrigerate, rather than leaving the dish at room temperature for hours. Fry raw peanuts until properly golden and fragrant and not just warmed, for texture, since underdone peanuts taste unpleasantly raw.
Sources worth opening
- K.T. Achaya, "Indian Food: A Historical Companion" (Oxford University Press) — on flattened rice preparations developing independently across multiple regions of India.