I am sad and not in the right mood to concentrate on sharing a recipe post with you all today..... Ask me why? The ever graceful Indian actress Vidya Balan was in the island last evening and I did not even know though I follow her page just to see how beautifully she presents herself. There is some collaborative fair going on between the Government of the island and that of India... oh what a miss! Then yesterday was Akshay Kumar's birthday too and his multitalented wife Twinkle Khanna wished him in style.
Off course CHIREY BADAM BHAJA is not a kind of dish to wish happy birthday to the Bollywood hero, but it is something the couple of this humble home enjoys with tea or coffee on weekends while watching some good movies. The hero's wife did not follow her famous parent's footsteps and appeared in few movies.... but wow.... she reads, writes, travels and makes beautiful perfumed candles along with her mom and sister since childhood. When did I start liking her?.... When I read she told her husband they would not have a second child unless they do some meaningful cinema.... isn't that an inspiration enough to go and get the country's most prestigious award.... besides the sheer hard work? My co-blogger friends will be happy to know the glamorous Twinkle's husband and son cooks too... unlike me she has trained her boys well.... if only the world knew what material my boys are... impossible is the right word. Anyways, I know the couple are blessed with a daughter and their son studies in one of the prestigious IB schools of the island.... I definitely should not go public with the name of the school.
Neither my heart throb Vidya Balan nor the uber urban, happening Twinkle Khanna and her husband eat CHIREY BADAM BHAJA as their evening snacks .... our son will not even touch it. Then the mother will not share his favourite grilled chicken or spicy boneless fish or paneer tikka today, she is extremely unhappy since yesterday post the parent's teacher meet ..... the son had always been favourite with his teachers because he was / is well behaved at school and as they say he is fairly intelligent... No that is not making the mom happy.... she wants a consistent reflection of that in the report card.... in one test he is scoring full marks and then coming down in the next. The mom is getting panicky now with only six month left for his 10th board examination. Anyways my literature loving friends will be happy to know that his teachers say he writes pretty good English in spite of the mother been poor in both written and spoken and cleverly plays with few words given her limited vocabulary. Now to some, do not shower on me on this issue, we need to know English as it is the language of communication in the present day world. Not knowing it well is never a 'crime' but the 'need' to know it is undeniable.
Coming to the point, why is the wife who is an angry bird towards the husband when it comes to strategise the son's study plan goes ahead with the duo's favourite weekend evening snacks CHIREY BADAM BHAJA that her mother used to prepare for her kids? Well her man confessed to the teachers yesterday that the son went after him, overconfident enough to think he knows everything and can do away with minimal studies....mistakes need not be repeated..... Oh finally! .... and yeah the teachers told the 10th board examination marks will be taken into consideration while seeking admission in college.... the father cannot say now.... S stop it.... marks do not matter that much in life! The son's mother does not want him to stray as his mother did. His mother was below average but could polish herself a little more if she had given some effort.
Coming back to food again, our mother used to prepare chirey bhaja or poha / chivda / flattened rice / beaten rice fry two ways.... one is this and another one was a sweet one which will be shared later. This particular dish is done with flattened rice, peanuts, green pea, toasted coconut, dry red chilli flakes, chopped green chillies, cashew nuts, nigella seeds. This goes very well with your evening cuppa of tea or coffee....
Shall we do the snacks together with all the available ingredients in the kitchen and with a bit more of patience?.... That is required as we need to stir for sometime to get that crispiness... we are not deep frying it in a lot of oil. Life is short enjoy 'been together' and 'being in each other'.... both ways it is beautiful haha.... we do not need to kiss and smooch each other for that ... there are many ways to show that but then that is a silly romantic , a dumbo saying it !
INGREDIENTS :
Roasted Peanut : 1 tbsp
Cashew nut : 5-6 halved
Green Pea : 2 tbsp
Dry Red Chilli Flake : 1/2 tsp
Green Chilli : 1-2chopped
Onion : 1small chopped [optional]
Salt : As Required
Nigella Seed : 1/4tsp
Oil : 3tbsp
METHOD :
For this dish we will not wash the flattened rice but lightly seive it. We will get all of the ingredients ready on our work station.
Heat the oil in a wok or pan, temper with the nigella seeds! We will add the washed, sliced onion & stir fry for 3-4 minutes! We will add the washed & chopped green chillies, cashew nuts and peanuts in batches, stir for a minute! We will add the green peas & stir fry for 3-4 minutes!
Thereafter, we will add the beaten rice. Here is where we require some patience, we need to keep stirring at minimal heat continuously as we want our chivda / poha / aval snacks to remain crisp for some hours.
Add the salt & red chilli flakes to the mixture, keep stirring for another 3-4 minutes, we should be done.
Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with coriander leaves, enjoy fresh with tea or coffee! If we skip the onion part we can store the beaten rice snack mixture in an air tight container for sometime without refrigeration!
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