MBP- June GOING LITE WITH KURMURA CHIWDA

ATTACK OF THE MUNCHIES!!! here I go again... at regular intervals I get this terrible urge to munch.. munch... munch... especially after work! When Coffee announced this month's theme of going 'light' after feasting on sweets.. I browsed around till I came to this recipe from Kitchen Aromas and Roopa's version of this chiwda was just what I was looking for!

It also brought back days of childhood, when I'd come back after school, fling my satchel, pluck shoes and socks (eewww!!) chuck them into some corner and head straight to the kitchen (so who washes their hands!!!) and raid the shelves for whatever I could lay my hands on. With no parental control (both parents were working) I would eat anything and everything that was there.. Thus satiated, I would kick up a fuss at dinnertime, making sick faces at the vegetables and roti.

Fed up with my behaviour, Mom brought fruit , made some item like poha/ upma for me and kept it ready for me for after school, but that did not help, I would still climb up on the chair, reach out to the shelves and pig out!

My father used to get every 2nd. and 4th. Saturday off, from work and so on one such Saturday, he made Kurmura chiwda for me.. this was something after my heart!! My Dad is a fairly good cook and I enjoyed watching him pottering about the kitchen. So on that Saturday he plonked me on one end of the cooking platform, 'ota' as it is called in Marathi and got together all the stuff he needed and within minutes my 'khau' was ready!

I made some changes to Roopa's recipe and modelled it as per my Dad's version

1 packet Kurmura/ Mamri

1/2 cup raw Peanuts

1/4 cup Dalia / DaLa (Marathi word)

6 Green Chillies ( +/- to taste)

3 Dry Red chillies

1 tsp each, mustard and cumin seeds

~20 Curry Leaves

1/2 tsp asafetida/ hing

Turmeric ( I did not measure this, so approx. 1 tsp)

2 tbsp. Oil

Salt & sugar to taste

Assemble all the ingredients. Chop the green chillies, wash and pat dry the curry leaves. Break the red chilly into two.

Heat oil in a kadhai/ wok. Add the raw peanuts and dalia, once they turn light golden brown, add mustard seeds and jeera/ cumin seeds. Add the asafetida. Pitch in the green chilly, red chilly and curry leaves. Saute them till they look crunchy. Add Turmeric. Add the kurmura, mix thoroughly. Add salt and sugar. Mix. At this point switch off the stove. let the chiwda cool, store in an airtight container. Munch when u feel like it!!

A variation to this can be... add some farsan, finey chopped onion and tomato, squeeze lemon juice ( and small bits of raw mango, when in season) Garnish with cilantro... u have 'sukha bhel' ready!!!