Potatoes are the ultimate comfort food dish permeating across borders, cultures and ethnicity. Every cuisine (except east asian where rice dominates), has a potato based staple. I especially love the extremely easy to make Indian Potato masala served with the delectable Poori. Pooris are fried, puffed and crispy Indian bread made with whole wheat grain. The best part of this dish is that it can be served at any time of the day and is equally delicious as a breakfast or as dinner.

This recipe is an inspiration from my Amma. Potato masala is ridiculously easy. The only two major ingredients needed are Potatoes and Onions. So just to add some more nutrients into this dish, I decided to grate some carrots and boil some green peas to give it some colour. I always make sure that I boil the peas here, otherwise I find them to remain quite hard even after cooking. You can also add red or green pepper but I didn’t have any handy. I quickly boiled and mashed the potatoes into thick lumps. Meanwhile, I made a tadka (saute) of mustard seeds, green chillis, ginger and onion. I then added the masalas and after a quick mix I just dumped the grated carrots, peas and mashed potatoes.

I always have whole wheat dough ready as Roti is staple in my home. So I just had to make small balls of wheat, roll them into small discs and fry them in hot oil.

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Potato and Green Peas Masala
Cooking Time: 10 mins
Prep Time: 10 mins
Servings: 3-4
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Ingredients:
3 large Potatoes, boiled and coarsely mashed
1 large Red Onion, peeled and sliced into long pieces
1 Carrot, peeled and grated
1 cup boiled Peas
2-3 Green Chillies, chopped finely
½ tsp Ginger, finely chopped
Salt to taste

Spices:
½ tsp Haldi/Turmeric Powder
½ tsp Red Chilli Powder
½ tsp Coriander Powder

Tempering:
1 tsp Mustard Seeds
1 tsp Urad Dal
A pinch of Hing/Asafoetida
½ tbsp Oil
Few Curry Leaves

Method:
Heat oil in a pan and add the Mustard seeds. When they splutter and the noise dies out add the split Urad Dal and Asafoetida. Add the curry leaves as soon as the dal turns a light red tinge.
Add the Green Chillies and the ginger and let that cook for a couple of minutes before adding in the Red Onions. Cook the Onions till they become translucent and then add in all the spices (Turmeric, Coriander and Red Chilli Powder) and Salt.
Add the grated Carrots and boiled Peas and allow it to cook for a couple of minutes and then add the mashed Potatoes and mix well till all the spices have blended in.
Enjoy Potato Masala with the delicious Poori

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Poori
Cooking Time: 10 mins
Prep Time: 15 mins
Servings: 20
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Ingredients:
2 cups whole what flour
¾-1 cup warm water
Salt to taste
2-3 Cups Oil (to deep fry)

Method:
In an large mixing bowl, add the flour, salt and ½ cup of warm water. Mix these ingredients.
Slowly add the remaining water, a little at a time and knead until it forms a firm dough.
Make small balls and apply a little bit of oil to these balls. Roll them into small flat discs. Make sure that they aren’t too thin or the discs aren’t too big.
Heat oil and deep fry the Pooris one at a time. Press down slightly with the back of the ladle to make the Pooris puff.
Flip the Pooris over once and drain them on paper towels
Serve immediately with Potato Masala.

I wasn’t too sure what ingredients I needed to bake one and I was in no mood to run to the grocery store. So I wanted a recipe that would use only the ingredients I had at hand.Thus began my intensive search for the perfect recipe. My first chef of choice was Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa). I absolutely love her style of cooking and her recipes (even though she’s very generous with the cream and butter). However, I couldn’t find one out there. So I started searching randomly on the web and stumbled upon this recipe.

I tweaked it just a little bit to make just one loaf, but it made some great banana bread.

Recipe:

Banana Bread

Adapted from: Oui Chef

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 stick butter
• 1.5 cups coarsely mashed very ripe bananas (about 3 over ripe bananas)
• 1/4 cup greek style yoghurt or sour cream or applesauce
• 1 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/4 cup walnuts (2 ounces), toasted and chopped
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup raisins

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 1 (9- by 5 inch) metal loaf pan, dust it with flour, knocking out excess.

• Sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt into a bowl.

• Beat together eggs and sugar in bowl of electric mixer with a whisk attachment at medium-high speed until very thick and pale, and the mixture forms a ribbon when the beater is lifted (around 10 minutes). Reduce speed to low and add butter in a slow stream, mixing, then mix in bananas, sour cream and vanilla. Remove bowl from mixer and fold in flour mixture and dried fruits and nuts gently but thoroughly.

• Pour batter into the loaf pans, spread evenly, and bake in the lower third of the oven until golden brown and a wooden pick or skewer comes out clean, 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Insert toothpick in the banana bread after about 50 minutes.

• Cool loaves in pans on a rack 10 minutes, then turn out onto rack. Turn loaves right side up and cool completely.

Did you know

Banana is one of the only plant where all parts are used.

• The Flower The flower of the banana plant (also known as banana blossom) is either served raw or steamed with dips or cooked in soups and curries.
• The Trunk The tender core of the banana plant’s trunk is also used in Telugu, Bengali and Kerala cooking. The juice extract prepared from the tender core is used to treat kidney stones and high blood pressure.
• The Fruit Bananas are also eaten deep fried, made into a jam, cooked in curries, baked in their skin in a split bamboo, or steamed in rice wrapped in a banana leaf, glutinous rice wrapped in a banana leaf. In Burma, bunches of green bananas surrounding a green coconut in a tray form an important part of traditional offerings to the Buddha.
• The Leaves Banana leaves are often used as ecologically friendly disposable food containers or as “plates”. Steamed with dishes it imparts a subtle sweet flavour. It is often also seen used as a wrapping for grilling food and as such it contains the juices and prevents the food from getting burned whilst at the same time giving off a subtle flavour.