Poori, Pitla and Tomato Shorva

Every Saturday morning, it is always, Pooris for Breakfast, Honey? To go with the pooris, it is either tomato shorva or chicken shorva. A few weeks ago, I was on phone with my sister-in-law.  We talked about my blog and then she asked what we had for lunch. When I told her what we had for brunch, she was curious if i would put that in my blog.  I said, I might and then she suggested pooris & pitla.  She suggested doing a combination like poori and pitla.  The only problem was, I never made pitla before, although I had an idea how it is prepared.   When growing up it was always potato and poori or shorva and poori combination and now it is always shorva and poori.  I searched for pitla recipes online, but did not find what I was looking for.  So, I called up one of our aunt’s cook in India and got the recipe from him.  I made it for brunch this past Saturday.

Poori

Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Yields: 15

• 1 cup Wheat flour or Atta Flour
• Pinch of Salt
• Oil for deep frying

• Mix salt and flour and make a dough using some water. Let it sit for at least 10 minutes before rolling out the pooris. Meantime, we can prepare the curry for the pooris.
• Make small balls from the dough and using some flour or oil, roll the small dough balls into a circle. During my last visit to India, my mom had a new method to make pooris. She rolled the dough into a big circle like a roti and cut it into 4 quarters. She says this method is faster.
• Deep fry the poories in hot oil. Make sure oil is very hot to avoid oily pooris. Remove from oil and drain the pooris on a paper towel.
• Serve hot with pitla, tomato shorva or chicken shorva.

Pitla
Pitla is a potato and onion curry made with a gram flour or besan base.

Total Time:20 Minutes
Serves: 4-5

• 1 tbsp Oil
• 1 tsp Urad Dal
• ½ tsp Mustard Seeds
• ½ Jeera
• 5 Green Chilies chopped
• 1 Big Onion sliced and diced or 2 cups of cut Onions
• 1 Potato cut in to small pieces or 1 cup cut Potato pieces
• ½ tsp Turmeric Powder
• 2 tbsp Gram Flour or Besan
• ¼ cup Milk (opt)
• Salt to Taste
• Cilantro for garnish

• In a pan heat oil. Add mustard, urad dal and jeera. When mustard starts to pop and splutter, add onion and fry until translucent. Add potatoes and turmeric powder and cook until potatoes are ¾th cooked. Add a little water if the curry is burning.
• Mix besan with some water or milk. Add this mixture to the potaoes and stir well. Add 2 cups of water, cover the pan and cook until potatoes completely cooked and very soft and mushy.
• Continue to cook the pitla until the liquid or the sauce thickly coats the spoon.
• Garnish with Cilantro.

Tomato Shorva

Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Serves: 3-4

• 2-3 tbsp Oil
• ¼ tsp Fenugreek or Methi Powder (opt)
• 2 Cardamoms (opt)
• 1 Clove (opt)
• ½ tsp Saha Jeera (opt)
• ¼ “ Cinnamon Stick (opt)
• ½ Small Onion chopped
• 1 tsp Ginger Garlic Paste
• 4 Green Chilies split into 2 (adjust to taste)
• 1 tsp Coriander Powder
• 1 tsp Chili Powder
• ½ tsp Turmeric Powder
• 3 Boiled Eggs (opt)
• ¼ cup Frozen Lima Beans (opt)
• 3 Medium Tomatoes Sliced (I use Vine tomatoes)
• 1 tbsp Milk or Yogurt
• Cilantro for Garnish

• Boil the eggs, peal and make small cuts on the eggs ot pierce them with a fork.
• In a pan heat oil, add methi powder and whole garam masala (cardamoms, cloves, cinnamon, saha jeera) if using.
• Add oinions and cook until they are translucent.
• Add ginger garlic paste and green chilies and cook for a minute, until chilies change color and ginger garlic paste is roasted.
• Add coriander powder, chili powder, turmeric and salt. Stir well.
• Add boiled eggs and lima beans and continue to cook for a minute, until the spices coat the egg.
• Add tomatoes, stir it and cook covered until tomatoes are tender and soft. If using yogurt, mix it with tomatoes before cooking the tomatoes.
• Add 1 – 1 ½ cups of water and mix well. If using milk, add it at this point. Mix well and bring it to a boil.
• Simmer for 5-10 minutes and garnish with cilantro.
• Serve with hot pooris or rice.

• I use vine tomatoes. These tomatoes are sour, so I normally use milk. For those of you who like sour shorva, use yogurt. And also if using roma tomatoes or any other variety of tomatoes that are not sour in taste, use yogurt.
• If shorva is very liquidy, add some coriander powder or dry coconut powder 5 minutes before removing it from the heat or flame.
• Lima beans can be substituted with green peas. Other vegetables that can be added to the shorva are potatoes, bottle gourd or lauki.