CHIWDA

Serves 4 Prep time : 15 minutes Cook time: 15 minutes

2 cup Thin Poha (Flattened rice) 1 cup vegetable oil Dalia (Pandarpuri dal) 1/4 cup Peanuts

Raisins

Cashew Cinnamon Khus-Khus

Coconut Lots of Curry Leaves

Directions

1. Roast the poha on a slow flame till crisp.

2. Heat oil, fry peanuts, cashew. Add pandarpuri dal and raisins in oil for30 seconds only.

3. Keep extra oil aside.

4. In the remaining oil add mustard seeds let it crackle, add sesame seeds curry leaves, slit green chilly, khus khus.

5. Immediately take it off heat and add all ingredients to the poha.

6. Mix salt, red chilly, turmeric, powdered sugar in the poha, and mix well

5. If dry add remaining oil.

One day when I returned home from the temple, I found out just an hour before lunch that there wasn’t enough dal soaked for me to feed the entire family. In that moment I put everything in 4 pots on all stoves running and cooked a whole lunch without anyone finding about it.

From the day I got married, I had to cook for 30- 35 people on a daily basis. In the beginning it was intimidating but over a period of time it wasn’t that hard. All it required was some rules, and the optimism that it is possible. Between two of us we started taking turns and would cook two meals each day.

Always remember when you have to feed lots of people, no burner should be left unused. Heat water if you need to so you can cook something fast.