Huli Avalakki

It was one of those mornings when I was craving for some traditional food. It was late in the morning and I hadn’t had my breakfast yet. Wanted to make something quick and easy and what would have been better than pohe or flattened rice to come to your rescue.

The mindboggling varieties of poha

I fondly remember the food cooked by my avva (grandmother). She used to make different types of quick-fix pohas for our evening snacks. The usual Maharashtrian batate pohe or kande pohe with potatoes and/or onions. The sweet pohe with coconut and jaggery. Dadpe pohe , again a traditional Maharashtrian recipe, and then sometimes these poha recipes from her hometown: bisi neer avalakki, podi kuttida avalakki and huli avalakki. I am sure she would be knowing some other varieties too. Oh yes, how could I forget the dahi pohe and doodh pohe 🙂

There are so many varieties of recipes using the same ingredient, poha, that you will never get tired of making and enjoying them. No wonder, poha is a breakfast staple of almost every Indian household. (click here to read the health benefits of poha)

However, today when I want to replicate her lost recipes, I have to call and ask my parents or look for the recipe online. It is a joy to look up or get the recipes, replicate them and then enjoy it reminiscing about my childhood days.

Today, I am posting the recipe of huli avalakki or gojju avalakki, a sweet and sour spicy poha that will surely tempt your taste buds for more. This recipe comes together in under 10 minutes. Does not require any chopping and is no-onion no-garlic recipe.

Ingredients for Huli Avalakki for two:

Avalakki (thick poha) – 2 cups

A lemon sized tamarind soaked in water OR around 2 to 3 tbsp of tamarind pulp

Jaggery powder – 2 tsp

Sambar powder/Rasam powder/Puliyogare masala – 1.5 ti 2 tsp.

Turmeric powder – 1/4th tsp

Salt – to taste

Freshly grated coconut – 1/4th cup

For tempering:

Oil – 1 tbs

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp

chana dal – 1 tsp

udid dal – 2 tsp

Peanuts – 2 tbsp

Curry leaves – 8-10 in number

Hing – a pinch

Broken red chillies, deseeded – 2

Method:

Soak the thick poha in water and drain it immediately. Do not let it soak the water or the end result will be soggy. Take the tamarind pulp in a separate bowl and add the sambar powder, jaggery, turmeric, salt, tamarind pulp and mix it well. Make sure the jaggery gets dissolved and a slurry type mixture is formed

Mix this slurry of tamarind, jaggery and masalas with the poha well. Keep it aside.

Start the tempering. Heat the oil well in a small kadhai and add the mustards seeds first. When they start spluttering, lower the heat and add the rest of the ingredients to this tadka. Make sure the chana dal and udid dal change colour to a golden brown. Or else, they will taste raw.

Add the tempering to the poha mixture and again mix it well. If needed add little water to soften the poha. Adjust the taste to your liking by adding more of the tamarind pulp or jaggery or even the masala. Add the grated coconut to garnish and enjoy.