I was waiting to post this recipe here for last couple of days. Today while typing it, I wasn’t sure if I had to translate the name of the dish to English. Many times when I translate it, I feel I am beating the name to death, it just takes away the unique mouth watering feeling that we get when hearing the name of dish that we grew up eating. So I am leaving it alone for now.
For those who do not know about it – Chivda is usually a spicy mixture, made of beaten rice( poha ) or puffed rice( murmura/chirmure ), having lots of peanuts, dalia etc. It is a dry mixture, so usually people make it in large quantities and store for later use. Chivda at my home always meant either this Konkani version or poha upkari . But I had tasted this another version which had less spices which my friends used to carry when we were in hostel.
Couple of months ago, our dear friend Sunil got married and now I have a very dear friend here. His wife P and I are parteners in crime now :). There are times when we go on and on and on talking for a long time. We get together quite often either at their home or our home. Though she claims she does not know much cooking, she dishes out these mouth watering items very often. A couple of days ago she sent me this chivda . I simply loved it. I have tasted it innumerable times before during my hostel days and had never liked it, because the poha always was too chewy or the spice was not right or salt was not distributed properly. But P’s version was perfectly done. It was very crispy and what I liked most about it was, she had used a combination of poha and chirmure .
Then I asked her for the recipe and I have made it atleast 3-4 times in last 2 weeks now. I can say I am addicted to it because first of all, this is very simple to make and hardly takes any time (I take enough shortcuts while making this) and it is quite filling.
Ingredients: 2 cups thin poha 2 cups chirmure/murmura 2 tbl spns peanuts 2 tbl spns dalia 1 tbl spn dry coconut pieces 1 tea spn mustard seeds 4 green chillies 7-8 curry leaves 2 red chillies Oil A pinch turmeric Amchoor powder(optional) A pinch asafoetida(optional) Salt
Method: Roast poha and chirmure in a big pan till they crisp up. I preheated the oven to 200F for 5mins. I lined both poha and chirmure on a cookie sheet and kept it in the oven and baked it at 200F, which is the lowest heat on my oven, for 5-10mins till they crisped up. They can also be left under hot sun for couple of hours till they crisp up. Heat oil in a big pan, keep the heat to medium. Add peanuts, dalia, coconut pieces. When they are fried, add mustard seeds. Once they start popping, add curry leaves, green chillies chopped into rounds, red chillies broken into pieces, turmeric, asafoetida. (Ideally these all should be fried one after the other. But I normally do it at once). Now add amchoor powder(which gives little tangy flavor) and salt. Add poha, chirmure and mix well. Take off the heat. Cool to room temperature and then store in an air tight container.
Preparation time: 30mins (including the initial roasting/baking time)
PS: – Salt can be added to the seasoning or after adding the poha/chirmure . My cousin Usha gave me a tip to add it in seasoning so that it gets evenly distributed. – Be very careful whie adding salt. Sometimes, the salt stays at the botton even after mixing and it becomes very salty. So I mix it well by shaking the container before serving. – Do not store it while it is still hot. It should come to room temparature and then it can be stored. Otherwise it gets chewy.
We grow many things in our backyard – decorative plants, flower plants, vegetables, medicinal plants etc. This year when Shilpa visited us, she took pictures of as many different plants as possible. She asked me to write a little about each one. I thought of starting the series with nutmeg. We have a big nutmeg tree in our front yard.
Nutmeg has male and female trees. It was told in earlier days that one should grow both male and female trees to get the fruits. In our courtyard, there is only one tree – possibly female – which gives good yield. The tree needs a lot of water during summer(March to May). Few years back, we used to have water problem during summer because of which, we hardly used to get any fruits. We had considered removing this tree. But these days the condition has improved, so we get good crop.
Nutmeg looks like an arecanut/beatlenut fruit. The tree looks like the tree of kokum . It bears hundreds of fruits at a time.
When the fruit is tender, the mace( japatri ) has white colour. After full ripening – usually in June or July, the fruit breaks open and the nutmeg inside covered with reddish mace( japatri ) in the manner of net all around, appears. We pick them at this stage.
We separate mace from nutmeg and sundry them separately. The outer light colored shell is discarded (many people eat these, but we never ate them or used them in food). Thus we get two types of condiments in a single tree. The colour of mace remains red after sundrying. It looses its colour if it is over dried. The proper colour vanishes after storing for a long time. It is a cumbersome procedure to dry these nutmeg and mace as they ripen in rainy season and if they are not dried properly, they get spoiled. When the nutmeg is dried completely, we can hear a rattling sound when the fruit is shaken. While using in food, the outer black colored shell is broken to get the actual spice.
Nutmeg and mace are valuable because of their oily contents which are rich in chemicals like myristic acid compounds. Mace contains more chemicals than nutmeg and hence it is costlier. Indonesian nutmegs contain about 9% chemicals while the rest contain 2 -3% chemicals.
Nutmeg and mace are used in many no vegetarian preparations, bakery products, chewing gums, sweet dishes and soups. It has got some medicinal value. Nutmeg is applied externally to remove pain and swelling.
Though nutmeg is an expensive spice to buy, we feel it is not a profitable tree for us. When it is sold, we get quite a low rate since shop keepers usually buy it in kilos and it is a very light spice. We usually give it away to relatives and friends. Only if we manage to save some and dry them well, we sell them.
Apart from being a very useful tree, we all have emotional attachment to this tree. When my children were kids, they loved to play under this tree. They loved to pick nutmeg and also loved to play with the shells. Everyone who comes to our home, asks about this tree because it is quite unusual for many. In June, July when it bears fruits, we get to see very beautiful (and unusual to our area) birds on this tree. I think they come there to eat the fruit. They take many fruits and sometimes we find the fruits even in our neighbors backyards.
