Masala Pori (Puffed Rice)

A few days ago, it was a little cold and I was trying to decide what to make for our evening snack. I could only think of various pakora and bajji options, all of which are of course deep fried. I finally decided to make masala pori. I decided to start making it just a few minutes before my husband would reach, so that we could have it warm.  Meanwhile, I got a call from Gomathi and she said, “Hey, suggest some evening snack without onion, garlic and preferably not fried.” We started discussing various options but nothing seemed to work out and she finally said, “Maybe I’ll make masala pori.” So we decided to make the same snack that evening. She also suggested making fried aval. The concept sounded interesting, but since I wanted to avoid a completely fried snack, I decided to fry just a handful of aval and mix it with the pori.

Ingredients (Serves 3-4)

Pori/puffed rice – 3 cups

Turmeric powder – 1-1 ½ tsps

Chilli powder/red chillies to taste

Salt to taste

Curry leaves

Split chickpeas / roasted peanuts – ½ cup

Chat masala (optional) – 1 tsp

Fried Aval/rice flakes – 1 c(optional)

Oil

Method

Fried Aval (rice flakes)

Heat oil and deep fry the aval. The process is very quick and will hardly take a minute or so. Make sure it does not turn brown. Remove onto a paper towel to drain the excess oil and then add to the masala pori. It adds a nice crunch to the masala pori. 

Masala Pori

Heat a little oil in a wide pan (I use olive oil). Keeping it on low heat, add turmeric powder, curry leaves, red chillies (if using chilli powder, add later) and split chickpeas/roasted peanuts and sauté well. Once the curry leaves are nicely coated with the turmeric powder, add the pori, salt and chilli powder and mix well till the pori turns yellow. Add the chat masala, mix well and turn off the heat. Mix in the fried aval and enjoy with a cup of hot coffee/tea. Bon Appétit.

Note – The fried aval can be had on its own, mixed with a bit of chat masala/salt/chilli powder.