SOYA-PEAS FRY


SOYA-PEAS FRY

The inspiration for this recipe was from the magazine Aval Vikatan. When we were in Hyderabad, I used to purchase these magazines just for the free cooking booklets issues that come with it. Those collections were a good source, usually the booklets contain around 30 recipe for specialties like dhals, curies, side dishes etc. Coming to the recipe, I tried this from a gravy special issue but somehow I screwed up the recipe and in the end I had to fry everything to a dry form to bring it to something at least looking good to the eye. Then wonders of wonders this turned out to be real good. We had this with idlis and dosas that day but this goes well with rotis too. I used soya nuggets here instead soya granules because cleaning the soya granules was a bit tough as the little granules went down the sink when I rinsed them. Rinsing the nuggets and then mincing them to fine granules works out well for me.

INGREDIENTS
Soya nuggets around 1 cup.
Onions, large-1.
Tomatoes, medium sized-2.
Ginger-garlic paste- 1 teaspoon.
Chili powder.
Fennel seeds-1 teaspoon.
Garam masala (optional, tastes good even without garam masala).
Salt, as per taste.
Peas (frozen or dried peas cooked well)- ½ cup.

METHOD
Take a cup of soy nuggets and put them in boiling water for 2 minutes until the nuggets are puffed up. Let the, sit for 5 minutes, then rinse them well, drain them, and cut into very fine pieces or they can be minced well using a blender. Take care not to make them into a paste, just one or two pulses in the blender will be fine. In case dried peas are used for the recipe, soak them for 6-8 hours and cook them (or frozen peas can be used). Chop the onions and tomatoes into small pieces. Heat a kadai and add 1 tablespoon of oil. Add the fennel seeds and let them fry for a few seconds, then add the onions, and later the tomatoes when the onions have turned brown. When the onions and tomatoes are sautéed well and blended together, add a teaspoon of ginger-garlic paste and sauté for a minute. Then add a tablespoon of chili powder and garam masala and required salt and let the spices fry for a minute on a low flame. Add around 3 tablespoons of water and add the granules and peas and cook them closed on low flame around 5-8 minutes till they turn dry. Turn off the heat, add cilantro and curry leaves on top and serve with rotis, idlis, and dosas.

VARIATIONS:
Fried paneer cubes can be added at the end.

3 comments:

Veda said...

Hi gita...first time to ur blog.....u have some interesting recipes here....i love this one particularly.....soya...not a very big of fan of soya....but this one is a sure try....

Veda

Ramya Bala said...

Hi fist time here..u have lovely blog..keep in touch

Devasena Hariharan said...
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