A simple curry, ready in the time it takes rice to cook. Doesn’t need many ingredients.
Simple Okra/Bhindi With Paanch Puran
This is a simple dry side dish that comes together pretty quickly, and needs simple ingredients. This is inspired by the Bengali dish chorchori or churchuri which is made with a mix of vegetables such as pumpkin, eggplant, potatoes, and almost always spinach, but all I had was okra/bhindi, and I decided to make it with what I have. It turned out really good! The original Bengali dish uses the mix of whole spices called Paanch phoron/paanch puran which is readily available in Indian grocery stores (paanch meaning five in Hindi). The original recipe also uses the spices whole, but I modified it slightly by powdering them coarsely, and adding it at the end instead of in the initial tempering.
Tomato Rice
This is a simple, one-pot dish that comes together in about 20 minutes. Add an onion/cucumber raita (grated, finely chopped onions and cucumbers in yogurt, and seasoned simply with salt, pepper) and you get a satisfying meal in under 30 minutes. Rough equivalent of the Mexican rice!
Semiya Upma (Vermicelli Upma)
This is a quick snack/light meal literally can be made in under 15 minutes. It’s also my daughter’s favorite, and was (is) my favorite during my school/college years.
Dosa Dosa!
Does anyone not like or know about dosa? There is not much introduction needed for this much loved universally known delicious fermented “pancake” from the Indian peninsula. Without much ado, I’ll share my recipe that I’ve tweaked over 25 years with several insights from my own experiments, and advice from family members.