Konkani Kalele Phovu

Hello everyone! I wanted to start the new year off right with an easy Konkani breakfast recipe. This is a common dish in the coastal regions of India, where coconut and rice are staples. Hope 2025 is treating you well. Where I am, the mornings are sweater weather, but the afternoons are warm enough to ditch the sweater!

Ingredients:

Flattened Rice/ Thin Poha/ Phovu - about 3 cups

Fresh or Frozen Shredded Coconut - about 3/4 cup

Mustard Seeds/ Sasam - 1/2 tsp

Fresh Green Chilies - 4

Curry Leaves/Kadipata - a sprig

Asafoetida/ Hing - 1/4 tsp

Jaggery or Sugar - 1/4 tsp

Oil - about 2 tsp

Salt

Mixture or Farsaan or Shev

How to make Konkani Kaloun Pho:

• Thaw the frozen coconut.
• In a mixing bowl, add coconut and flattened rice. 
• In a small pan, heat the oil for phann or tadka or tempering. Add mustard seeds, medium chopped green chilies, curry leaves and asafoetida. Turn off the heat when mustard seeds start spluttering. 
• Pour this tadka in the mixing bowl. Add salt and sugar. Stir with a spoon. When it slightly cools down, start mixing and mashing with your hand. That mashing gives it the name Kalele Pho. Check for seasonings.
• Add more coconut to soften the poha. You can use dry red chilies instead of green chilies. There are many variations to this dish. Finely chopped red onions can also be added.
• Serve Phovu with a crunchy mixture or farsaan or shev.