Diwali Namkeen- Pova Chivda.

"Chewda" as it is popularly called at my home is a perfect low calorie, healthy snack to munch on anytime. It is particularly made during Diwali/Deepavali in many households. The pova/ rice flakes can be replaced by corn flakes in this mixture to make a Cornflake mixture- the recipe of which i will be posting soon..

In spite of addition of dry coconut/copra flakes, I make it sure to add some freshly grated coconut scrapings; just before eating to enhance the taste of this mixture. It makes an excellent accompaniment with Upma/ Chow chow bhath as well. I prefer to have it with tea as an evening snack.

Pova Chivda/ Phova Chewda-

Ingredients-
                     1/2 kg of thin pova/ phova/ rice flakes.
                     1 cup/ 1 pav of peanuts/ groundnuts.
                     1/4 cup of roasted gram/ hurigadale/ pottukadale.
                     1/4 cup of dry coconut/copra flakes.
                     10-15 cashewnuts.
                     25-30 golden raisins.
                     4- 5 sticks of fresh curry leaves.
                     2 tsp of mustard seeds.
                     1 tsp of turmeric powder/haldi.
                     2 tbsp of red chilli powder.
                     2 tbsp of sugar.
                     2 tbsp of table salt.
                     4 tbsp of cooking oil.

Procedure-

• Start making chewda by measuring the required amount of ingredients & keep everything ready.
• We need to lightly dry roast the required amount of peanuts & de-skin them. You can make them into halves as well.
• The cashewnuts can be halved or quarted as well.
• Chop & keep the dry copra flakes aside.
• In a small bowl, mix turmeric powder, red chilli powder, sugar & salt. Keep aside.
• In a kadai, lightly roast the pova in batches using about 2 tablespoons of cooking oil.
• Take the roasted pova in a large bowl & immediately mix the powders when the pova is warm to touch. All the pova should be coated by the powder-mixture.
• In the same kadai, heat the remaining cooking oil & roast mustard seeds, curry leaves, copra flakes,peanuts, cashewnuts, hurigadale in the same order; one after the other. There is no need to roast them separately.
•  Add the roasted pova to the mixture & lightly turn over in the kadai.
• Once everything gets mixed well; roast the golden raisins with a little oil in a separate kadai - till they puff up & add to the above mixture.
• Mix everything throughly once again & allow it to cool down to room temperature.
• Store in an air tight container. Stays good for a month.
• Serve with freshly grated coconut scrapings.