Parsi Omelette
I can’t believe it’s been almost a month since I posted to Edible Heirlooms. The long gap is in part because I’ve had my hands a little too full during the lockdown and also partially because my pantry lacked the ingredients to test out several recipes. I have however recalibrated and decided to post recipes that are easy on my pantry (and yours).
This week we’re doing a Poro - an excellent lockdown breakfast or brunch option. I don’t know where the word Poro comes from, but as far as I understand, a Poro is essentially a Parsi omelette, with finely chopped veggies. I’ve grown up with two kinds of Poro - an Eenda no Poor (egg omelette) and a Besan no Poro (chickpea flour pancake or cheela). The Besan no Poro is like the vegan-friendly cousin of the eggy version - both are simple, quick and absolutely delicious.
As with most of the food I ate throughout my childhood, I’ve had to reverse engineer recipes based on what I remembered of my grandmum’s glorious cooking. I’ve experimented a fair bit even with something as simple as an omelette, to get it as close to hers as possible. I’ve found that the key to a classic Poro lies in the fact that it has the gentle hum of ginger-garlic paste in the background and also the fact that it is fried - it isn’t a delicate, blonde omelette. You want to throw the beaten egg in hot oil and watch the edges go fluffy and curly all in one go and then you want to take it far enough so that it is a deep, caramel-y golden-brown.
Knife work isn’t my favourite part of cooking and ‘roughly chopped’ is always music to my ears in any recipe, but with this, you want to chop the onion, tomato, green chilli and coriander as finely as possible because it ensures that the omelette doesn’t break when you flip it, but also it eats better this way.
The only addition I’ve made to this is to throw two slices of bread in the pan once the omelette is cooked to soak up any excess oil in the pan, which by now is full of flavour. There’s something about a slice of bread toasted in a pan versus the toaster - just low and slow. Every now and then I’ll throw in a good knob of butter (because there’s no such thing as a lightly buttered toast). I put a layer of green chutney (coriander and mint) on the toasted slices before squishing the Poro between them. This is a major nostalgia moment that takes me back to train journeys with my dad where sometimes we would buy the omelette sandwiches. They were still warm because they must have been loaded onto the train at the most recent stop. Because they had been packed when hot, all the juices and flavour from the omelette seeped into the bread and the bread was no longer a bland vehicle for its filling. With the sandwich was a little packet of ketchup and that poor packet was stretched super thin when it had to cover an entire sandwich. When I made this at home, my dad would put an overly generous splotch of ketchup on the side of his plate, almost like he was compensating for any lack of ketchup over the years. So my Poro isn’t complete without some ketchup.
If you’re feeling indulgent, add some grated cheese to the sandwich. And I’m sure this is great with an artisanal loaf, but for me in this case at least, it has to be soft, store bought white bread. If you’re doing this for breakfast, it always nice with a big cup of chai.
Ingredients
2 eggs
1/2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp finely chopped onions
1 tbsp finely chopped tomatoes
1 small green chilli, finely chopped (Deseeded if you can’t handle spice)
1/2 tbsp finely chopped coriander
1/2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
1/8 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp chilli powder
Salt to taste
Butter and cheese optional (for sandwich)
Method
In a bowl crack two eggs and add the rest of the ingredients as well. Whisk well so that none of the vegetables or spices clump together. Put the oil in a non-stick pan on a high heat and put the beaten egg in once the oil is hot. You will see the edges of your egg mixture puff up and go gnarly at the same time. Reduce the flame to a medium-low kind of heat and cook until the underside is a deep, golden brown. Flip the omelette and cook the other side similarly.
For the sandwich, throw two slices of bread (of your choice) into the pan to mop up an excess oil and juices. If the pan looks dry, throw in a knob of butter. Let it brown on a low flame and turn once golden. Once the bread is done, smear it with some some green chutney, if you have it lying around in your fridge. First fold the omelette in half and then cut the folded bit into half - this just fits in a sandwich pretty neatly because the pointy ends match the corners of the bread and the curved side goes inward. This also means getting a generous amount of omelette with every bite (I hate sandwich corners that feel like they have been ostracised). Stack it all together and press it down a tad. Add cheese into your sandwich before closing it, if you like.
Serves one.
Serve super hot and steamy, with a nice cup of chai.
If you’re feeling nostalgic and want to do a train sandwich, wrap it in foil for a bit so that it steams a little bit and becomes more juicy.
The recipe for Besan no Poro will come very shortly!
Useful peripherals
- Make sure the oil is properly hot before you add the egg mixture, otherwise the point on a Poro is sort of lost
- Time spent finely chopping the veggies is well spent
- Beat the egg mixture once just before you put it into the hot oil, otherwise it settles at the bottom and falls like a clump in the end
P.S. Some of you said pictures of the finished dish might be helpful, so I’m posting those to @hazelkeats on Instagram. I’m not a photographer and a lot of Indian food photographs terribly, so forgive any shortcomings!
As always, if you do try this, please share pictures :) I’d love to see your take on a Poro.
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