Poi Chinguri By Roy

A better perspective | Poi Chinguri

Poi Saag By RoyHappy Mother’s day to all the mothers in Australia, India and United States. Well United Kingdom the day it decided to rule the world made it a point by saying everything British would be unique. So, UK celebrates Mother’s day on a different day. Importance of mother in our life is not for one significant day but rather perennial.

I have an objection to polarised thinking ever since I understood rationale analysis.

Growing up in a household where I was woken up by my dad while my mom was still asleep. I found it hard to see the distinction between a mum’s work or a dad’s work. The only thing I could differentiate was between mum’s anger and dad’s anger. 🙂

I well receive the empathy for not having a mother. But also put up a strong personality  which is reflective of my father nature. One half of my life I was raised by my mother and the other half I am being raised my father. Ironically I feel I am still being raised by my father. He still takes care of my financial decisions. He still fulfils my unreasonable demands. I weirdly feel that I never grew up.

It’s been written several times in my previous posts how my dad used to take over the kitchen on weekends. He used to take care of grocery. I have seen mum and dad execute the same set of responsibilities and swapping them.

Taking a step back to look at my dad’s childhood. My grandmother had 7 children. Each time she gave birth to a child. The elder one automatically became the pseudo adult-in-charge of the younger one. Every son is very much capable of rearing the cows, washing clothes and cooking food. The seeds of gender neutrality had been sown into each of them implicitly by their mum (my grandmother).I generally giggle at the thought of people saying gender neutrality is a modern day social experiment.

Poi Chinguri By Roy

My father was here when I delivered my son. In most cases it is the mother who does that for her daughter. My father who is 60+ years old is very much capable of bathing my new-born, lulling him to sleep, cook a meal for the whole house because I am exhausted after marathon nursing a new-born, do school runs, look for fresh produce, turn my apartment into a mini terrace garden and repair all the ‘n’ things broken in the house. I did not see him once crumbling under this massive pressures. Some could get exasperated at the thought of a man doing so many versatile roles which for ages have been polarised for reasons unknown. Touch Wood !!

There is a downside too because when you are so much influenced by your parent you tend to draw comparisons between him and your partner. Your partner is under undue pressure from all the comparison made. 🙂

I have my Disney princess bedspreads from my first-born which is still in great shape and adorns our bed. The pink knitted blanket again from my first-born which warms up my son during cold winter days. We read good books and do not think princesses are not from Venus while the avengers from mars. But all this would qualify only for efficient expenditure.

Poi Chinguri By Roy

I just wish it was not about ‘blue’ vs ‘pink’ or ‘cinderella’ vs ‘spiderman’. A gender neutral parenting for me means not stereotyping roles for mum and dad. There should be a drive to carve one’s identity and find their own comfort zone irrespective of his or her sex. Most importantly respect your child’s choice and give them a thought to germinate upon. Rest my case….

Rather than just begrudgingly allowing our children to play with “opposite gender” toys, the gendery parenting paradigm would encourage us to give children the language to think critically about gender binaries and gendered hierarchies.

All through my pregnancy I craved for a particular dish but the ingredients were not readily available in the UK so I never got the chance to have it before, But here comes by dad who wanders every corner to find me Malabar Spinach or ‘Poi’. I was ecstatic when I saw him hold that bunch and whip up my childhood favourite dish ‘Poi Chinguri’.

Poi Chinguri By RoyPoi Chinguri By Roy

Malabar spinach (Basella alba or Basella rubra) is not a true spinach, but rather a climbing vine in a class by itself. The leaves and stem contain mucilage, so it can appear slimy when broken off the vine. This mucilage is a great source of soluble fiber, much like pectin in apples.In the heat of summer, spinach, lettuce, kale, collards, and chard all turn bitter, bolt, or dry out. It is Malabar spinach which thrives in summer.

Poi Chinguri
Recipe Type: Main Course
Cuisine: Indian
Author: Roy
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 2-3
Poi Chinguri : The delicate small prawns are tossed in a mustard based gravy along with malabar spinach to make this light and extremely flavourful curry.
Ingredients
  • 100g small prawns
  • 2 bunch Malabar Spinach
  • 1 tbsp yellow mustard seeds
  • 1 tbsp black mustard seeds
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 1 thin green chilli
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • salt to taste
  • Refined oil for cooking
Instructions
  1. Wash the Malabr spinach properly under running water. Then cut the leaves and the stalk into tiny chunks for further cooking.
  2. If using fresh prawns then clean. Marinate the prawns with salt and turmeric powder.
  3. Sack the mustard seeds in 2 tbsp water for 20 minutes before grinding. Then grind them along with garlic, cumin and green chilli into a fine paste.
  4. In a deep bottomed pan, add 1 tbsp of oil and add your prawns and fry them. Then add your mustard paste and fry it briefly for 1 minute. Add 2 cups of water and bring to a boil.
  5. Then add your malabar spinach and sauté for another 1minute.
  6. Boil it for another 4-5 minutes until the oil separates,
  7. Garnish it with coriander leaves and serve it with piping hot rice.
Notes
Please note a few things which have tweaked based on the availability of ingredients, The dish is best made with baby prawns with shell on them. But since only frozen prawns are available here in UK so I have used the frozen ones here.[br]Also, the dish is cooked with mustard oil. But since edible mustard oil is banned in Uk, I have used refined oil.[br]The consistency of the gravy purely depends on your personal preference. Some like it soggy while some like it thin. Take your call,

Poi Chinguri By Roy

5 Comments

  1. I only knew you through Sumangaly!! I’m not aware of you earlier but this post just made me feel something else. The Paragraph “Growing up in a household” was Awesome!! On the whole, I liked your perspective!! Waiting for many more from you. I wish you all the luck, Roy!

    • Hello Ajay,

      Your share made my day. Sumangaly and I are friends so I understood her adoration. But the post striking someone who is a stranger is what I write for. Wish you the best!!

  2. Must say your parents have been quite progressive for those days but perhaps also true that the winds of change were coming in during those days which helped us to respect the work that the mother days and the fact that “Shongshar” kora is a joint responsibility. Nicely written. But why chinguri? and not chingri?

  3. Roy, such a beautifully written post about your parents and I loved each and every line…
    Now who can deny this dish, the combination and above all the superb photography and not to mention the styling.. I am so happy that you are juggling with the newborn and able to produce such fabulous content. Keep it up.

    • Hello Shibani, Thank you for boosting my morale. And you can look through the post to see my efforts is very rewarding. Lots of Love

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