Family Recipes - Seyal Bread

This one is for Mrs. MMR - she has mentioned a few times that she likes this dish and it reminds her of her school friend who shared her tiffin with her :-)



Seyal in Sindhi means cooked, this is most often a breakfast item.

A few disclaimers:
There are a bunch of recipes out on the internet and they are all unique. Every family has their twist, their method. This is my grandmom's, Moms, Masi's and my way (!!) all mixed together.

There are two ways they made it - green masala and tomato masala. When I was a kid I preferred red to green...now I like the green more but with a heady dose of tomatoes (I think that's my masi's way).



Tips:
-In my family we make this with slightly dry bread, it stands up better to the cooking process while still getting gooey enough to devour.
- You need not blend the masala to a very fine paste really. You just want everything somewhat disintegrated so you don't bite into chunks of garlic/chilies.



Ingredients:
- any left over white bread, roughly broken down to large chunks. If the bread is sliced don't mess with it :-) Health freaks could use brown bread...but I have no clue how it will taste. Chances are NOT good - because brown/whole grain bread tends to have a sweeter taste. You need a salty bread for this...! The Quantity depends on the gravy you make. I'd use an entire baguette or 3/4 th loaf of sliced white bread for the proportion below.

- a big bunch of fresh coriander leaves

- 4-5 cloves of garlic (you can very this to your taste...but it is what makes this dish)

- green chilies - again, to your taste

- salt, to taste, turmeric a couple pinches, coriander powder 1tbsp

- 1 large or 2 small ripe tomatoes OR tamarind pulp, squeezed from a lime sized ball of tamarind soaked in water

- Water 1/2 cup or more (if you're not using tamarind)

- oil 2 tbsps



Method:

1. grind/blend/food process together: everything but the turmeric (it stains the jars/blades) and tomatoes/tamarind juice. Don't add too much water...it will kill the taste. This masala needs to be fried, if you add too much water, the frying will not be effective.

2. heat oil in a wok/kadhai, add this mixture and fry well on medium-high heat. Add the turmeric. Lower the heat to medium...you should still hear a constant hiss...If you don't fry this enough, you risk tasting raw garlic and that's not good for anybody's taste buds.

3. You'll know it's done when the mixture sticks to the bottom of the pan and turns a darker shade uniformly and the smell of raw garlic is gone.

4. at this point, add finely chopped tomatoes or pulse them gently in your FP.

5. raise the heat...add some salt if you think you're going to need some. Remember you put some already in the masala. Let the tomatoes cook thoroughly till soft and pulpy.

6. when the oil separates and the mixture looks like a good paste, add the water (enough to make this look like a gravy, add too much and it's going to taste runny) and bring to a boil. Taste. Adjust seasonings. When this mixture bubbles (it will splutter, be careful) start adding the bread. Add as much bread as you think this mixture will soak. A little bit of water will help everything combine. Cover and let the bread take in the flavors on low heat. Stir a couple times...

Serve hot for breakfast!



More tips: You could use both tamarind and tomatoes. Just lesser of the tamarind if you're using tomatoes and lesser water and tomatoes obviously if you use tamarind water. Sometimes I like it really sour (depending on the mood...) The tamarind water will also need to boil some to be cooked.

Some people will use left over chapatis - I don't like the taste!

The tomato masala involves onions cooked to translucent, garlic etc.

Disclaimer: This has been a tough one to write because I haven't made it in AGES. I ate it at masi's but she employed an interesting approach. She had some leftover green masala from another dish, she fried it on a griddle in some oil, used a couple of slices of bread to mop it up then added sliced tomatoes and basically cooked them through. It still tasted just as good...just a quick shortcut if it's not a ton that you want to make. You gotta have the green masala ready though :)
Incidentally, the same green masala is used to make stuffed bhindi/okra in garlic and Fish and Tinda. ***Drool***