Palak/Spinach Paratha

Paratha recipes are specially for my dear little sister. Because with her busy schedule she prefers to roll parathas in the morning for breakfast as well as lunch :). Though she may not agree having potatoes under the pretext of having healthy spinach i like it that way. So here is the recipe dear sis:

Ingredients:

15-20 spinach leaves.
1 tea cup Wheat flour
a pinch of salt

2 medium sized potatoes
1 medium size onion
1/4 spoon cumin powder
2-3 strings of mint leaves
1/2 spoon green chilly and garlic paste.
salt to taste.
Ghee.


Method:


1) Wash the spinach leaves throughly and chop finely.
2) Knead the wheat flour by adding these chop spinach, salt and a little water.
While adding water make sure that you add a little at a time because the washed spinach already contains water and hence you may not need to add as much water as you would need while kneading the plain dough. Knead it well till the dough becomes soft.
3) Now next we will prepare the stuffing. Boil the potatoes, peel them and smash.
4) Add chopped onions, chopped mint leaves, cumin powder, salt, green chilly and garlic paste. Mix well and divide the entire mixture in 6 equal size balls.
5) Also divide the dough its equal sized balls.
6) Now take one part dough and one part potato mixture. Start rolling out chapati from the dough (about 10 cm in diameter) and place the potato ball in the center. Fold in the side of the chapati as if the potato ball is wrapped in the chapati and start preparing the chapati again. Now we will call it paratha. :)
7) Now heat a tawa with little oil and place the paratha on it. Cook on both side on medium flame and after cooked apply ghee.
8) Serve hot with tomato sauce.

Black Lentils Pulav (Black Masoor Dal)

Masoor Pulav reminds me of the days back in gharda colony. Because that was my mom's specialty apart from biryani. Mom was popular for various things; mehnadi drawing for kids. i remember kids use to line up @ our home for applying mehnadi and how proud i felt about her for her patience and a fair deal. she never turned them away, no matter how long it took or how many of them poured in :).
Amongst the older lot she was popular for her biryani, shurkurma, bread rolls, masoor pulav. She was just too good in it.

Thats the receipe from my Mom's kitchen.


Ingredients:

2 cup: Long grain rice (biryani rice)
1 and 1/2 cup: Black Lentils
2: Medium size onion
2: Medium size red tomatoes.
1/2 spoon: ginger garlic paste.
1/4 spoon: garam masala
1/4 spoon : turmeric powder.
1/4 spoon: dhaniya powder.
1/2 spoon: Red chilli powder.
Handful: Coriander and mint.


Method:

1) Pre-soak the black lentils and the rice separately in water for 5 to 6 hours. This process help the rice to cook softer and faster. Even the black lentils will cook faster.
2) Cook the rice separately with jeera, little ghee and sufficient water so that they are cooked non sticky. i.e each rice grain should come out separately.
3) In a vessel (i used a cooker) add some oil and saute the chopped onions till they turn translucent (pinkish). Next add chopped tomatoes and keep sauteing till the raw smell is gone. Add ginger garlic paste and the rest of the ingredients. Keep aside a little of the coriander and mint leaves for garnishing.
4) Now add the black lentils without the water (in which they were soaked). Saute for some time. Add very little water, only sufficient enough for them to cook. Remember if you add more water then the daal will tend to break and become watery which is just not right for pulav.
i cooked the black lentils in the cooker for exactly 3 mins and they turned very much as i wanted. That is they were appropriately cooked and didn't break.
5) In a heavy bottomed vessels arrange the rice and black lentils layer alternately with the bottom most and top most layer being of rice. after each rice layer sprinkle some coriander and mint leaves and a little of ghee.
6) Keep on low flame for 10 min till there is steam till the upper most layer. Remove from heat and serve hot. While serving make sure that you insert the spoon vertical to the length of the vessel so that you get the layers in your dish. :) ENJOY !!

Flattened Rice Wada (Poha Wada)

Drumsticks Curry

I knew only one way of using drumsticks; to put them in daal. But i didn't want to make daal today, so our maid suggested that we make drumstick's curry. Courtesy of this recipe goes to her.


Ingredients:

1) 1 big Onion
2) 1 medium sized tomato.
3) Fresh coconut : 3 inch piece
4) Cilantro (Coriander leaves): a handful
5) Garlic cloves: 5-6
6) Red chilli powder: 1 tsp
7) Turmeric powder: 1/4 tsp
8) Dhaniya powder: 1/2 tsp
9) peanut powder : 2 tsp
10) Drumsticks: 4 sticks.

Method:

1) Chop the onions and tomato finely.
2) In a pan cook the onions until they turn translucent then add the tomato and saute them till the raw smell disappears.
3) Cu and peel each drumstick into equal sized pieces, such that you have appx 3-4 pieces from 1 stick.
4) Saute the drumstick pieces in the above onion tomato mixture for 5 mins on medium flame.
5) Till then grind together the coconut, garlic and cilantro leaves in a mixer and add the paste. Keep sauteing
6) Add the red chilli, turmeric and dhaniya powder. Keep sauteing till oil start coming from the sauted mixture.
7) Now add 1 cup of water. (Needs to be added depending on the required constituency of the curry ).
8) When it comes to boil add the peanuts paste and cover with a lid.
9) Let it cook on a medium low flame till the drumsticks are cooked.
10) Serve hot with chapatis, rotis or rice.

Alu patto ki Wadi

Honesty speaking i previously never knew of any other name for these leaves. In India and in Maharashtra specifically it is called as alu ke patte. But through some goggling now i discovered that these are called as Colocasia leaves, thanks to WIKI. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colocasia

These wadi are awesome to taste. However one has to be very careful while selecting the leaves. Always select the ones with black stems, the green stems ones when prepared develop itching in the throat when eaten. So remember choose leaves with black stems only.

Ingredients:

1) Colocasia leaves: 7-8
2) Besan flour: 1/2 tea cup
3) Garlic cloves: 5
4) Ginger: small 1" piece
5) Green chillies: 4
6) Turmeric powder: 1/4 tsp
7) Dhaniya powder: 1/4 tsp
8) Ajwain : 1/4 tsp
9) Sesame seeds: to garnish
10)Oil: 2 tsp to shallow fry.

Method:

1) Wash the leaves in plain water and dry with a soft coth.
2) Grind together the garlic, ginger, green chillies and ajwain into a paste.
3) Add the above paste to the besan flour along with the turmeric powder, dhaniya powder.
4) Now add a little water to the besan flour just to make a thick batter.
5) Place one leaf horizontally and apply the batter evenly and in a thin layer.
6) Similarly repeat for other leaves also.
7) Now the 8 leaves into a group of two, such that place the 4 leaves one above other horizontally. They will stick to each other due to the batter. Now roll and its ready to be steamed. Follow the same for the another 4 leaves. So now we have 2 rolls.
8) Now is the time to steam cook it. In a pressure cooker heat some water and place these rolls in the cooker vessel and place the vessel in the cooker such that the water shouldn't enter.
9) Let them cook on medium flame for about 10 minutes in the cooker without the cooker weight.
10) Once it is cooked remove from the cooker and let it cool.
11) Divide each roll into equal sized slices and on a nonstick griddle shallow fry to golden brown, add sesame seeds randomly on the slice while shallow frying.
12) Serve hot with tomato sauce.

Ragi Idlis

When aayesha was of 6 months people suggested that i introduce ragi as her first food. Till then i never included ragi in our meals.
I found through some browsing that below is its nutritional value.

Nutritive value of Ragi per 100 g
Protein 7.3 g
Fat 1.3 g
Carbohydrate 72 g
Minerals 2.7 g
Calcium 3.44 g
Fibre 3.6 g
Energy 328 Kcal

That is when i started thinking of some good and tasty ragi receipes. One such receipe is Ragi Idlis. Easy to make and good to taste :).
Here is the receipe

Ingredients:
1 cup ragi (whole, not the flour)
1 cup parboiled rice
3/4 cup urad dal
salt to taste.

Procedure:

1) Wash all the above ingredients separately and soak in water for about 6 hours.
2) Grind the ural dal into a very smooth paste.
3) Grind the ragi also into a very smooth bater.
4) Then lastly grind the parboiled rice only till it attains a constituency of rava/suji.
5) Mix all the above and add salt as per taste.
6) keep the bater overnight for fermentation
7) Prepare idlis the next morning.

Bread Rolls

I come from a family where oily stuff is a strict no-no. however i personally believe that oily food once in a while is good for the taste buds, guilt apart. :)
One of my favorite recipe is bread rolls. They have the goodness of batata wada and crispiness of fried bread. Awesome to taste :)

Below is the recipe.

Ingredients:

4 medium sized potatoes
1 large onion
2 tsp ginger garlic paste.
1 tsp green chilly paste.
2 tsp cut coriander leaves.
a pinch turmeric powder.
few mustard and cumin seeds, curry leaves.
salt to taste
8 slices of bread
Oil for deep frying.

Procedure:

1) Add 1 tsp spoon oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and curry leaves.
2) Add onion and fry till it turns light pink.
3) Add ginger garlic paste, turmeric powder, green chilly powder, and salt.
4) Add the boiled, peeled and cut potatoes and stir for 5-10 mins.
5) Add the coriander leaves and remove from flame. Let it cool.
6) Next take one slice of bread, remove its brown edges and dip it completely in water for few seconds, remove squeeze the water with both hands and place a little of the above potato bhaji mixture in it.
7) Shape it into oval shaped rolls as shown in the photograph.
8) Deep fry the rolls and serve with tomato sauce.