Cauliflower Paratha / Gobi paratha

I recently found this pack of "Riced Cauliflower" at Trader Joe's and immediately thought, " woe, that would be perfect to use in a paratha! And that is what I did and it came out so well and I saved some time grating or food processing the cauliflower. they are not expensive and only $1.99 at TJ! love TJ!<3 p="">

If you don't get the riced cauliflower, just wash, clean the florets of cauliflower and grate them. Don't include the stem, save it and use it in a soup.


My kids loved them and they are perfect for breakfast, dinner or school lunches.



Get Ready ( makes about 8-9 parathas)

 For the filling

• 2 cups riced/ grated cauliflower
• 1 tbsp grated ginger
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp sambar powder
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro and (optional) mint leaves
• salt to taste
• oil/ ghee to cook parathas

For the outer covering

• 1 cup atta/ wheat flower
• a pinch of salt
• 1 cup warm water
• oil to rub

Go

• Make the dough, cover it with a wet cloth or saran wrap and set aside.

• Next, let us make the filling.

• In a dry pan, add the riced cauliflower, grated ginger, turmeric, chili powder, sambar powder salt and fry them till all the moisture evaporates.
• Add cilantro, chopped mint and set aside for it cool completely. This is very important as you don't want the stiffing to be warm and it will be hard to roll the parathas.

• Take a lemon sized ball of the dough, make a small disc. Take a small key lime sized filling.
• Add the stuffing inside and pull the edges in a pleated fashion to close. Make  the ball smooth, and flatten the dough with your palm.

• Dust a surface and gently, I mean very gently roll the paratha.
• You can also do the second method, which is much easier by making 2 discs out of the dough. spread the filling on the first one, cover with the second disc, seal the edges and roll. This method makes less mess and reduces the chance of filling seeping out.

• Heat the tawa, and add the rolled paratha. Once you see small bubbles on the surface of the paratha, flip them over.

•  Add little oil or ghee and cook the parathas till golden on both sides.

Serve hot with raita, yougurt or pickle. My kids love to eat them with ketchup!

Variations:

Add cumin, dhania powder,or green chilli according to your taste for the filling.

Chatpata Bhatura / Uncooked tortilla Bhatura

Poori and Bhaturae are a big hit among kids and adults. Fluffy and crispy at the same time, they are generally a crowd pleaser. I have tried to make bhatura couple of times before and it was not a successful attempt.

Recently, I had been to a friend's house for dinner and had poori's. They puffed up so well and my friend meticulously had them all rolled and stored in a box and was ready to fry. I was impressed by all the hard work she had put into, till I found out that they were actually uncooked tortillas. I am still impressed as how smart she was to do this and introduce this wonderful and easy poori or bhatura recipe to me. Thanks J!

Most of the supermarkets here in USA sell these uncooked flour and corn tortillas. They can be found near deli section on your supermarket in the refrigerated section. The most commonly available and popular brand is the " Tortilla Land" one.

I had to buy them ASAP after my dinner and could not wait ti try it at home and share the recipe with you all. I served with a simple potato masala, but you can serve with chole or any curry. If you are like me, you can eat it with sugar :).

The uncooked tortillas are big and I was willing to have a huge pan with oil. So I used a very sophisticated tool, hehe... a tiffin box rim and a katori to cut these tortillas into smaller circles. The  edges will be fried or baked my me for tortilla chips. recipe will follow soon. With a small katori, i got 3 mini poori and with a tiffin box rim , a medium sized poori/ bhatura. Play with what you have at home.

Get Ready

• Tortilla land uncooked flour tortillas 1 packet
• Oil to deep fry

Go

• Tortillas, ready to get out of the pack.

• Cutting circles. You need any circular utensil with slightly sharp rim. Press hard on the tortilla and cut the desired shape.

• First circle ready

• 3 small ones with a katori.

• The oil has to be smoking hot. Add the tortillas one at at a time, gently press to let them puff. Flip them over and cook on the other side till you get a golden brown color. You can see the tortilla puffing up!

So from this to this!

Any remaining tortillas, you can freeze them and use it with the time displayed on the packet!

So, friends, a very easy and quick recipe to impress your family and friends!

Enjoy!

Chappathi Crumble / Roti Crumble

Vaghereli Roti, is the name for this up cycled dish with left over rotis. They are made pretty spicy, however I made them tolerable to our taste.

Here is a very quick and easy recipe with left over chapathi's. I guess this is the equivalent of idli upma to chapathis or rotis. I had only 3 rotis left over and used whatever vegetables i had in the fridge. Feel free to experiment with other vegetables.

A perfect lunch box dish or a tea time snack!

Get Ready

• 3 left over chapathis ( cut them into small ribbons with a kitchen scissors or rip with your hand)
• 1/4 onion finely chopped
• 1 cup of shredded carrots and cabbage ( use bell peppers, beans, carrot, corn, potatoes, peas)
• 2  thai green chili slit
• salt to taste
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp garam masala powder or red chilli powder ( or to taste)
• a small wedge of lemon

Go

• In a pan, add oil. when hot, add the cumin seeds and let them sizzle
• Add the chopped onions and green chillies and saute till onions are soft
• Add the shredded cabbage, carrots a little salt and cook uncoverd till the veggies are partially done. You want a crunch in the vegetables, don't over cook them

Add the chopped chappathi, salt to taste, garam masala and toss them all together on medium heat.

Reduce the heat, sprinkle a little water and cook till all the spices are well incorporated for 2-3 mins

Turn the heat off, garnish with cilantro and serve hot with a wedge of lemon


I packed this for my own lunch and it tasted so good and was not dry at all!

Enjoy and have a great weekend folks!

No Knead Bread Rolls for Maitri

Many of you might have heard about Maitri  an awesome event for all bloggers in USA. This is a brain child of Priya and Reshmi. I was so excited to be a part of this. I was paired with Divya of divya-dilse and she sent me an ingredient with which I had to cook. Pretty cool right! For more information or if you would like to be a part of maitri check out..here

 

Divya was so sweet to send me a card and cute potato peeler. She sent me Flax seeds to be included in the cooking.

 

 

 Flax seeds are rich in Omega 3 and help to lower cholesterol. I had book marhed a no knead bread roll from here.

 

I included flax seeds in the rolls and they were super soft and delicious too! I quarterd the recipe and it gave me rolls. The rolls get cooked in 20 mins ,but the hardest aprt is the waiting for 2-3 hrs! yes, you just want to see the dough rise and want to get your mouth into it! For the original recipe check PW!

 

 

 

Get Ready (yields 11 rolls)

• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup oil
• 2 and 2 tbsp flour
• 2 tbsp flax seeds coarsely ground
• 1 and 1/4 tsp yeast
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

 

 

Go:

• Pour 1 cup of milk into a pan. add sugar and oil and scald the milk.  let it bubble at the sides,but not boil.
• Turn the heat off.
• Wait to cool well, so that the when you touch the pan with the palm of your hand it feels comfortable. you don't want to kill theyeast if the milk mixture is very hot.
• Once cooled, add 1 cup flour and 1 & 1/4 tsp yeast.
• Mix well with a spoon. once the flour and yeast are well incorporated,add another cup of flour.
• Stir well and allow it to sit covered with a tea towel for 1 hour.
• The dough should double by now.
• After an hour add the 2 tbsp of flour,baking powder, soda and salt and mix well.
• ( it's ok, to kead if you want to!)
• Butter any baking dish of your choice. I used a 9 " ci rcular cake pan.
• Form balls of desired size from the dough, smoothen it and arrange in the baking pan.
• Once you are done with all the dough, cover and let it sit in a warm place for 2 hrs.
• Bake in preheated 400 F oven for 17 -25 mins till golden on top.
• Rub with a little butter to get that extra shine.

 

 

 

Look how soft and fluffy the inside is! Thanks Priya, Reshmi and Divya, it was fun and totally enjoyed this event!

Sweet Potato Paratha

 

I have blogged a lot about the benefits of sweet potato earlier. To add to my list of sweet potato dishes of Podimas and sweet potato fries ,comes Sweet potato paratha.

 

 

Healthy afterschool snack or a lunch box idea for kids and kids at heart!

 

Get ready:

 

Yields 7 parathas

 

• 1 cup cubed sweet potato, cooked
• 1 cup whole wheat atta
• 1 tsp sambhar powder
• 2 tbsp chopped cilantro
• salt to taste
• 1 tsp olive oil

 

 

Go:

 

• Mash the cooked sweet potatoes well.
• Add sambar powder, salt to taste and cilantro.
• Add the atta and knead into a soft dough with 1 tsp of olive oil.
• No need to add water as the sweet potato has the water.
• Refrigerate for 20 mins and roll into a paratha/ roti.
• Heat a tava and cook the parathas on both sides till golden with ghee or oil.

 

They are perfect for kids lunch box, as they stay very soft.

 

Both my kids loved this! I hope you all will enjoy it too!

Naan Pizza

 I am not a big fan of frozen naans. My husband had stocked some frozen ones when i was away couple of months ago. I was thinking of some excuse to not use it at all. But then as i was blog hopping i found a novel way to use the naan.

This is a totally cool fusion recipe!

Yes, it was to mkae pizza out of it. Whenever we order pizza, i am not a happy camper as i don't like the thick crust pizzas! My husband and my son will unanimously go for domino's thick crust and leave me guity of eating lots of carbs!

Naan pizza gives you a thin crust and you can add any toppings you want. All you need is some marinara sauce and a little creativity!

So here you go with the recipe!

• Tandoori naan ( frozen or regualr from whole foods/ trader joe's) 1 per person
• Store bought marinara sauce
• Shredded mozzarella cheese
• Red Onion thinly sliced
• For topping _ chopped red pepper, broccoli, jalapeno peppers and some frozen corn.
• 1 tsp olive oil
• salt to taste

 Go:

• Pre heat oven to 400F
• in a pan add the olive oil, saute the onions till soft.
• Add the vegetables and saute for 5 mins. add salt to your taste and turn the heat off.
• Arrange the naan on a baking sheet.
• Add 1 tbsp of marinara sauce on top of the naan and spread it.
• add the veggie toppings and shredded cheese.
• Bake for 10 mins till the cheese is bubbly.

Enjoy this total family pleaser!


Sending this to priyasnowserving

Mooli Paratha/ Radish Paratha

How many people hate the smell when you cook radish?

I certainly do, but I like to eat radish. Garlic also has a strong aroma, but it gets a lot of attention from all of us. Poor radish, letz give him some TLC and roll it up as a paratha.

I learnt that ( thanks to wiki), paratha is a combination of 2 words "Parat" & "Atta". It originates from the state of Punjab and has found it's way into many world cuisines, with a different name.

Paratha - India, Pakistan, bangladesh
Palata -   Burma
Farata-   mauritius
parata-   Trinidad & Tobago.

Is'nt that amazing how food and culture move whever they go.

Let me share with you a very flavorful Mooli paratha which I learnt from Vah chef. I did not have amchur powder and replaced it with chaat masala.


Mooli Paratha (makes 5- 6 parathas)

Get Ready:


For the filling:

• 1 & 1/2 cups garted mooli/ white radish
• 2 green chillies very finely chopped
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp chaat masala
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• a pinch Hing
• 1 tbsp chopped cilantro
• 2 tsp salt or slightly less

For the atta/ dough:

2 cups flour
1 tsp vegetable or canola oil
water as needed.


Go:

• Add 2 tsp of salt to the grated mooli and let itsit for an hour or so.
• squeeze the water out of the mooli, by pressing with your palm and fingers. do not discard the water.
• Take a non stick pan and add the grated mooli, all  the ingredients for the stuffing and fry without any oil till every thing is combined. It takes about 7 -10 mins. turn the fire off as your stuffing is ready.

• Make the atta with the mooli water and 1 tsp of oil to make a medium stiff dough.
• Let it sit for 15 -20 mins.
• Divide the dough into equal number of balls.
• Roll into a small disc about 2-3". Place the filling in the center and gather the edges and cover.
• Roll again into a paratha, making sure the fillings don't come out.
• Heat a tava and cook the parath with oil or ghee.
• Serve hot with yogurt or any pickle.

You can also roll 2 chapthi's, place filling on one and cover with another chapathi to make a paratha.

Rumali Roti

Rumali roti is very famous north indian roti which is extremely thin. "Rumal" means a handkerchief and as the name explains, it is so thin that it can be rolled like a hanky. This special roti is usually served in weddings and pretty hard to make. The chef flips them in the air like a pizza and make it so paper thin. I have watched them do that in awe and then carry on stuffing many inside my mouth!

I found a quick and easy way to do rumali roti at home by my fav chef Sanjay at vahreh vah.com. I tried it today and it was pretty good. Of course you cannot compare to what the pro's make, at the same time not too bad for an ordinary person to make it at home.

I don't have a big skillet as the chef did, so I made my rotis small to be cooked on a 8" skillet.

Get Ready:

• 1 cup All purpose flour/  Maida
• 1 cup Atta
• 1 cup plus a few tsp of warm water
• A pinch of salt.
• Rice flour to dust and roll

Go:

• Mix the flours and makea soft dough. I mean really soft dough and keep aside for 15 mins.
• Heat a tawa or skillet and make it really hot.
• Make one ball th size of a lemon. Split that into two and roll a small chappathi.
• Grease one side of the chappathi with some oil and dust it with rice flour on the greased side.
• Put one greased surface on the other and stick the edges.
• Roll as thin as you can .
• Cook on the tawa.

Serve hot with any gravy curry!

You can view the making of rumali  roti   Here as it 's hard to explain...


Enjoyed it with Kashmiri aloo, recipe to follow soon!

Gobi Paratha / Cauliflower Paratha

This weekend is rather slow for me.Oops don't want to jinx that! Enjoyed the afternoon with my son watching Despicable Me.

So here is a  very simple recipe for the weekend menu! I have tried to make gobi paratha by frying onions etc, stuffing the masala inside the dough and trying to roll. Oh boy, you surely don't want to hear the mess I made on my counter. The filling tried to leak out from all directions of the paratha, and I some how cooked it.
 Learning from my mistakes, I tried a different form and it came out perfect. First, I used grated cauliflower and second I used one chapathi were I spread the filling coverd it with another chapathi and rolled it. Let me tell you, my day was perfect with no mess. Grating the cauliflower and making a dry filling takes away all the moisture and makes it easy to roll the dough.

 And the taste.. awesome!

What I used:

For the filling:

1 cup grated cauliflower florets ( wash, dry and then grate the florets)
1 tsp dhania powder
Pinch of turmeric and Hing
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1 small chilli finely chopped
1 tbsp Oil & extra to cook the parathas.
Salt to taste
Finely chopped cilantro

For the dough:

 1 cup Atta
1/2 cup + 2-3 tbsp water
salt a pinch
Oil 2 tsp

• Mix atta. water, salt & Oil and make the dough. Keep aside.
• In a pan, add 1 tbsp oil, when hot add the grated cauliflower ( no water).
• Saute for a few mins.
• Add salt and add dhania powder, turmeric, hing, chilli powder and green chili and saute for 5- 10 mins.
• Turn of the heat and add the cilantro.

To make the Parathas.

• Roll 2 samll chapathis of 3 ''
• Add 1-2 tbsp of filling on top of one chapathi disc.
• Cover it with another chapathi. seal the edges and roll into parathas, not too thin.
• Heat a tava or griddle on high.. Once hot,add the rolled parathas.
• Wait for a few seconds till you see small bubbles.
• Flip it to the other side  and wait for the bubbles.
• Flip again and cook with oil or ghee till nice and golden on both sides.
• Serve with raita, pickle or plain yogurt.

Wanted to share the close up view of my paratha with the filling.

  

Have a great weekend!

Thanks Akila for the this!

Avocado chapathi

I fed my baby with some mashed Avocado. I had the the other half sitting . I did not want to eat it nor did I want it to turn black.

So I added a little lemon juice, mashed it and added atta, salt, green chillies. So basically the mashed avocado got incorporatedi n the atta.
I made chappathis the usual way and it was super duper soft.

I didn't have time to click pics and trust me those chappathis were awesome.

Red Pepper paratha

I am so not used to measure each and everything when cooking. Since I have started this blog, I try to remember the neasurements. But, I forgot again today. But anyway I thought I will share this recipie.

I had one red pepper and a small chunk of green pepper left over after making sambhar. I grated the 2 peppers. Squeezed all the water out and put ina bowl. Add 1/2 tsp of ginger garlic paste, 1/2 tsp sambar powder, salt to taste, chappathi flour afew tbsp pf oil and knead till the it does not stick to the bowl.

Dust some atta on a working surface and roll them inot parathas. Heat a tava and fry the parathas with a little oil or ghee. Serve hot with any pickle and curd.

It was real delish....