Tag: paratha

Aloo paratha

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 BM# 102 : Week 3, Day 1
Theme : Restaurant recreations

When we were growing up, the culture of eating outside wasn’t there. In fact, eating outside was considered as a last option when there is absolutely no other way out. There were two main reasons for this -1) there weren’t main clean and neat hotels then. 2) affordability. It was only after we got jobs and moved out of our home, that we started eating out.

My brother moved out when he got a job in Bangalore. The couple of times that I visited him, he had taken me to home style Punjabi dhabas near his place. The fare would be simple – couple varieties of parathas and maybe some curries. We have never looked at the Curries there. We would order aloo parathas most of the time and relish it with thick delicious yogurt and the pickle.

My husband wants a curry for parathas, where as I feel that the curry takes the limelight off the paratha. Aloo parathas are easy to make and there is no one single recipe to make this. Every household has its own variations but the end product is always delicious. If you are making parathas for the first time, it’s a good idea to watch some videos first. And also remember that rolling out rotis gets better with practice. So don’t be disheartened if the first few parathas tend to be a little difficult to make.

Read on for the recipe while.

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Ingredients:

For the dough

  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 teaspoon oil, optional
  • Salt as needed
  • Water for kneading the dough

For the filling:

  • 4 medium potatoes, boiled and peeled
  • 2 teaspoons of oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped finely
  • 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste
  • 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
  • 1 teaspoon coriander powder
  • 1 teaspoon aamchur
  • 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
  • Salt as needed

Method:

  • In a big bowl, add the flour. Add oil and slowly kneed together, adding water in steps to make a dough. Stop adding water when the dough comes together and kneed until it’s smooth.Set aside and let it rest for 30 minutes.
  • Peel and mash the boiled potatoes. There shouldn’t be any big lumps. Keep aside.
  • You can add all the masalas and the chopped onions to the potato mix directly, but I like to sauté the onions before that. It’s an optional step. Sauté the onions and ginger garlic paste in oil and once the onions turn pink, add the masalas. Turn off the heat and mix it in.
  • Add the mashed potatoes and mix everything well.
  • Take a lemon sized ball of the dough and roll it using a rolling pin into a 4″ size roti. You might have to use some flour to the rolling surface so that the dough doesn’t stick to it. Now Take a lemon sized ball of the filling and keep it in the middle.
  • Bring the edges together so that the filling gets enclosed inside the dough.

    • Seal the edges by pinching together so that the filling doesn’t come outside.

    Roll this again using some flour to a big paratha.

    Cook the paratha in heated pan and brush it with some ghee. While the paratha is cooking on the stove, you can start rolling and filling the next paratha.

    Once the bottom is cooked, flip it and cook the other side too. Brush with more ghee if you prefer. Take off the heat once it’s cooked and set aside. Repeat with the rest of the dough.

    • Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the recipe from other Blogging Marathoners.

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    Aloo Paratha

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    My son doesn’t pronounce the letter ‘R’ in Paratha. Its ‘Payatha’ for him. Same goes for Karate – its Kayathe. This cute mispronunciation is only for some words. A Car is a Car, Traffic is Traffic and Train is a Train for him. But not Paratha and Karate! I know that its a matter of time before he picks up the right word, but I can listen forever to this cute talk :-).

    It seems like yesterday that he was the cute tiny little baby in my arms and now he is already going to full day school!! Where did all the time go?

    Now a days, I find it difficult to carry him for more than a few steps as he is getting too heavy for me. But I am so really clinging to this last phase of carrying him! When he comes out of the school bus, I pick him up and carry him for at least a short distance. Nothing like carrying a smiling child to make your day better. Not to forget that he kisses me when I carry him and I get to give him a biiig hug :-).

    So here is the recipe for Aloo ‘Payatha’ which was my son’s lunch for the day :-)

    Ingredients :

    For the dough:

    Wheat flour : 1 1/2 cups

    Water : as required (about 1/2 to 1 cup, depending on the type of flour)

    Filling:

    Potatoes : 4-5 medium, cooked and mashed

    Onion : 1 medium, chopped fine

    Green Chillies : 3 -4, chopped very fine

    Ginger Garlic Paste : 1 -2 tsp

    Amchur powder : 1 tsp

    Coriander powder : 1 tsp

    Cumin powder : 1 tsp

    Chilli Powder : 1 tsp

    Turmeric Powder : 1/2 tsp

    Coriander leaves : 1 -2 tbsp, finely chopped

    Oil – 1 tsp

    Salt : to taste

    Method :

    1. Add the flour, 1 tsp salt in a big bowl and whisk together. Add water in 1/4 cupfuls and start kneading to get a soft, but not sticky, and pliable dough. Cover and keep aside for at least half an hour.
    2. Mash the cooked potatoes thoroughly. There shouldn’t be any lumps as they would tear the dough when rolling.
    3. Heat a tsp of oil in a pan, when its hot add the onions and ginger garlic paste. Saute till the onions are cooked and add the masala powders – chilli, turmeric, coriander, cumin and amchur. You needn’t add all of them, add whatever you have and then do a taste test later and adjust accordingly.
    4. Switch off the heat, add the mashed potatoes, salt, finely chopped chillies and coriander leaves. Mix thoroughly, check the seasonings and adjust according to your taste.
    5. Roll out one ball of dough into a 3” circle lightly dusting with flour if necessary.
    6. Place a big spoonful of the filling in the center. Bring up the sides of the circle around the filling and enclose it completely, pinching the dough on top.Flatten it a bit, dust with some flour, and roll into a thick circle of about 1/4 inch thickness. Be careful while doing this, as the filling will split out if you use too much of force while rolling them.
    7.  Heat a pan and cook the paratha on one side till brown spots appear. Flip and cook the other side too.You can add a dollop of ghee or butter on top of the paratha, if you want to.
    8. Serve with thick yogurt and pickle or cook up a nice gravy, if you are in the mood.

    Linked to What’s Cooking Wednesday, Tasty Tuesdays, Hearth and Soul Hop, Made from Scratch Tuesdays.

    Purple Parantha

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     Bebo finished off his paneer chapatis I had packed yesterday. But he brought the entire curd rice back. “I don’t like curd rice, I like only curd”, he tells me. At home, I use various methods including coaxing, bribing and black mailing him to eat his curd rice. For the summer, we need that rice mixed with yogurt to cool our body down. So changing tracks today and send him off with beetroot paranthas with a cup of yogurt to go with it.  He was pretty excited about the purple paranthas.

    I had book marked this recipe for Beetroot Paranths from Tanya Mehta’s book, Paranthas and Rice for Kids, a long time back. So finally making these. I was worried that these will taste sweet and won’t be suitable for adults, but these were just fine. They had a beautiful color and they tasted perfect – not sweet at all.

    These are essentially beetroot and soya paranthas. Since I didn’t have any soya at home, I used whole wheat flour itself. So here is my adapted version of  Beetroot Paranthas.

    Ingredients:

    Beetroot : 1 small, boiled and grated – about 1/2 cup

    Whole wheat flour/Atta: 1 1/2 cups

    Coriander : 2 -3 tbsp, chopped fine

    Chat Masala : a pinch (I used Chana Masala)

    Salt : 1 tsp

    Milk : as required

    Method: 

    1. Mix everything together in a big bowl. Add milk as required. Kneed and make a smooth dough.
    2. Divide the dough into 5 or 6 equal parts and roll each one of them into 6″ round circles,
    3. Heat a tawa and cook these like normal chapatis.
    4. Add half a teaspoon of ghee on both sides while cooking to keep them soft.
    5. Serve with yogurt.

    Note:

    The original recipe had only 1/2 cup atta and had 1 cup of soya flour (you can grind soya chunks to get soya flour. 1/4 tsp cumin powder was also in the list. I didn’t have any, so didn’t use it.

    Sending this for Priya’s Bookmarked Recipes Every Tuesday and Torviewtoronto’s Food Palatte Series – Purple.                                         

    A New Day, A New Way

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    A lot of people I know, have been waiting for this day to come in my life. I have been dreading this day for years. Every one is wondering how I am going to handle this – Yes, my son has started going for full time school! And No, his school is not near by our home. He has to travel in the school bus – at 7 AM. Everyday.

    To get my son ready by 7,  we have to get up at least by 6 AM. Gasp! For me 6 AM means midnight. So now you know why there is so much of concern (and jubilation too) by friends and family about this day.

    Well, to be honest, I am not worried about my beauty sleep (though I will miss it for sure!). I am more worried for my child who has to travel over an hour to reach his school. More importantly, I am worried about his food intake. Its no fun making him eat break fast at 6:30 AM :-(. This is the first time that he is taking lunch to the school (previous school was half day and he would come home for lunch). Hoping that the lunch box becomes his buddy!

    For today, I have packed him some soft paneer filled chapati for lunch. My mom used to make this for dinner at home. I ran the pizza cutter over the chapatis to give 8 small pizza-like triangles, to make it easy for him. He doesn’t like to touch the food with his hands – ‘Hands diiiirty, Mommy’ is what he tells me. He wipes his fingers clean after every single mouthful of food. So keeping the tissue is as important as packing the chapati :)).

    Ingredients:

    Chapati:

    Wheat Flour : 2 cups

    Salt : to taste

    Oil : 1 tbsp (optional)

    Water : to make the dough

    Filling:

    Paneer /Cottage cheese : 1/2 cup, crumbled

    Coriander leaves : 2 big handfuls

    Green Chillies : 1 or 2

    Cumin/Jeera : 1/2 tsp

    Salt : to taste

    Method:

    1. In a big bowl, add the wheat flour and salt and mix nicely. Add the oil and 1/2 cup water and start making a dough.
    2. Keep adding water in 1/4 cupfuls and kneed, till you get a soft, yet firm dough. The dough should be smooth and pliable.
    3. Keep it covered for at least half an hour. The more it sits, the softer the chapati will be.
    4. For the filling, grind the coriander leaves, chillies, salt and jeera in a mixie/blender for 10 sec. Do not add water and do not grind for a long time – it shouldn’t form a paste, just crushed together.
    5. If you are ultra lazy like me, you can add the paneer too to this mix. Else you can crumble it separately and then add the coriander – chilli mix. Mix everything together thoroughly.
    6. Roll the chapati into a small circle, of say, the size of your palm. Take a big spoonful of the filling and keep it in the center.
    7. Seal and close the edges by bringing them to the center,but over the paneer filling. This forms a ball with the filling in the center.
    8. Rest the ball for a minute or two and dust in flour and roll into a big circle. For me, the filling starts coming out if I make it really big, so I just stop with a smaller size before the dough starts tearing.
    9. Heat a tawa and when its hot, add half a teaspoonful of ghee or butter. Cook the chapati till light brown spots appear on one side. Turn over and cook the other side.
    10. Cook the rest of the chapatis the same way and serve with dal or yogurt.

    Simple dal to go with the Roti

    Ingredients:

    Moong Dal/ Spit green gram : 1/2 cup

    Carrot : 1, cut into small cubes

    Fresh Green Peas : one handful

    Ghee or oil : 1 tsp

    Jeera : 1/2 tsp

    Asafoetida : a pinch

    Red chilli powder : 1/2 tsp

    Turmeric Powder : 1/4 tsp

    Salt : to taste

    Method:

    1. Pressure cook the dal, carrot and peas together for 4-5 whisles.
    2. For seasoning, heat a teaspoon of oil or ghee in a kadai. Add 1/2 tsp jeera and a pinch of asafoetida to it.
    3. Add the dal to it. Add salt, chilli powder and turmeric powder. Bring it to a boil and cook for 2-3 minutes.
    4. Serve with rotis.