Tag: paratha

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.

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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.