I had read/heard about edamame before and had tried it a couple of times in stir fries. This time when I bought a frozen pack of edamame, I wanted to try making something different. One of the dishes that we all enjoy is paratha. I make parathas with almost all vegetables. I feel this is a very good way to eat most of the vegetables. So I thought of making some paratha with them. Parathas came out very well.
For those who do not know what edamame is, wiki says – Edamame or edamame bean is a preparation of immature soybeans in the pod, which commonly are found in the cuisines of Japan, China, and Hawaii. The pods are boiled in water together with condiments, such as salt, and served whole. Occasionally they are steamed.
Method: Cook edamame. I added a little water to them and microwaved for around 4mins. Then grind to a paste. (as much as possible, do not add more water). Now add all the spices, salt, wheat flour. Make a dough. Roll into a paratha and roast them on hot tava. Serve hot.
Few months ago, our friends Kalpana and her husband had invited us to their home for dinner. Kalpana is a great artist. She had such beautiful paintings all over her home. We were in awe looking at her master pieces. She is also a very good cook. We both started talking about food and she told me that she makes tofu chapatis. She mentioned, this adds protien to the chapatis and also makes them soft.
I usually don’t buy tofu. But I want to make it a point to use it more in my cooking because of its high protein content. This time I bought firm tofu. I crumbled half of it and made these chapatis. They came out really good.
Ingredients: 1 cup crumbled firm tofu 2 cups wheat flour Salt
Method: Crumble tofu. Add wheat flour, salt and enough water to it and make dough. Take small balls from the dough and make chapatis.
Though they are nutritious,it often becomes difficult to make the children to eat different vegetables. In one of the T.V. programs I saw an unique way of using carrot, palak and beetroot in making chapatis.The three vegetables carrot, spinach, beetroot, give orange, green and red colour. The children are attracted by the three different colours and they may eat these nutritious chapatis.
Ingredients: 1 and 1/2 cup Wheat flour 1/4 cup Carrot paste 1/4 cup spinach(palak) paste 1/4 cup beetroot paste 1/2 tea spn red chilli powder 1-2 green chillies 1 tea spn cumin powder 1 tea spn garam masala powder (optional) Salt
Method: Take 1/2 cup each of carrot and beetroot pieces.Cook them separately. Grind the palak with green chillies to a smooth paste. Add 1/3 tea spn of cumin powder, 1/3 tea spn of garam masala powder, salt and 1/2 cup wheat flour to this palak paste and make a dough. Grind cooked carrot. Add red chilli powder, cumin powder, garam masala powder, salt and wheat flour to carrot paste and make a dough. Similarly grind cooked beetroot with red chillies. Add cumin powder, garam masala powder, salt and wheat flour to the paste and make a dough. Make a roll from each dough. Keep them together. Cut a piece from the combined roll. Make a ball(do not mix too much, otherwise the colours won’t be visible). Roll them into chapatis.Fry on hot tawa and serve with tomato sauce.
We both love stuffed parathe. But it has been a long time I made any. Though I made parathe once in a while, I took the shortcut. I had one huge radish in the fridge which needed some immediate attention. A paratha with this was on my mind ever since I read this comment. So I made these yesterday for breakfast.
These brought back fond memories of our college days. Though we didn’t know each other back then, we both remembered those days when we used to eat stuffed parathas topped with butter at “Mandar” – a “mess” (a small restaurant) in Belgaum. It was a daily routine to eat these for all college students. That is where I learnt making parathas. I used to observe this aunty making hot parathas – while boys used to eat at a separate section outside the house, girls were served food at their dining table. I still cherish those days. While we ate these hot parathas yesterday, we talked about those days. I think I am going to make these frequently now.
This is not authentic recipe of these popular parathas. I made it up. We loved this, so I am going to stick to this recipe hereafter.
Ingredients for outer cover : 2 cups wheat flour Salt 1 tea spn oil Water
Method: Heat oil and add cumin seeds. Then add radish, coriander-cumin powder, chilli powder, amchoor powder, salt. Cover and cook on a low flame for few minutes. Open the lid fry it well on a high flame till all water is absorbed and the mixture is dry (make sure it is dry, because if it is wet it will come out when rolling).
Assembling parathas: Make a small ball of outer cover and roll it into small round. Make a small ball of stuffing. Stuff this ball into outer covering. Roll into desired thickness very carefully. Serve hot topped with some butter and pickle on the sides (if you are calorie conscious, leave out the butter).
Serves : 2-3 Preparation time : 1hr
PS: I used white long radish which was not very juicy.
I was planning to make naan for a long time now. It remained just a plan for a long time for some reason or other. Finally V gave enough push to actually try my hands on it. He usually does not like this very popular bread. But one of his colleagues is a great fan of garlic naan and V wants to invite him home sometime. I didn’t want to experiment on him, so I had to learn making these at home.
My first attempt was not very good. Though everything was fine, I rolled them a bit thicker than required for naan. When baked, they became like a thin crusted pizza base. I had also used 1 cup all purpose flour + 1/2 cup wheat flour for this. I think the wheat flour made it a bit dense. So this time, I made them real thin and I could not believe my eyes when they puffed up beautifully. Within minutes, we finished them all.
I took some help from Bee’s recipe, Asha’s recipe and many more from the internet. I saw many recipes that used baking soda/powder instead of yeast, but I love working with yeast as I get fascinated when the dough doubles in volume :).
The pictures don’t do justice, as we really like eating them very hot, fresh out of oven, I did not spend time clicking pictures as they get cooled off. But I tried to click some anyway. When I make them next time, I will try to take more pictures.
Ingredients: 1 tea spn active dry yeast 2 tbl spn yogurt 1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour 1/2 tea spn sugar 3/4 tea spn salt 1/2 cup milk 2 tbl spn water
Method: Heat the water to luke warm (it should be warm when you dip your finger in it. I normally microwave water for 10sec). Add yeast, sugar and salt. Leave it for 10mins till the yeast forms a froth(gets activated). Now add all remaining ingredients and make it into a dough. Knead for 3-4mins. Cover with a cloth or plastic wrap and leave it in a warm place for about 2-3hrs till the dough doubles in volume. Preheat the oven to 425F. Make balls from the dough and roll them. Do not make them too thick as they puff up when baked (I roll them into thicker than chapathi/phulka but thinner than alu paratha). Apply a little butter on top. Line them on a lightly buttered cookie sheet. Bake in the oven at 425F for about 7mins till they puff up. Take out, apply the garlic-butter mixture on the top and keep it in the oven again. Bake for another 5mins till the top looks brownish.
Makes about 8 small naans
PS: – I kept a pizza stone in the oven and then placed the cookie sheet with naans on top of it. – You can reduce the amount of butter if you don’t like too much butter. – Avoid the garlic for plain naan. – Do not apply too much butter while baking to avoid the brown color. I like the color, so I bake it with butter. – If you do not have oven at home, roast the naans on a tava like normal chapathis.
These days I am becoming more adventurous in my cooking. I was trying to make different types of parathas for dinner everyday and this was one of the successful experiments. I normally don’t buy mint here, as it is very strong compared to what we get in India. But this time I saw a pretty good bunch and bought it. We both liked these minty parathas which had a sweetish tinge due to peas.
Ingredients: 2 cups wheat flour 1/2 cup fresh/frozen peas 3 green chillies 2 tbl spns chopped pudina(mint) Oil Ghee Salt
Method: Cook peas for few minutes (I cooked them just for 2 minutes as I used frozen ones). Grind them with mint, green chillies and salt. Grind to a paste without adding too much water. Add this paste to wheat flour. Make a dough. If required, add little water. Add 1/2 tea spn oil, knead again and keep side for about 20mins. Take small balls from the dough and roll them into parathas. Roast them on a hot tava. Apply ghee if required. Serve hot.
I love parathas of all kinds. I remember those days in India, when I used to eat them every time we went out for a meal. Everyone would order some naan or roti or kulcha and I always ordered a stuffed paratha. I feel it is a lot of fun to make as well as eat them. I still remember I had spent a lot of time trying to make those perfect stuffed parathas. V also loves these, so I make them very often these days.
I have a habit of making parathas with anything and everything. But sometimes, I like to follow a particular recipe which I know works very well. One such recipe I have been following for a while now is this gobhi paratha which was sent to me by Aruna – most of my regular readers already know her, I have many of her recipes on this blog. She exactly knows what I like and I have loved all the recipes she has sent me so far. She had sent this to me about a year ago and I had lost it in the huge list of mails that I keep getting. I wish I had tried this earlier. From the time I made this for the first time, I have been making these almost every week now. Aruna also sent me the below pictures of parathas.
Ingredients: 2 cups wheat flour Ghee For stuffing: 1 cup cauliflower grated 2 green chillies chopped finely 1/2 tea spn ginger grated 1/2 tsp ajwain 3 strands coriander leaves finely chopped 1 tea spn garam masala Oil Salt
Method: Add water, salt to wheat flour. Make dough(similar to chapathi dough). Apply oil to the dough and keep for around 1hr. Heat oil and add all the stuffing ingredients. This is required as the cauliflower needs to get a little soft else it will pop up while rolling. (You could also squeezed to remove any liquid from it).
Fill in the stuffing in the wheat flour dough and roll slowly. Cook on a hot tava. Serve hot with masala yogurt/mint chutney/ lime pickle. (In above picture, I served it with a dates and tamarind chutney).
Serves : 2 Preparation time : 25mins
PS: If the method does not work for you, roll a chapathi from dough, keep a layer of stuffing on it. Cover it with another chapathi on top. Seal the edges. Then roll it again slightly. By this method, the stuffing will not come out.
Sajje(Kannada) or Bajra(Hindi) are Indian names for pearl millet. Sajje Rotti is very popular in some parts of Karnataka, similarly, Bajra Roti is an important part of Rajastani cuisine. Pearl millet flour has a very different taste that takes a little while to get used to.
According to a USDA, both pearl millet and sorghum (Jola or Jowar) have many nutritional contents.
Recent work has suggested that these cereals possess unique characteristics that have both nutritional and functional properties that lend themselves to the development of healthy, nutritious foods. Both cereals are gluten-free, have unique phenolic compounds, which are being identified as having medicinal properties and contain proteins and starch characteristics that lend themselves to functional food uses that may impact health.
I had got many requests for this recipe in last few days, so finally here it is. About 2-3 months ago, I bought a pack of pearl millet flour thinking it was ragi flour(finger millet). Since this flour is also a bit darker like ragi (but lighter), I didn’t realize the mistake till I brought it home. I didn’t want to return it back, so it sat in my pantry begging to be used. Finally I tried these popular rotis.
Ingredients: 2 cups pearl millet(bajra or sajje) flour 1 tea spn sesame seeds (optional) Ghee/butter Salt
Method: Heat about 3/4 cup water with salt. When it has become warm, add it to flour. Mix it immediately. Add sesame seeds and mix into dough. Alternately, flour can be added to boiling water and mixed as I have mentioned injolad rotti recipe. Take a ball of dough and roll it into a big circle with the help of rolling pin. Dust the rolling board with enough dry flour to help in rolling. Roast it on a hot tava. Apply ghee or butter. I served it with green chili chutney, chutney powder and yogurt.
Our friend’s mom taught me this recipe. She and her daughter came here 2 months back from Karachi. They are originally from Pakistan. We had gone to their house for a dinner and she had made these amazingly crunchy and tasty parathas. Next time I made a point to ask her the procedure. These require a bit more ghee compared to our normal chapathi/phulkas, but they taste simply superb.
I thought it is better to take picture of each step instead of trying to explain it in words. The dough is same as the normal chapathi dough and like for chapathis, this dough is prepared at least 1hr before making parathas.
Method: Make the chapathi dough and leave it for around 1hr. Take a big ball of the dough.
Roll it into a circle almost of the size of a phulka. Apply ghee to it and sprinkle some dry flour on top.
Make a cut from the center to the circumference.
Fold it to a triangle as shown.
Hold the triangle in left hand and from right hand try to seperate the layers from the bottom of the triangle (I kept it on the rolling board to take picture).
Carefully push the upper part till it becomes a ball again, take care that the top remains in the center and the bottom part makes rounds around it. This part is a bit difficult and can be mastered by practise. Do not apply too much pressure, otherwise the layers stick to each other. Roll this to a big paratha again.
Heat the tava till it is very hot. Add the paratha.
When some small bubbles appear on it, put it upside down and apply some ghee.
Fry till the paratha is done from both sides. Serve it when it is still hot. They don’t taste very good when cold.
Chole – Bhature is one of the most popular dishes from Punjab. Every one has their own recipe for Chole. Even I have tried making it many times. All my friends loved my recipe. But somehow, I was not cooking Chole at home anymore. When I got a request for this recipe, I prepared it again. It came out very well. So before I forget the recipe, I thought of posting it here. This may not be the authentic version of Chole, but I am sure you all will enjoy it.
Bhature is made of maida(refined flour) and deep fried in oil. The actual Bhature is of a chapathi size. But I made them very small, so that I could fry them in the smallest pan I had. I followed the great chef Sanjeev Kapoor’s recipe with few changes for bhature.
Bhature
Ingredients: 2 cups maida or all purpose flour 1/2 tea spn baking powder 1/2 cup yogurt 1 tea spn sugar Oil Salt
Method: Mix all the ingredients(except oil) to form a uniform dough and keep it aside for 1hr. Take a small ball of the dough and roll into the desired sized Bhature. Deep fry the Bhature in oil.
Chole
Ingredients: 1 and 1/2 cups chick peas (or 1 can of chick peas) 3/4 cup chopped onion 1 big tomato 1/2 tea spn ginger-garlic paste 1 green cardamom 2-3 cloves 1/2 tea spn coriander seeds 1/2 tea spn cumin seeds 1/4 tea spn fenugreek seeds(methi) 1/2 tea spn black salt (rock salt) 1 tea spn kasoori methi(optional) 3-4 black peppers 1/2 tea spn chili powder 1 tea spn oil/ghee 2-3 strands coriander leaves Salt
Method: Soak chick peas in water overnight and cook them. If canned peas are used, wash the peas 2-3 times. Blanch tomatoes (heat water and cook the whole tomato for 3-4 minutes). Blend into a smooth paste. Dry roast all masalas from cardamom to black pepper and powder them. Heat oil/ghee, fry onions and ginger-garlic paste till the onions turn slightly brownish. Add the tomato paste and the masala powder, chili powder, salt (add less salt as the masala has rock salt in it). Cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the cooked chick peas, kasoori methi and cook for another 5mins. Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot with Bhature.
Serves : 3-4 Preparation time : 45mins
PS: If you want more gravy, increase the tomato and onions.
