Paneer (Cottage Cheese) Paratha

Crispy parathas stuffed with spicy soft cottage cheese served with green chutney and butter is one of my favourite breakfast items.

Ingredients

1 ½ cups wheat flower (for 2 parathas)

Salt to taste

½ tsp ajwain seeds

4/4 cup warm water

For filling:

5 tbsps grated paneer

½ tsp ginger cut fine

1/3 tsp finely cut green chilli OR ¼ tsp red chilli powder

1 tbsp cut coriander leaves

Instruction

-          Knead the wheat flour with salt, ajwain and water into somewhat stiff dough.

-          Mix all the ingredients for the filling. I don’t add salt to this as it makes it soggy while filling.

-         Divide the dough into two, spread each one into a round, put the filling inside, bring the periphery together, flatten and gently spread into a larger round.

-          Heat thava on medium heat and cook the paratha from both sides, applying ghee.

-          Serve with coriander mint chutney and butter, or tomato ketchup.

 

  

Raw Papaya Chutney (Kacha Papaya Sambharo)

Raw papaya chutney is a tongue tickling Gujarati dish that is served with fafda. I loved it with jowar roti and dal.

Ingredients

2 cups of peeled, grated raw papaya

1 tbsp oil

A pinch of asafoetida

1/3  tsp mustard seeds

Salt to taste

½ tbsp sugar

½ tsp turmeric powder

¼ tsp red chilli powder

½ tsp coriander powder

1 tsp lemon juice

Instruction

-          Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add asafoetida.

-          Toss in the grated papaya, sauté for about 4 minutes on medium to high flame.

-          Add all other ingredients except lemon juice. Sauté again for 4 minutes and remove from fire.

-          Pour the lemon juice and mix well. It is ready to be served.

Mishti Doi (Bengali Sweet Yoghurt)

 

Ingredients

3 cups of milk (for 2 cups of mishti doi)

2 ½ tbsps sugar (Traditionally palm jaggery is used)

2 tsps of yoghurt culture

A few strands of saffron

6 almonds slivered

Instruction

-          Keep three cups of milk to boil, reduce the flame once it starts boiling. When it boils for about 5 minutes, add the sugar and stir well.

-          Stir in between and let it simmer till it reduces in volume to two cups.

-          Let it cool to lukewarm temperature, pour into two bowls. Add 1 tsp of yoghurt culture into each bowl and stir well.

-          Keep in a warm place for about 12 hours for it to set, put some saffron strands on the top and refrigerate.

-          While serving, add the slivered almonds.

 

Apple pie

 

Many years back when we visited our Swedish friends in Stockholm, she served us Leek pie and apple pie for dinner. I took the recipe from her and they became frequent dishes at home. Children relished both.

Ingredients

4 medium sized apples

1 ¼ cup sugar

1 egg

½ tsp allspice powder

For the pie shell:

170 gms refined flour

A pinch of salt

2 tsps sugar

½ cup solidified ghee

¼ cup water

Instruction

-          Peel and grate the apples, add sugar and keep on low fire.

-         Let it cook and get thicker in consistency. Remove from fire and keep aside to cool. 

-         Meanwhile start making the pie shell. Sieve the flour, add salt, sugar and ghee.

-          Mix in the ghee to the flour with a fork till it resembles bread crumbs.

-           Slowly keep adding water and knead into smooth dough. Take 1/8 of the dough and keep aside. Spread the dough into round and slowly put it inside an oiled pie dish. Prick the entire surface with a tooth pick.

-           Now beat the egg and add to the cooled, cooked apple, along with the allspice powder.

-          Spread it inside the shell.

-          Flatten the dough kept aside, make into strips and put it over the pie in any design you like

-          Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees for about 35 minutes.

-          Cut into wedges and serve. Ice cream goes very well with this. For me it tastes better on the next day.

 

Mung dal (green gram) chila with leaves

 Fresh leaves from your garden, like drumstick leaves, brahmi leaves and amaranth leaves can be added to dal, any sabzis and dosa or chila batter to increase the nutritional and prana values. In this preparation I added drumstick leaves, brahmi leaves and green amaranth leaves to the chila batter.

Ingredients

- 1 ½ cups yellow mung dal soaked for about 4 hours (for 8 chilas)

- Salt to taste

- A pinch of asafoetida

- 1 ½ tsp cumin seeds

- ¼ tsp turmeric powder

-  ¼ tsp red chilli powder

- 2 tbsps of finely cut leaves

- 2 tbsps ghee

Instruction

-          Grind all the first six ingredients to a slightly rough consistency with enough water.

-          Add the finely cut leaves and mix well.

-          Pour a ladleful of batter and spread into round onto a ghee smeared hot thava kept on medium flame.

-          When it is cooked, pour some ghee over the top, turn it upside down and cook for some more time to make it crispy.

-          Serve with chutney, pickle or tomato ketchup.

 

Wheat Flour Halwa-2

 

This is an easy to make delicious dish that can accompany uppittu for breakfast, or with the evening tea.

Ingredients

-          1 ¼ cups wheat flour

-          1 cup ghee

-          1 cup sugar

-          2 cups water

-          ¼ tsp cardamom powder

Instruction

-          Put the ghee in a thick bottomed pan kept on fire and add the wheat flour.

-          Meanwhile add sugar to the water in another vessel and keep on high flame. When it boils, lower the flame and let it keep simmering.

-          Keep stirring the wheat flour ghee mix on medium flame to prevent sticking to the bottom and burning. When it turns dark brown in color and aroma starts coming (in about ten minutes), reduce the flame and slowly add the sugar syrup (after adding cardamom powder) while stirring continuously.  

-          When it becomes halwa consistency, remove from fire and serve.

 

 

Bajra Churma Laddu

My husband is from Jaipur and during every visit I get to sample many awesome dishes, many of which I have learnt to make at home so that he doesn’t miss them. Bajra is an integral part of Rajasthani food, may be because it is a hardy crop, growing well even in drought conditions, high temperatures and low soil fertility. Rajasthan produces the largest amount of bajra, and India is the number one producer of this grain.

Bajra has many antioxidant properties due to flavonoids. This promotes good skin and eye health, anti-ageing process and helps us fight against infection.  Consisting of complex carbohydrates, bajra is absorbed slowly from our digestive tract, leading to greater satiety while providing a continuous flow of energy. Because of its fibre content and the presence of slowly digestible starch, which takes longer to convert to glucose, bajra has a positive effect on diabetes. Its high Magnesium content prevents risk factors of cardiovascular diseases. Finally it is gluten free and so well suited for people with gluten allergy.

Bajra churma laddu is a lip smacking dish.

Ingredients

-2 cups bajra flour, for 2 laddus

- 1 cup boiling water

- ¼ cup ghee

- 1 cup jaggery powder OR sugar powder

- A pinch of cardamom powder (optional)

Instruction

-          Take the bajra flour in a vessel, make a well in the center with a large spoon, add the boiling water and mix lightly with the spoon. Cover and keep aside for ten minutes.

-          Now knead the flour, adding water if needed.

-          Make into two balls, flatten and make rotis on a hot thava, roasting nicely on both sides.

-          Put the rotis on a plate, pour the melted ghee and jaggery powder or sugar powder over it.

-          Wait for it to cool a bit so that you can mix nicely with hand and make laddus

-          You can add cardamom powder along with the ghee and jaggery powder. I don’t add because I enjoy the flavor of bajra so much.