Rustic Lentil Parathas

My friend Priti has this dream of wanting to host a rustic Indian party - dishes that are authentic, simple and true to the unblemished earthy soul of Indian cooking.

Lentils parathas from Punjab is one such. Rustic Indian cooking in several ways, caters to the use of leftovers and uses very basic culinary techniques. The use of leftovers speaks to general lack of refridgeration is a rather warm country.

This morning for breakfast I used leftover lentils to make these parathas. The recipe is my creation, since I do not really have an original one. It is comforting and simple. A wholesome meal and we could not held generously slathering on the butter. I actually used 2 cups of leftover lentils of different types.

Dal Parathas - Lentil wholewheat spicy flatbreads

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Makes 10 medium breads

Ingredients

2 cups of leftover cooked dal

1 teaspoon red chili powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups wholewheat flour (atta)

1/2 teaspoon carom seeds

1 tomato, finely chopped

1/2 onion, very finely chopped

3-4 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro

Sesame seeds for toping

Butter or ghee for serving

Method of Preparation.

1. Place the lentils in a food process and blend to a puree.

2. Place in a bowl and stir in the red chili powder, salt and add the whole wheat flour.

3. Add the carom seeds, tomato, onion and cilantro and mix with your hands to form a moist pliable dough.

4. Roll into small 4 inch circles.

5. Press with some sesame seeds

6. Heat a gridle pan and place the bread on the pan, the non-sesame side and cook for 1-2 minutes.

7. Turn and cook for 1-2 minutes on the other side, and then add a little cooking oil, and cook lightly till crisp and brown, turn and repeat.

8. Remove from fire.

9. Serve hot drizzled with additional butter and mango chutney if desired.

Note: The lentils that I used were fairly most and well seasoned. To get the well seasoned effect, the spices need to adjusted according to the lentils being used.

Scallion and CIlantro Pancakes

I had mentioned the journey around the world - A-Z series I had begun a few weeks back, yet another ploy to keep the kids engaged about their food.

Well, I skipped doing anything "real" for B - cooking up some Dal and rice saying that it was Bengali, but from Bangladesh. So C took me to China.

This weekend had a lot going on, Deepta was going to be doing her first public Indian singing performance. Given that I have been teaching her music the stakes are really high here. To make sure that she ensures the tension level and keeps it really strong she woke up on Saturday morning, unable to speak. Yes, she had the mother of colds and sore throats. Well, I had no choice but the roll with the punches. All in all, she did well, when you are six, the world is rather forgiving! It took a little time for her to warm up to the Aalap.

Well, I made some very simple shrimp and mushroom dumplings and made scallion and cilantro pancakes mostly following the recipe from Soma's blog.

I followed her recipe pretty closely, with some small tweaks.

Scallion and Cilantro Pancakes

Makes 6 medium pancakes

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour (atta)

1 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup boiling water

Oil for brushing

Extraflour for rolling

1 cup finely chopped scallions

1/2 cup chopped cilanto

minced green chillies optional

1 teaspoon minced ginger

Salt and pepper
Oil for shallow frying

Method of Preparation

1. Place the flours in a bowl and add in the salt and pepper.

2. Gradually add in the water and mix into a dough.

3. Set aside in the refridgerator for 1/2 and hour.

4. Mix the cilantro, scallions, salt, pepper and green chillies if using.

4. Break into small balls, roll out into thin circles with a little extra flour. (note, I found the dough much easier to manage this way).

5. Place cilantro across the pancake and then roll into a tube, (see pictures, the instructions on Soma's blog are very well illustrated as well).

6. Gently scrunch the tube and then roll into a coil.

7. Flatten and gently roll into a circle.

8. Heat a skillet and place the pancake on the skillet. Add 2-3 tablespoons of oil and lightly brown, turn and repeat on the other side.

9. Continue making all the pancakes in this way, cut into wedges and serve with the dipping sauce below.

Dipping sauce for Pancakes

Makes 1/2 cup

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon hot sesame oil

1/2 teaspoon minced ginger

2 tablespoons chopped scallions

1 tablespoon vinegar

1 teaspoon sugar

Method of Preparation

1. Mix all the ingredients together and set aside for 15 minutes.

2. Serve and use as needed.

7. Flatten lightly and then

I made some bread!

Gosh, I cannot actually believe I actually made some bread

that was quite nice. I do not bake, but I had bought this rye flour, which my children did not like made into rotis. My new commitment is to waste as possible. I have to tell you if I can stick to this very small rule, it shall be kinder to the earth, be conscious and caring to the wallet and in general make me more sensible about what I buy. Well, to use this rye flour I looked for some recipes, this one, seemed nice and simple. I did make some changes to it, but it worked out pretty well.

I actually made bread upama with the leftovers, will talk about that later.

Easy and Satisfying Naan

Someone told me about this method, I have to tell you, I am yet to teach a class where I do not get a request to make saag paneer and then asked about naan making. I like to make naan using yeast but realize that it is not quite the same. This recipe is a little heartier and textured because I have used white whole wheat flour and some rye flour. If you do the same using white flour as is done in restarants you shall get something really close.

So this is what I did,

Naan - Puffed Indian Breads

Makes 6-8

Ingredients

3 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rye flour
1.5 tsp salt
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cups yogurt

Extra flour
Butter for topping (optional)

Method of Preparation

1. Sift the flours, salt, baking powder, baking soda.
2. Rub in the oil and mix into a smooth dough with the yogurt. Add the yogurt gradually, the dough should be moist but not sticky.
3. Cover and let this sit for 2 hours in a warm place.
4. Knead the dough well, adding extra flour if needed.
5. Divide into 6 pieces, roll out into round or oval 1/4 inch thick pieces.
6. Pre-heat the oven to 525 degrees.
7. Place the naan on a hot tawa and let this cook till puffed and lightly browned on both sides.
8. Quickly place this in the oven and let this cook for 3-4 minutes till puffed up and browned on both sides.
9. Brush with butter if desired and serve hot.

Bhatura - Leavened Fried Bread

Anshul's Surprise Birthday Party!

Boy! It is exhausting to have the children around for a three day weekend. This weekend my cooking highlight was actually doing Anshul's suprise birthday party. The food turned out really great. I made Mutton Pulao/Birayani, on that note I often wonder what the major difference is between Birayani and Pulao. This is an interesting piece on the difference. I myself love this intensely satifying dish.
Other than that I had mixed dal ghugni, dahi vadas, chicken malai kababs, papri chaat, alu dum and luchis.
Something funny happened to the luchis, I left them outside to hide them from Anshul and what I ended up with was Bhaturas, which actually turned out to be a great hit.

Bhatura (Leavened Deep-Fried Bread)

Makes 14-18

2 cups white flour
1 cup semolina
2 tbsp ghee
1 tsp salt
1 cup yogurt
Extra flour for dusting
Oil for Frying

Method of Preparation

1. Mix together all the ingredients and extra water as needed to make a soft pliable dough.
2. Set the dough aside to rise for several hours.
3. Knead this again and then with the extra flour roll this into circles of about 4" diameter.
4. Heat the oil in the Karahai and gently fry till puffed and golden.
5. Serve hot with channa or Dal.

Khaman Dhokla - Indian Chickpea Bread

Khaman Dhokla

Like rossagollas, this dish has taken me some time to master, this recipe from a Divya Mehta worked for me.

Khaman Dhokala
Ingredients: 1 cup channa dal 1 tbs. chili ginger paste Salt to taste 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder 1/2 cup yogurt 2 tsp. sugar Apinch of asafetida 1/2 tsp. baking soda 3 tbs. oil At the time to prepare Dhokala 3 tbs. lemon juice or 3 tsp. citric acid
To temper -- 2 tablespoons oil 1 teaspoon mustard seeds, 1 teaspoon sesame seeds, coriander leaves and coconut to garnish

Method:
Soak the dal for five hours. Grind it to paste with the yogurt.
Mix with salt, chilli-ginger paste, turmeric and sugar.
Beat mixture with hands to make it light and fluffy. Then cover with a tight lid and keep aside in a warm place for about five hours to ferment.
Now combine oil, lemon juice or citric acid in a small vessel. Add half-tsp. baking soda. It will bubble.
Stir with a spoon and pour it in the fermented batter. Mix well.
Take a vessel, big enough to hold an a deep plate.
Put about four cups of water in it and a metal ring in the center to put the plate on. Cover with a tight lid and boil water. Meanwhile grease the plate with oil and pour the batter in. Put it inside on the ring. Cover and steam for 15 to 20 minutes. The batter will rise and make spongy dhoklas. Remove carefully from inside and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Cut into square pieces and transfer to a serving plate. Prepare tempering by heating oil and mustard seeds until seeds pop up. Add sesame seeds and Switch off gas. Pour over dhoklas evenly. Sprinkle coriander leaves. Serve khaman dhoklas hot or cold with green coriander chutney.

Matarshutir Kachori - Puffed bread with pea filling

Kachori with green peas

Ingredients:

1/2 cup self raising flour
1 1/2 cup Indian whole wheat flour ( atta), if unavailable substitute with regular flour.
1 tsp nigella seeds.
4 small green chillies
Salt to taste
1 tbsps fennel seeds (powdered)
3 tbsps ghee,
¼ tsp asafetida
1 cup frozen peas
1-inch piece ginger
Oil for deep frying
Method of Preparation
1. Mix the flours with 2 tsp ghee salt and nigella seeds.
2.Add enough water a little at a time and knead to a soft dough.
3. Cover and set aside.
4. Grind the peas, ginger, chillies and fennel seeds to a fine paste.
5. Heat oil .Fry the asafetida till light brown.Add the peas paste and salt.
6.Fry well till the paste is cooked. Remove from the fire and let it cool.
7. Divide the dough into 8 balls.
8. Roll into thin discs, put 2 tsp pea filling in one disc. Cover with the other disc like round empanadas.
9. Roll out to flatten and seal.
10. Deep fry in hot oil on slow fire till golden brown.
11. Drain excess oil and remove from oil . Serve hot with Cholar Dal.