Methi Puri

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Few weeks ago after getting fresh Methi from Indian market, i decided to try something different than usual paratha or vegetable and so came this puri. The first attempt itself was perfect and so tasty that I had to share.


Ingredients
1 Bunch Methi
2 Cup Maida
1 Cup Wheat Flour
2 Green Chillies
1 Spoon Ginger
4-5 Garlic Cloves
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Wash methi and add it to the mixer
• Add ginger, garlic, green chilli and half cup of water. Crush it to fine liquidy paste.
• Pour it into the plate, add in maida, wheat flour, salt and knead soft dough.
• Add couple drops of oil and knead again for a minute. Keep aside for half an hour
• Heat oil in pan, roll small puris from the dough and fry them till light brown on both sides.

Notes
Making very fine paste is important because otherwise the pieces will come out while rolling and the puris would remain flat.
I didn't need to use more water while kneading dough as the paste itself was enough to accommodate the maida, but you could change the water and maida quantity if you need to.

Read More »

Spice Paratha

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I made these simple spice parathas today for dinner. They are very easy to make and taste yum.


Ingredients
2.5 Cup Wheat Flour
1 Spoon Maida
1/2 Spoon Jeera
1 Spoon Jeera Powder
1/4 Spoon Coriander Powder
1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• In a plate mix in maida, wheat flour, jeera, jeera powder, coriander powder, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt to taste.
• Add in 2 spoon of oil and mix well.
• Add water and knead the dough. Sprinkle 1 spoon of oil and knead again. Keep aside for at-least 30 minutes.
• Make lemon sized balls and roll the 3 fold parathas and cook them on the tawa, sprinkling oil.

Notes
The turmeric gives them awesome yellowish tinge and they look awesome. I also cooked them with very few drops of oil and that helped in retaining the yellow tinge
Maida helps getting crisp parathas.

Read More »

Corn Coriander Paratha

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

To all the blogger readers Happy New year. After rejuvenating holidays this is my first post of the new year. Well I had made these parathas the day Ajoy came from India but its today I finally get to post the recipe. The parathas are very simple easy, using whatever I had in fridge but the end product was very tasty.


Ingredients
2 Cup Corn
2 Cup Wheat Flour
Handful of Coriander Leaves
5 Garlic Cloves
2 Green Chillies
1/2 Lemon
Chaat Masala
Salt to taste
Ghee
Oil

Method

• Add in a spoon of oil in the wheat flour. Add water and knead the soft dough. Keep it aside.
• Microwave the corn for two minutes.
• In a mixie add in garlic, coriander, green chillies, corn, lemon juice and salt and make a smooth paste.
• Make lemon sized dough balls and roll two rotis.
• On one roti, spread the corn-coriander paste, roll over the second roti and close the sides.
• On hot tawa, cook it over medium flame with ghee and oil.
• Sprinkle a pinch of chaat masala on top and serve with pickle and cold curd

Notes
I microwaved the corns instead of boiling them as its quick and easy but if you don't have microwave you can always boil them with water and then let the water drain out.

Read More »

Chicken Rolls

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Its been a while since I made any chicken dish.. It was always Ajoy who ended up cooking chicken or mutton which obviously is exactly of one type. Gravy remains same and chicken or mutton changes :) So today I thought probably i can make some chicken dish to surprise him. What would have been better than his favorite roll.


Ingredients
500g Boneless Chicken
2 Cup Maida
1/2 Cup Wheat Flour
1 Big Onion
1 Cup Broccoli
1 Cup finely diced Tomato
1/2 Cup Tomato Ketchup
1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder
1/2 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/2 Spoon Black Pepper Powder
1/2 Spoon Garam Masala
1/2 Spoon Jeera Powder
1/4 Spoon Corriander Powder
1 Spoon Grated Ginger
8 Garlic Cloves
Salt
Oil

Method

• Mix in maida, wheat flour, salt and couple of spoon of oil and add in water and knead the dough well. Keep aside.
• Dice the chicken into small cubes.
• Heat oil in a pan and add in the chicken cubes. Cook stirring it occasionally
• When chicken turns white in color, add in grated ginger, turmeric powder, red chili powder, jeera powder, coriander powder, garam masala and pepper powder and cook till masalas start to leave aroma
• Add in tomato ketch up and cook further for 5 more minutes.
• Add in diced tomatoes and salt and cook till chicken is done completely stirring occasionally. Keep aside
• Heat a shallow pan with a spoonfull of oil and add in sliced onions, diced garlic and brocoli and cook till they are completely done. Add in salt and a pinch of pepper powder and stir well. Keep aside
• Beat the egg and put it in wide pan.
• Make a small lemon sized balls of the dough and roll thin roti
• Dunk the roti into the egg only on one side and then put it on the hot tawa with the non egg washed side down
• Sprinkle few drops of oil on to top of the roti and flip it and cook till both the sides are done. Put it on a plate
• Spread couple spoon of chicken we made earlier in the middle as one line. Add in half spoon of onion-brocolli mixture on it.
• Fold the roti from the bottom and then folding the left side on top of the mixture and roll tightly to cover the mixture completely. Serve hot with ketchup or just like that.

Notes
I wanted to keep the rotis light so instead of putting a complete egg on top of each roti i chose to egg wash one side and that worked well. rotis were light and the taste of chicken came out really well.

Read More »

Dabeli Style Aalu Paratha

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

The day I got dabeli masala from India, i had been meaning to try something like this.. I thought it might be nice change to normal aalu paratha or aalu sabji. Finally today when i had no other vegetable at home i decided to try this one.. Came out really well.


Ingredients
10 Spoon Wheat Flour
1 Potato
1/2 Spoon Kachhi Dabeli Masala
1/4 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/2 Spoon Tamarind
1 Spoon Peanut Powder
1/2 Spoon Raisins
Handful of Corriander Leaves
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Mix in wheat flour, salt and a spoon of oil.
• Mix water and knead dough for paratha. Keep aside
• Pressure cook the potato and let it cool down
• Soak tamarind in 2 spoon of water.
• Grate the potato and mix it with dabeli masala, red chilli powder, peanut powder, tamarind water and salt to taste
• Add in chopped corriander leaves and raisins.
• Make 5 balls out of wheat dough and 5 balls from the potato mixture.
• Make a cup shape from wheat ball and stuff in potato ball. Close the wheat cover completely.
• Roll the parathas and cook on tawa til well done on both sides.

Notes
Make sure to cook potatoes really well so that they are soft and can be mashed to the paste.

Read More »

Muttor Kachori

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Ma's specialty and one thing we always demand when we go to Pune. :) Its been a while since I took this recipe from her, infact I had made it earlier too but it hadn't come out as nice as she makes. This time it was quite close and I thought it would be perfect time to post it.


Ingredients
2 Cup Maida
1 Cup Wheat Flour
1 Potato
3 Cup Muttor
1/4 Spoon Jeera
1/2 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
Oil
Salt to taste

Method

• Mix in maida, wheat flour, salt to taste and 1/2 cup oil.
• Add in water and make dough. Keep aside.
• Cook potato in the pressure cooker and keep it to cook.
• Cook muttor with some water for 2 minutes in microwave.
• Drain the water from the muttor and grind it in mixie
• Once the potato cools down, grate it.
• In a pan heat 1 spoon of oil and add jeera. Let it splutter
• Add in grated potato, muttor paste, red chilli powder and salt to taste.
• Cook till the paste dries up and becomes a dry ball. Let it cool down
• Take a lemon sized ball of the dough made and press it to make a cup shape. Add in the half sized muttor-potato ball and seal it.
• Roll it just like puris and fry in hot oil. Serve with pickle.

Notes
The trick is to make the dough of right consitency - not too hard not too soft and the perfect to seal it after the feeling.
Also roll the balls to the puri's thickness - just a bit thicker to get the best results.

Read More »

Dates and Chocochips Pan Cakes

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I had been making pan cakes for quite some time. One of the easiest and tasty breakfast. I had made it with cranberries, mangoes, blue berries earlier. Today I didn't have any of the fruits that would go in it. So I decided to make it with what I had plenty - Dates and Chocochips. The pan cakes came out really nice and we had hearty breakfast on such a lovely bright day.


Ingredients
1/2 Cup Dates
1/4 Cup Choco Chips
1/2 Cup Wheat Flour
1/2 Cup Maida
3/4 Cup Curd
1 Egg
3/4 Spoon Sugar
1/2 Spoon Vanilla Essense
1/4 Spoon Baking Powder
1/4 Spoon Baking Soda
2.5 Spoon Melted Butter
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Deseed the Dates and chop them into small pieces. Keep aside.
• Sieve together wheat flour and maida
• Add Sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda and mix well
• Add egg, curd, melted butter and vanilla essence. Mix well.
• Add 1/2 cup warm water and mix well to flowing consistency.
• Heat a nonstick pan over medium flame.
• Pour the pan cake batter 1/2 cup at a time on the non stick pan and top it with some choco-chips and dates
• Over medium-low heat, cook the pan cakes till golden brown in color and bubbles up the top side. Flip and golden the other side too. Serve with honey and or maple syrup

Notes
The batter is so non sticky that I didnt have to grease the pan at all.
Ajoy felt that the sweetness from Dates was little too much, I guess using Dark choco chips might be good idea to balance the sweetness. I didnt have dark choco chips sot used semi sweet chips.

Read More »

Stuffed Spinach Paratha

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Yet another attempt to make Ajoy eat Spinach without making faces ;-) Well to be honest though he doesn't like it he doesn't make faces, its me who does that :) :) Here I tried to combine his well known affinity towards paratha yet trying to be different by making it as stuffing.


Ingredients
3 Cups Wheat Flour
6 Cup Spinach Leaves
2 Potatoes
1/2 Spoon Jeera
1/4 Spoon Mustard Seeds
A Pinch of Asafoetida
1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/2 Spoon Garam Masala
Salt to taste
Oil
Ghee

Method

• In a plate, mix wheat flour, a spoonful of oil and salt.
• Add water and knead a soft dough. Keep aside for 30-40 minutes
• Pressure cook the potatoes and keep them aside
• In a pan heat a spoonful of oil and let jeera and mustard splutter in it.
• Add Asafoetida and then spinach
• Keep stirring and after it leaves water from it add red chilli powder, garam masala and salt to taste
• Cook with constant stirring till water evaporates. Keep aside for cooling
• In a mixie, grind the spinach and then mix it with the grated potatoes.
• Prepare the balls of small lemon size out of this mixture
• Make same size balls from the dough and prepare the cup shape.
• Stuff the spinach ball in the cup shape dough and close the ball. Roll the paratha
• On medium flame, heat the tawa and cook the paratha from both sides till brown. Spread few drops of oil while its cooking.
• When completely done apply few drops of ghee and serve with pickle and/or curd

Notes
I didnt want to use lots of masalas or corriander(my another trick to make ajoy like the disk;-)) so that I can still retain a bit of spinach taste. Instead I used potatoes that helped in reducing the intensity of the spinach taste :)

Read More »

Veggie Pizza

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I had been meaning to make this pizza for a while now. Veggie is something that I don't prefer outside in pizza hut or any other pizza place but I wanted to make this at home so that I can use Indian veggies and make it to my taste. I completely took liberty here with veggies that I used and the outcome was really interesting.


Ingredients
4 Cup Wheat Flour
2 Cup Maida
2 Cup Milk
1/4 Cup Olive Oil
1/4 cup Butter
1/2 Spoon Sugar
2.25 Spoon Active Dry Yeast
3 Tomatoes
2 Spoon Garlic Paste
2 Spoon Basil Leaves
1/2 Spoon Black pepper powder
2 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
3 Spoon Ketchup
1 Cup Parmesan Cheese
2 Cup Mozzarella Cheese
1 cup of Small Paneer Pieces
1.5 cup Eggplant Pieces
8 Ladiesfinger
1 Cup Sweet Corn
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Mix sugar and active yeast with a cup of luke warm water. Keep covered by clinging film for 10 minutes to bubble up the water which means yeast is activated
• In a plate, mix wheat flour, maida, salt, olive oil and melted butter.
• Add in activated yeast mixture and milk and knead a soft dough. Keep aside in a big bowl covered by the clinging film for around 2 hours to double it up.
• Heat oil and add garlic paste in it. Roast it till it spreads nice aroma
• Add in basil leaves, pepper powder, red chilli powder and salt. Cook for couple of minutes
• Puree tomatoes and add them along with the ketchup to the above mixture. Cook till the water that separates out is evaporated and mixture is in single consistency paste. Keep aside.
• In oil fry ladies finger(whole), paneer pieces, eggplant pieces each for a minute. Remove the head of the ladies finger and cut it into half. Sprinkle salt and keep aside
• When the dough doubles up, divide it into two portions and spread it on two Pizza Pans
• Spread in tomato gravy made above equally on each one of the pizza.
• Spread in Parmesan Cheese, fried veggies(paneer, ladies finger, eggplant) and sweet corn.
• Cover it up with the mozzarella cheese.
• Heat the oven to 400F/200C
• Cook the pizza in the oven at 400F/200C for 25 minutes

Notes
While frying ladies finger(bhendi) i fried it whole and then cut it into half instead of other way round so as to avoid its seeds being flowing out of it.
All veggies I just browned them a bit so as to give it a richer taste. I didnt cook them completely by any means otherwise it might burn out or melt away while in the oven.

Read More »

Tandoori Paneer Pizza

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

My favorite dish :) esp paneer flavor.. and I so miss it here. Well there is a food chain which has paneer pizza available here but then I really didn't like the flavor. So i had been meaning to prepare this since ages and finally made it yesterday. It turned out quite nice. I also did little r&d and found out how to do wheat base rather than all maida base - little healthier version :)


Ingredients
4 Cup Wheat Flour
2 Cup Maida
400g Paneer
2.5 Cup Mozarella Cheese
1 Cup Parmesan Cheese
1.5 Cup Milk
5 Spoon Curd
2.25 Spoon Active Dry Yeast
1/2 Onion
1/4 Cup Dried Tomatoes
4 Sweet Bell peppers
1/4 Cup Olive Oil
2 Spoon Butter
1/2 Spoon Sugar
2 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/2 Spoon Jeera Powder
1/2 Spoon Corriander Powder
1/4 Spoon Garam Masala
2 Spoon Tandoori Masala
1/2 Spoon Garlic Paste
1/2 Spoon Ginger Paste
1 Spoon Basil Leaves
Salt to taste

Method

• Warm a cup of water, add sugar and active dry yeast. Still well, wrap up with the clinging film and keep aside for 10 minutes to let yeast activate
• In a plate mix wheat flour, maida, olive oil, melted butter, activated yeast and salt to taste
• Add milk and knead the soft dough. Keep it in a large bowl covered with clinging film for around 2 hours to double in size.
• In a bowl, mix curd, garlic paste, ginger paste, jeera powder, corriander powder, garam masala, tandoori masala and salt to taste.
• Marrinate the cubed paneer with this curd mixture and refrigerate it till the time pizza dough is doubling up
• When the dough is doubled up, divide it into two portions and spread it on pizza pans
• Spread parmesan cheese, grated mozarella cheese on top of the pizza base
• Spread the cubed paneer pieces, bell pepper slices, onion slices and dried tomato evenly on top of it
• Sprinkle basil leaves
• Preheat oven to 400F/200C
• Bake the pizza at 400F/200C for 25 minutes

Notes
While activating yeast, the water should be luke warm - just warm to touch otherwise if too hot the yeast would burn up. To know if yeast is activated you need to see if foam is present in the yeast-water-sugar mixture.
When I baked pizza i found that one of the pizza was really risen well and other one was also rised but not as much as the other one. So I binged ;-) a bit and found that the while baking pizza we should be baking only on upper shelve the middle shelf doesnt have enough heat and hence the pizza doesnt rise well in that section. Well tip for me for next time.

Read More »

Brinjal Paratha

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

These days I end up making parathas too often. Simple reason being, then you dont need to cook other 3-4 items and also ajoy loves parathas. So its good for me too and for him too.. especially on busy weekdays. So here is something I came up with Brinjal. I had tried this lot of times but I think yesterday was the best one with perfect combinations :) Hence its finally making its way out here :)


Ingredients
1 Medium Sized Brinjal
2 Cup Wheat Flour
1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder
1/4 Spoon Jeera Powder
1/4 Spoon Corriander Powder
2-3 Spoon Corriander Leaves
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Broil the brinjal in the oven at 500F for 25minutes. Let it cool down
• Remove the cover and smash the brinjal.
• Add red chilli powder, turmeric powder, jeera powder, corriander powder, finely chopped corriander leaves and salt to taste.
• Add wheat flour and make the dough out of it.
• Apply a spoon of oil and knead well and keep aside for 20-30 minutes.
• Make lemon sized balls and roll the 3 fold parathas and cook them on the tawa.
• Serve hot with curd and pickle

Notes
You can roast the brinjal the way we do it for Bharata on the stove. Or you can bake them in the oven but I found that broiling functionality in ovens here is much better than baking when you need the item to be cooked without it oozing out its juices. The last few times I baked the brinjal it oozed lot of juice and then I had to add too much of wheat flour and the parathas lacked the brinjal taste in them.

Read More »

Carrot Paratha

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I was thinking about something new yet simple for dinner yesterday. I thought of parathas as ajoy loves it.. But then I didnt want to cook something that we always eat.. So came up with this idea. Turned quite nice.


Ingredients
1.5 Potato
2 Cup Grated Carrots
2.5 Cup Wheat Flour
1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
3/4 Spoon Corriander Powder
1/4 Spoon Carom Seeds
1/2 Lemon
Salt to taste
Oil
Ghee

Method

• Mix wheat flour, salt to taste and 2 spoons of oil.
• Add water to it and make the dough. It shouldnt be too loose or too tight.
• Add another couple of spoon of oil and knead well and keep aside for half an hour atleast.
• Cook potatoes in the pressure cooker and let them cool
• Mash the potatoes and mix with carrots
• Add red chilli powder, salt, corriander powder, carom seeds and lemon juice. Mix well.
• Prepare the balls of small lemon size out of this mixture
• Make same size balls from the dough and prepare the cup shape.
• Stuff the carrot ball in the cup shape dough and close the ball. Roll the paratha
• On medium flame, heat the tawa and cook the paratha from both sides till brown. Spread few drops of oil while its cooking.
• When completely done apply few drops of ghee and serve with pickle and/or curd

Notes
I prefer to use only few drops of ghee at the end of cooking of paratha but if you like you can fry them in ghee itself.

Read More »

Egg Roll

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I never imagined that egg roll can mean so much to bengalis :) Recently when I went to Puja Pandals, I saw most people at roll stand than in pandals :) Earlier ajoy use to ask me for egg roll and I use to thing he would love parathas more than egg roll. Probably you can say I didnt understand the roll importance :) But after attending puja this year, the first thing I had made my mind to surprise some day with rolls. So today for breakfast when I had almost nothing left at home I prepared this and he indeed was pleasantly surprised :)


Ingredients
3 Spoon Heaps of Maida
1 Spoon Heaps of Wheat Flour
3 Eggs
1 Onion
2 Green Chillies
Hot and sweet Tomato Ketchup
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Mix maida and wheat flour with salt to taste and little oil and knead the dough. Keep aside for atleast half an hour
• In a small pan, add little oil around half spoon or little less and heat it.
• Add sliced onions and green chillies to it and cook them till onions lose their rawness and look light brown. Keep aside
• Make 3 balls out of the dough and roll them thin one by one.
• Heat tawa and transfer the rolled roti on to the tawa. Put little oil from sides
• When one side is almost done flip the roti and let the other side cook for a while.
• Break the egg directly onto the cooking roti and spread it all over the roti and let it cook for a minute or so.
• Flip it, add oil from sides and cook from the egged side till egg is cooked completely.
• On a plate keep a kitchen towel such that it covers the 2/3rd of the plate.
• Transfer the cooked egg roti on to this plate. Egg side on top.
• Spread the 1/3rd mixture of cooked onion and chilli in the middle as one line. Add single ketchup line to taste.
• Now roll the egg roti into the egg roll with the kitchen towel and close the napkin from the bottom.
• Repeat same process for remaining two rolls.

Notes
I didnt use complete wheat flour for roti as otherwise you tend to get wheat flour taste in the roll which I dont like in the roll. I didnt use complete maida because otherwise after cooking the rotis tend to get too hard. Hence this combination.
While rolling the roti, the best way to get perfect roll is to first put one side over the other such that mixture is covered and is tightly filled in from one side. and then roll it into the roll from same side.

Read More »