Aloo Parantha- Tips to Freeze

I'm a freezer girl. I always try to dump anything and everything into my freezer which makes my life easier and  helps me to get out of my laziness to spend hours inside my kitchen. I wake up half an hour prior to my kids' bus time and those thirty minutes are like hell! I always thought that the song 'Jame raho... ' from the movie Taare Zameen Par was made just for me. I know all moms take that to their credit. But I guess I'm more closer to that character ;) I plan to wake up earlier; set 6-7 alarms from 5 am to 5:38am; but wake up at the last set time. Waking up kids, packing tiffin,ironing uniforms, preparing breakfast, making them eat .. all these are done in those thirty minutes. Kids' bus arrive at 6:10 and many a times I miss that too. I had to then drive and drop kids to the big roundabout where I could catch the bus. I know my friends must be laughing at this as they always make fun of me.

In the midst of all these things, the only relaxing bit is that I always store something and all in the freezer which helps me to prepare breakfast in no time. Whenever I make parathas or rotis, I make 5-6 more and freeze it. I also freeze sandwich stuffings, french fries,home-made burgers etc. Also when planning for some dinner party, the first thing I do is freezing some parathas. This makes our job easier.

For The Dough:

Wheat flour 3 cups

Salt             1tsp

Oil              1 Tbsp

For The Stuffing:

Potato                         3 large/700 g

Oil                              2tbsp

Onion                         1 chopped into chunks

Green chilli                 2 chopped finely

Ginger-garlic paste      2tsp

Cumin powder            1/2 tsp

Chilli powder              1 tsp

Coriander powder        1/2tsp

Turmeric powder         1 tsp

Garam masala powder 1/2 tsp

Lemon juice                1 Tbsp

Coriander leaves          3 Tbsp

Salt to taste

 Method:

Stuffing:

1.  Mix the dough ingredients together in a bowl and add water to knead into a soft and pliable dough. Keep it aside.

2. Boil potato with salt and turmeric until cooked nicely. (Don't overcook them as it may result in messy stuffing)Cool them and grate them finely.

2. Crush onion, ginger, garlic and greenchilli in a grinder. Pulsing for 2-3 seconds is enough. Don't turn into paste. This is done to prevent paranthas from breaking while rolling.

3. Heat oil in a pan and saute onion paste in that till the raw smell disappears and colour changes slightly. 

4. Add spices to this. Saute for a few seconds.

5. Add grated potato to it and mix nicely and mash with the spatula. Make sure that masalas are coated evenly and nicely. Switch off the flame.

6. Add coriander leaves and lemon juice to it. Mix again.

7. Let it cool.

Parantha:

1. Make 12-13 balls of both the flour dough and filling.

2. Take a flour dough and roll slightly into a small circle. Place a ball of filling on it and cover from all the sides. Pin on top and shape into smooth balls again . Keep it aside. Repeat this step until all the dough balls are used up. 

3. Now take the first filled dough ball and flatten to a big circled roti.

4. Cook this on hot tawa (medium-low flame) flipping over both sides, spreading ghee/butter/oil on the parathas. Serve it  hot with dahi(curd) or achar(pickles). 

Notes:

#Grate cooked potatoes instead of just mashing them as this may prevent breaking while rolling.

#Use all purpose flour while rolling parathas to prevent sticking on the base. All purpose flour(maida) is better than whole-wheat flour(atta) for this purpose.

#Crush onion,ginger and garlic to prevent breaking of the parathas resulting in messy parathas. Avoid stems of coriander leaves for the same purpose.

Freezing tips:

Once you roll parathas, place it on a medium hot tawa and cook for a few seconds till a slight color change. Flip it over and cook the other side for another few seconds. (This step helps preventing parathas stick to each other or to the cling film)

 






No need to cook completely until crispier or flakier. Take it out to a plate with tissue paper and let it cool nicely. Once cooled layer your parathas with cling film (or plastic sheets or baking sheets) in between each parathas and place it inside a ziplock bag or air tight container. Once dumped into freezer bags, squeeze out maximum air as possible from inside and then lock the bags. I lock 3/4th of its face and then squeeze out air . Lock it after that. Freeze it until use.

To cook frozen parathas:

No need to thaw your parathas. Take it out from the freezer and place it on a medium-high hot tawa. Cook both sides until crispier and flakier. Brush oil/ghee/butter to make it more crispier. Serve hot.

Naan on Tawa-No yeast No egg

Dark and cloudy mornings, temperature below 15C (Europeans,please don't laugh), a deep silence in the air, we peeping through the window every five minutes to check whether it's raining and then it drizzles by evening and we call it rain !  I blog too much about climate.Don't I? Sometimes I think we Middle easterners are crazy; trying to capture clouds almost everyday, updating in social media, going to kitchen for some coffee or mugcakes early morning, spicy chaats in everning-- this climate is going to make me fat. Help!! I can't stop eating!!. Fasting is the best way out or a temporary escape ; but the thought of no coffee mornings keeps me away from fasting. I shall wake up early for that or ready to face +2 kgs this season :(

Naan need no introduction and is one of the most liked Indian bread worldwide. Different varieties depending on the toppings used are available these days . Kalonji(onion seeds), garlic, butter, mint, italian herbs, cheese etc. are a few among them. You can see varieties like Peshawari Naan, Afghani Naan etc. outside India . This is Zebi Zubair's recipe.Naans are usually cooked in Tandoor, but could be baked in oven or even Tawa too. It takes its own time in Tawa as we could cook only one at a time; but believe me gals, it's worth it! There's no compromise in taste. 

Ingredients:

Maida/All purpose flour    4 cups
Baking Powder                 2tsp
Salt                                    1tsp
Sugar                                 1tbsp
Ghee                                  4tbsp
Yogurt                               1 cup
Milk (warm)                       3/4cup
Kalonji/Onion seeds          2 tbsp
Coriander leaves                few
Butter for brushing on top
Dry mint leaves (optional) 2tbsp

Method:

1. Mix curd, milk and sugar together.

2. Sift flour ,baking powder and salt together. Make a well in the centre and pour the milk mixture to it.

3. Incorporate well and make a dough adding ghee in between. You can add more milk or water if needed, but little at a time. Take care as maida requires little water than whole meal flour.

4. Let it rest for 2-4 hours. It will rise, but won't double as no yeast is used here.

5. Punch down the dough and make balls out of it. You can make balls of your required size.

6. Now roll into thick paranthas . Usually Naans are rolled into sort of balloon or oval shape. Stretch from one side after rolling, to give the shape.

7. Immerse your fingers in a bowl of water and imprint on the rolled naan as shown in the picture.

8. Place Naan on a hot tawa, water side down.

9. Sprinkle kalonji,garlic or dry mint (choose your favourite or a mix of all three) and press mildly on top to fix it there.

for the first time, I made a mistake to sprinkle kalonji as soon as I rolled, which was a mistake ,as then it would be impossible to place water side down on the pan.

10. Now either

     -you could wait till bubbles appear on the pan and then, transfer into a wire rack(wired spatula or the like) upside down and cook on fire.

OR 

     - after few seconds transfer to the wire racks and let the bubbles appear there on the direct fire.
I found the second option better as more bubbles appeared that way.

I used my microwave grill. You can use grilled spatulas or anything similar to this which can do the same purpose.

11. Cook neatly and carefully turning both sides . Let not burn too much. Check frequently and keep those sides on fire which is not browned. Grill on medium flame as too much flame might brown naans on top but uncooked inside. Use tong spatulas for that. You can master within 1 or 2 naans ;)

12. Brush with oil or butter on top and sprinkle coriander leaves. Serve hot .

Notes:

You can either mix the toppings like kalonji or dry mint while preparing dough or sprinkle on top.

Linking this to Motions & Emotions originally hosted by Gayathri

Valentine Event

Recipe of the week

Muttayappam (with video illustration)

Muttayappam is again a Malabar special recipe. It's usually made by the Kannurians with slight variations in their respective regions. Some add eggs to this, some make this in kaara (unniyappam kadai) while we make in iron Kadai /chhenachatti/chinese wok.

This is usually a breakfast recipe; but could also be made for dinner as well. These are deep fried pancakes, usually savoured with meat or fish curries. The dough is to be ground to pouring consistency and is poured into oil to deepfry. These are then, puffed up into puri like appams.

Ingredients:

(Serves a family of four)

White rice/pachari 3 cups

Cooked parboiled rice 1 1/4 cups

Water 1 3/4 cups

Salt 2 1/2 tsp or to taste

Oil enough to deep fry

Method

Soak white rice in warm water for 2-3 hours or overnight.

Drain rice through a strainer. (You can avoid this step; I'm doing this just to give you the exact measurement of water to be used .)

Now blend or grind it along with cooked rice and minimal water (as prescribed).

Heat oil in an iron kadai. The temperature of oil should not be too high. Once the oil is hot, sprinkle 2-3 drops of water to it and then, when the sound of bubbling water stops, you can proceed to the next step.

Set the fire to low. Pour a laddle-ful of dough into the oil. Once you poured, increase the flame to medium-high.

When the appam puffs up and it is done on that side, you may turn it and fry on the other side too.

You may now take it and drain it ona tissue or strainer.

Neipathal/Neipathiri (Rice Puri? :)

Neipathal is one of the traditional treats seen in Malabar Muslim households. It is deep fried pathiris made of rice, coconut, fennel and shallots. You may call it as rice puri as it looks like a puri-a coarse ground or crispy rice puri.

This is usually served with beef fry (varattiyathu) or any other meat delicacies. The ingredients used here is same as that of aanapathal (kozhipidi); but the method of cooking is entirely different. Back home, people uses the giant grinders or tabletop grinders to grind this dough and they may or may not use any rice flour for this recipe. But this is not possible these days as most of us dont have such equipments with us these days, neither we ve so much of time to spend in kitchen. I shall try to explain the method of preparing the dough using tabletop grinders and juice machines.

Ingredients:

Parboiled rice/U.S style rice 3 cups

Coconut,grated 2 cups

Rice Flour (arippodi) 1 cup or more

Fennel seeds (saunf or perumjeerakam) 2 tsp

Onion 1 big

Water 2 cups

Oil to deepfry

Method:

Soak parboiled rice in warm water for 3-4 hours or overnight.

Drain rice through a strainer. (You can avoid this step; I'm doing this just to give you the exact measurement of water to be used .)

Now mix all other ingredients except rice flour and oil.

Its time to grind rice.

Table top grinders

If you have a table top grinder, then no need to add rice flour. Increase the quantity of parboiled rice to 4 cups and then coarsely grind the rice mix using minimal water. The dough should resemble that of roti dough or slightly tightier than that.

Juice machine grinders

You can coarsely grind the rice mix without using water in this and finally add some water . Then mix with rice powder to make the dough.

Juice Machines

Here we use the big jar, the usual one we use to grind dosa maavu or to blend any juices. I've Panasonic steel jar (bought from India) the one similar to Sumeet or any other indian brand. Its too good for grinding rice . In this we can grind rice by adding too little water. We need coarsely ground rice here. For that just pulse for 30 seconds each time; ie; once we put in the rice,coconut,onion and water in the jar , pulse it for 30 seconds and then you are done.

Mix this coarsely ground paste with rice powder using salt to make the dough similar to rotis/chappathis or slightly tightier than that .

Take a kadai/chinese wok or any other deep bottomed vessel and heat oil in it enough for deepfrying.

Now take a piece of cloth or plastic sheet on which the pathiri is rolled. Make balls out of the dough and then flatten on the piece of cloth or plastic using your fingers . The pathiri should be 2 or three inches in diameters and 1/2 inch thick.

When the oil is too hot, you can sink in the pathiris just like we do for puris. This will puff up and once it is done in one side, turn it upside down and fry the other side too till it turns crispy brown.

Serve hot with beef fry, kadai chicken or any other non veg thick gravies.

Mathia- spicy Puri

Mathia is a spicy purioriginally hails from Punjab ( I think so :) or Gujarat?? Actually this is how my Mom makes it ,but she doesn't know which part of India it belongs to. I tried to google it and ended up in confusion. Some have it as a snack; some others with sabji (vegetable side dish); But we have it for breakfast or dinner just like we do eat puris alonwith any curries,bajis etc. A slightly flavored puri with an appealing shape and so is loved by the kids.

Ingredients:

Maida/White flour 3 cup
Yoghurt 1/4 cup
Cumin/jeera powder 3/4 tsp
Pepper 1/2 tsp
Salt

Method:

Make dough with the ingredients mentioned above. 

Make equal balls out of it and roll it into circle like puris.

Then fold it into semi circle; Fold again into a triangle shape. Roll again in such a way that the shape remain intact. 

Deep fry in oil just like you do for puris. Some don't like to puff it up like puris. In such a case, you can prick the puris with fork once it is flattened and before frying.

Battura (Malabar)

Battura-- and malabar?? yes , you read it right... Malabar cuisine is so broadminded that it embraces the best of any other cuisine and blends it in its own food culture. This reminds me of Amir Khan's ad 'Athithi Devo Bhava'. :) Jokes apart, Battura, deep fried bread, originally hails from North India; but we make it in slightly different way which make it look more puffy and 'bread like' inside. Have a look at Pic 2.

This dish was new to us when we saw this during my uncle's reception in the bride's house and was quite fascinated by the story behind its introduction to their house. My aunt's (the then bride) brother was getting married to his first cousin. There was no much excitement on the function as they knew both the families and the guests to attend the function were common. So they thought of conducting the function at one place and  would make it grand. They hired catering from Calicut which was about 90 kms away from the place; and that too 25 years back. Those people came a day before and said that they would make battura and they need some 40-50 litres of milk for that. Aunt's mom was saying they ran here and there for collecting milk as then it was not available in markets also. They ran to their neighbors' and relatives' house; milked the cows and somehow arranged the milk at night. But the hard-work paid and this dish was loved by all the guests that since then, there was no single party  left without Batturas in their house.

Ingredients:

Maida/ White flour 2 cups
Egg 1
Instant Yeast (pizza yeast)1/2 tsp
Baking powder 1/4 tsp
Salt
Sugar 1 tbsp
Yogurt 2 tbsp
Garam Masala 1/4 tsp
Milk- enough to knead the dough
Oil for frying

Method:

Mix Flour, Salt, Yeast , Sugar, Garam masala and Baking Powder together. Make a well in between and beat the egg in it. Add yogurt to it and mix the flour nicely in it. Knead into a dough using warm milk.

Keep this dough aside in a warm place for an hour or more till it is doubled its size... OR ..  Heat your oven at high for 5-10 mts, switch off the oven and then keep your dough in it. It eases the fermentation. If you have a fan attached to your oven, heating may not help. So what you can do is keep the dough in your oven, take some boiling water in a cup and place it in the oven along with the dough and close the oven. The steam coming out of the water helps the dough rise fast.

Heat oil enough for deep frying in a deep pan or kadai.

Knead the dough again and make small balls using the dough. Size depends upon the size of your frying pan or kadai.

Flatten it to a size thicker than puris; atleast twice the size. Make it round or oval. You can cut it using zigzag cutter or knife to give it an appealing shape.

Deep fry these just like puris till batturas puffs up and turn brown.

Serve hot with any stews, butter chicken or chana masala..

Nutella Paranthas- Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays to all the kids and best of luck to their moms.

Childrens Vacation Mothers Worry Time. I know there are many moms who get worried so easily when their kids' vacations starts. Likewhat Mini (my friend) said 'From today onwards, for three weeks its gonna be  Entertainment, Entertainment & Entertainment'. haha.. But I love vacations. There's a lot that we Moms can plan to make their holidays educative, fun and memorable ones. Cartoons or movies is just not the one and only thing to keep them busy.


 I choose some themes for every holidays to keep them engaged and learn a new thing. This time, it's HYGIENE. And our motto is 'For Health to be Bright, Hygiene should be Right' . Google is my best companion who helps me out in doing this successfully through printouts of posters, tips and youtube educational videos.
 

Kids often show up hungry during holidays. They need something to crack every now and then. Either keep them busy or they'll find something to keep me busy. :) .  The holidays mean yummy, festive treats for them. They wake up demanding some awesome breakfast to start their day with and seems lazy to eat the regular stuffs which they used to have from their schools in packed boxes. They like to help us in kitchen to prepare some. Here is one such breakfast dish (inspired from Masterchef) which I'm sure they would like rolling, folding and spreading out nutellas and the more they would enjoy eating that. My kids enjoy every bite of it and hope yours too..

Ingredients:

Flour 1/2 kg
Ghee 35gm
Nuts (Cashews/almonds or any ) 1 to 2 tbsp
Nutella 2 tbsp ,heaped
Oil 1 tbsp
Butter 1 tbsp

Method:

Combine the flour with enough salt and ghee. Mix in just enough water to knead the mixture to a smooth firm dough. Cover the dough with a moist muslin and kepp aside to rest for 25 minutes.

2. Dry roast the nuts , turning constantly till cashews turn golden. Cool and break them into fine chunks or powder them.

3. In a samll mixing bowl, combine the nutella with powdered nuts and melted butter. Mix very well and refrigerate the mixture until firm.

4. Divide the dough into 6 balls, roll each out into a round paratha. Apply melted ghee on each paratha, fold it into a semi-circle, apply some more ghee on one side of the paratha and fold it again into a cone shape. Roll out into a triangular shape paratha.

5. Heat a tawa and roast the parathas partly basting lightly with oil. When on the tawa/pan, separate a layer of each partially cooked paratha making sure to leave it intact on the two sides, fill in the nutella mixture, seal and cook the paratha completely. You can do this on your kitchen counter also . Just take this off from the pan and then return it after filling the nutella mixture.

6.Serve hot.

LINKING THIS TO KIDS DELIGHT ORIGINALLY HOSTED BY SRIVALLI