Multigrain power-packed dosa

In a continuation of my Toddler Treat series and Toddler Lunchbox Series, this recipe is one of my son's and my personal favorites. If your child is a little older and doesn't like to experiment with new tastes, it might get a little rough to have this included in her/his diet, but it's still worth the effort! I have been giving this to my son since he was almost a year and a half, so he's kind of used to the taste now (which I personally find delicious anyway!). This truly is a powerhouse of all the goodies that you would want your little one to have. The clincher is that it doesn't require any overnight fermentation or heavy grinding like conventional dosas and can be called "instant". This is a combination of carbohydrates (from rice flour), calcium and vitamin E (from soy flour), once again calcium and carbohydrates plus proteins (from ragi flour), again vitamin E, vitamin B and folic acid (from almonds) and did I mention the addition of yoghurt too? So you get an extra dose of calcium and proteins and vitamins B6 and B12! What more do you need now? So here's the recipe!

Pancakes and "Ottayappam"-Classic English and French breads!

Pancakes

I'm going to give you two recipes in this post-both by women (other than my mom!) who've influenced my love for good food-my grandmother and Nigella Lawson!

Pancakes must rank among the most popular breakfast options in many countries and one of the fastest breakfast dishes you can rustle up (perfect for singletons!). Apparently, it was even eaten in prehistoric societies in a rudimentary form. They are also called flapjacks in the US, pikelets in Australia (a smaller version), and crepes in France (a thinner, lacy version).

Scrambled Paratha or "Kothu Parotta"

I love this recipe for a variety of reasons. It does not require any curry or side dish and can be had on its own. It’s versatile as a snack or a mini-meal any time of the day. It’s perfect to recycle any leftover parottas, veggies, or chicken. It can be made in a jiffy and everyone will love it. It’s a great way to combine bread, eggs, meat, and vegetables, all in one dish! Vegetarians can easily modify this-see the Tips section below to know how! If porottas aren't accessible for you, then maybe you could use tortillas instead or any other type of flat breads!

Bread Baskets

This is a celebratory post-on many counts. On the occasion of my completing 50 posts (my last in the paratha series being the 50th one) in 55 days, I thought it'd be a good idea to do a small roundup of the data I got from my site analytics widgets of visitors. So please bear with me for a moment here before I plunge into this month's recipe!

I was overjoyed today when I noticed that I've just crossed 1000 unique visitors-1210 exactly, from 40 different countries! The top 10 countries I get readers from are India, the US, the UAE, Canada, UK, Australia, Greece, Singapore, Qatar and Bahrain. Also, I've touched 100 "fans" of my blog on Facebook....out of the 100, I have to say that only 30 are from my own friends list. All the others have found me either through their friends who happen to be mine too or by just searching for the keywords "cooking" or "baking" on Facebook. "Followers" on Google Friend Connect is now 20, my subscriber list for daily email updates is up to 36 and the monthly newsletter subscribers are 13.

The Paratha Series#4-Egg Paratha

With this post, we come to the end of "The Paratha Series". Of course, I'm sure there are lots more types of fillings and ways of folding a paratha out there, just waiting to be discovered. I'm only sharing the ones that I personally know and have tried in my own kitchen. To sum up, over the 4 posts in this series, we've covered 4 ways of folding a paratha:

1. Like a dimsum/momo.

2. A roti on top of the other.

3. The Slit-and-Cone method (christened by me!)

4. The pocket method (in this post).

...and we've covered 10 different types of fillings

1. Cauliflower.

2. Radish.

3. Potato boiled and mashed.

4. Potato Stir-Fried.

5. Cottage Cheese (Paneer).

6. Bean Sprouts.

7. Mushroom-sweetcorn

8. Spinach leaves.

9. Fenugreek leaves.

10. Egg.

I think you now have enough fodder to last you more than a week-it's pretty easy once you have the dough ready and the veggies prepared and kept. You could always keep extra dough, say for 2 to 3 days, refrigerated so you can quickly whip up a yummy paratha even when you're tired!

I'm so glad and grateful to my dear friend Priya for introducing and demonstrating to me this paratha. It's so easy to make and packs in quite a punch, in terms of taste and proteins! I made it for the very first time today and my husband absolutely loved it....try it out and see for yourself though! I do think that this technique is one that requires a little practice, so don't be disheartened if you don't get it right the first time...just keep trying and cracking more eggs!


For today's egg paratha, the dough is made, as always, with:

1. 3 cups whole wheat flour
2. Salt to taste
3. 1 cup water (if it's lukewarm, you'll get a softer dough)

• In a mixing bowl, combine the flour and salt well.
• Add the water gradually and combine with the flour to make a soft but firm dough. Knead until smooth for 1 to 2 minutes. Leave it to rest, covered with a cloth, for about 30 minutes.

For the stuffing:

Take one egg per person, to make 2 parathas.

Break the egg into a bowl and mix in salt and pepper to taste. Beat for a few seconds with a balloon whisk or a fork. You can add any other seasonings of your choice. I had an extra sachet of seasonings from a pizza outlet, which I dunked into the egg mixture!

• Take a slightly larger-than-a-lemon-sized ball and roll it out until it's about 6 inches in diameter.
• Fold into half.
• Fold this again into half, so it becomes a quarter.
• Do not press, just dust with flour and roll this out, applying only slight pressure on it.
• Transfer to the tawa/griddle (which I assume you must have already kept on the stove to heat up!).
• Wait for 1 to 2 minutes and then flip over.
• Nudge the roti with your flat spatula to see if the dough has lost its stickiness.
• You will be able to see the folds of the roti-gently nudge the top flap away from the lower one.
• Raise it up, holding it with either your spatula, your fingers, or if you are squeamish about the heat, then use a clean cotton cloth to hold the flap up.
• Now pour the egg mixture into this pocket, right under the flap. Let it flow into the roti, making sure it does not flow out. Quickly leave the flap you're holding, letting it just fall back onto the roti.
• Wait for 2 more minutes, spread some oil/ghee/butter, and when you see the egg mixture has coagulated, flip over the roti and cook that side too for 1 to 2 minutes. Again spread a little oil/ghee/butter.
• Take off the flame when its brown all over and the egg inside has cooked.

Serve with a dot of butter on top.

Now for the step-by-step pictures (remember I said my camera has died on me? So these pics are the best I could manage on my cellphone!).

After I folded it twice, into the triangle shape above, I rolled it outwards once again.

This is after it has been heated on the tawa for 2+ minutes. You can see the flaps clearly now.

Lifting the top flap with my spatula.

After I poured the egg mixture inside. Some of it slipped out...

The final product!

The Paratha Series#3-Stuffed With Leafy Veggies

So, did anyone try the folding technique I'd shown in the last post? Would love to hear from you! For today's stuffing, I don't have any new technique-you can use any of the ones posted before this (or whatever you know already!).

Before we tuck into the parathas, I'd like to apologize in advance for the quality of the photographs in this post and maybe the posts in the next couple of days too. Reason being, my camera has conked off-apparently it's experiencing the "blank screen of death"-according to some internet forums I visited during my research to diagnose the problem. So until I get this fixed, I'll be using my cellphone to photograph my culinary experiments-and my handset is already on its way to a slow death, thanks to my son's untiring investigations on it, behind my back! Not that my photographs till now were up to any international standards, but they were still decent, I thought. So please excuse the quality of some of these and future pics!

Today, we're going to stuff our parathas with a nutritious green leafy filling. I used spinach leaves (paalak) here. You could also use fenugreek leaves (methi) or I guess any other leaf that is edible and catches your fancy! Here's the recipe...the dough recipe remains the same, mind you!

 For the dough:

1. 3 cups whole wheat flour
2. Salt to taste
3. 1 cup water (if it's lukewarm, you'll get a softer dough)

• In a mixing bowl, combine the flour and salt well.
• Add the water gradually and combine with the flour to make a soft but firm dough. Knead until smooth for 1 to 2 minutes. Leave it to rest, covered with a cloth, for about 30 minutes.
• I have to mention here that I recently sprinkled dried oregano leaves in the flour before mixing the dough-just for a lark, but it was surprisingly good! Try it!

                                                                 Stuffings:

1. Spinach leaves

Wash the leaves well in running water and keep to drain in a colander for a while. If you have superhuman patience (which I don't) it would be better if you wipe the leaves dry with a kitchen towel or paper napkin.

Then chop the leaves finely.

Mix with finely chopped onions, ginger, carrom seeds (ajwain).

Add salt to taste and a pinch of black salt (kaala namak), at the very end, just after you place the filling on the roti and before you roll it out.

2. Fenugreek leaves

Same as above.

However, if you want to avoid the slightly bitter taste of the leaves, then sprinkle salt on it and leave it for about 15 minutes before using.

For making the parathas, I'm just going to copy-paste the procedure from the first post on gobi parathas.

• Divide the dough into lemon-sized balls.
• (This would be the right time to heat up the tawa/griddle).
• Take one ball and roll it out into a circle of about 4 inches in diameter.
• Place a tablespoon of the filling in the middle and mix the salt into it now.
• Now dust some flour on top of the filling (to prevent it from getting wet when rolling out).
• Gather up the sides of the roti.
• Pull the sides up and press them together to seal it (will look like a dimsum/momo).
• Now flatten it lightly with your palm and roll it out again, without applying too much pressure. Dust with flour as needed. Don't worry if any of the filling spills out...that's life!!!
• When it is as thin or thick as you prefer, transfer to the waiting hot tawa/griddle.
• Lower the heat and wait for bubbles to arise, then flip over.
• When bubbles arise there and brown polka dots appear, press with a ladle or clean cotton cloth until it puffs up a little and both sides are polka-dotted.
• Now spread some ghee or oil, to your taste, on both sides and transfer to a warmer/casserole dish.
• Repeat with the other balls.

Serve hot with pickles and yogurt.

Add a blob of butter on the hot paratha just before tucking in!

The Paratha Series#2-Paneer Paratha-and 2 more varieties of fillings

So, onto my second post in this series. By the way, did any of you attempt to make stuffed parathas for the first time ever, after reading my previous post? If yes, I'd love to hear from you...If you're following my blog on FB, you can also upload pics of the recipes you've tried from this blog, on its FB page...check out the new album just for readers photographs, under the "Photos" tab!

In this post, I'm going to feature a favorite food item-paneer (cottage cheese). You could fold the stuffing the same way as in the previous post, but today I'm going to show you another way of folding in the stuffing, that personally for me, is way more interesting and fun than the previous method.

I found this method in a Nita Mehta book, Paranthas Aachars & Chutneys, but the procedure and photographs there seemed complicated, so I asked my friend Priya to demonstrate it for me, after which it seemed doable. That's one reason I've taken more step-by-step pics of this method, because I know how it seemed difficult to me from the way it was presented in the book-I'm trying to rectify that here! The stuffings given below are Priya's.

     For the dough:

1. 3 cups whole wheat flour
2. Salt to taste
3. 1 cup water (if it's lukewarm, you'll get a softer dough)

• In a mixing bowl, combine the flour and salt well.
• Add the water gradually and combine with the flour to make a soft but firm dough. Knead until smooth for 1 to 2 minutes. Leave it to rest, covered with a cloth, for about 30 minutes.
• By the way, I love adding dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi) to my dough whenever I make chapathis, so that's the green speckles you can see in the dough.

                                                                       
                                                                         Stuffings:

     1. Paneer:

1. 100 g paneer, mashed or crumbled
2. A pinch of black salt (kaala namak)
3. Salt to taste
4. Pepper to taste
5. Garam masala powder to taste
6. 2 tablespoons coriander leaves, chopped

     (You could also add one onion and one green chilly, all chopped fine. I didn't do this).

     Mix all this together in a bowl and keep aside.

     2. Mushroom-Sweetcorn:

1. 50 g mushrooms, sauteed in oil with salt until all the inherent water has evaporated and it's well cooked
2. 50 sweetcorn, steamed until soft
3. 1 medium onion, chopped fine
4. 1 green chilly, chopped fine
5. 1 tablespoon coriander leaves, chopped fine
6. 1/2 teaspoon carrom seeds (ajwain)
7. 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
8. 1/2 teaspoon garam masala powder
9. Pinch of black salt
10. Salt to taste

      Mix all this together in a mixing bowl and keep aside.

    3. Sprouts:

1. 1/2 to 1 cup bean sprouts (you can use either green gram, soybean, alfalfa, or mixed bean sprouts-steamed for 5 minutes)
2. 1 medium onion, chopped fine
3. 1 green chilly, chopped fine
4. 1/2 teaspoon carrom seeds (ajwain)
5. 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
6. 1/2 teaspoon garam masala powder
7. Pinch of black salt

In a pressure cooker, saute and fry all the above and cook for 2 whistles (with just a drizzle of water).
Or cook in a closed pan until the sprouts are soft.
Or  grind the sprouts first in a mixer to a coarse powder if you want a smoother stuffing.

Or, if you are sprouting the beans at home, leave it to sprout for 2 days at least, at which point it will become soft enough for you to use it without any cooking required!

To make the paratha:

• Divide the dough into lemon-sized balls.
• (This would be the right time to heat up the tawa/griddle).
• Take one ball and roll it out into a circle of about 5 inches in diameter.
• Place a tablespoon or two of any one of the fillings in the middle, then spread it to cover the whole roti surface.
• With a knife, make a slit from the periphery of the roti to the center.
• Now, take one side of the slit roti and roll it in a clockwise direction, like a cone.
• When you reach the other side of the slit, make the cone stand upright.
• Press down lightly with your palm
• Now take your rolling pin and applying slight pressure at the center, roll out the roti gently towards the outside, to make a disc as large or thick/thin as you want.
• Transfer to your tawa/griddle and wait for a few minutes, then flip over.
• When both sides have become polka-dotted with brown spots, remove from the tawa and spread ghee/butter over it.
• Serve hot with spicy yogurt or pickles

TIPS: Adding a blob of butter on the paratha just before eating it, when it is still hot and crispy, makes it even more yummilicious!


Here are the step by step pics:

And the yummy paratha with a side of yogurt garnished with some chilli powder

The Paratha Series#1-Gobi Paratha.....and my very first blog award!

Today, I received my first ever "blog award", which, in blogger's lingo, is a mark or badge of appreciation given by one blogger to another. This award was given to me by Biny Anoop, all the way from Dublin, Ireland (talk about the world shrinking to a global village, thanks to the Internet!). I love that I'm able to make friends with people from so many different places, sitting in the comfort of my home, through this blog (I think the Internet has taken over from what "penfriends" used to be in the past!). Biny has a full-time job and still has time to indulge in her hobby of blogging. She has a very informative food blog out at Biny's Recipes. She is also a very regular and encouraging commentor on my blog, though we haven't met yet! Thank you, Biny, for the appreciation and support. It's readers like you that keep me going!

I'm passing on this award and badge to two of my blogger friends:

Emreen (who I personally know), who has a flair for transforming her house into a warm and lovely home-at LivenThingsUp.

Katerina, all the way out there in Athens, Greece. Again, she is one of my most prolific commentors! She manages to blog, be mom to a toddler, and have a full-time job! Here, at Culinary Flavors.

Now onto my new series, where my aim is to provide recipes which would help you to make a (North Indian) paratha/parantha with a different stuffing for each day of the week (or more, if you are so inclined to have parathas every day!) and about 5 to 6 different ways of rolling out both stuffed and plain parathas.

Parathas are basically unleavened flatbreads, cooked on a griddle or tawa. They are usually stuffed with different types of vegetables, leafy vegetables, or even leftover vegetable stir-fries. The usual accompaniments for parathas are pickles, spicy yoghurt, or chutney.

Until now, the stuffings I commonly used for my parathas were mashed potatoes or crumbled paneer or cheese. Now all that has changed, thanks to my friend Priya, a true-blue Punjabi kudi (translation: girl from Punjab, a state in North India!).  She introduced me to several types of stuffings (which I'd read about but never tried) and different ways of rolling a paratha. She being the kind of girl who loves cooking and inviting people over for food, I have had the distinct advantage of being called over for lunch to her place ever so often. It's always some kind of delicious paratha or other, with varieties of great vegetarian dishes, and other Rajasthani food items as well (her husband being from that state).

In this series, I'll be featuring recipes for stuffings provided by Priya. The ways for rolling out the parathas are a mix of methods I've seen from her and from a Nita Mehta parantha book.

So today, I'm going to feature a gobi (cauliflower) paratha. I've also given the recipes for 3 other different stuffings, at the end. For the first time on this blog, I'm using a step-by-step photograph format. Okay, so not exactly step by step, but I've photographed those steps that might make things clearer to all you amateur cooks/singletons out there who've never made a stuffed paratha in your life. Now's the time to start!

      For the dough:

1. 3 cups whole wheat flour
2. Salt to taste
3. 1 cup water (if it's lukewarm, you'll get a softer dough)

• In a mixing bowl, combine the flour and salt well.
• Add the water gradually and combine with the flour to make a soft but firm dough. Knead until smooth for 1 to 2 minutes. Leave it to rest, covered with a cloth, for about 30 minutes.
• At this point, I have to say that personally, I love adding dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi) to my dough whenever I make chapathis. Try it and see!

       For the filling:

1. Half cup cauliflower, grated or shredded in a food processor (I just used my microplane grater for this)
2. Half-inch ginger, grated
3. 1 small onion, chopped finely (or use the food processor for this too)
4. 1/2 teaspoon carrom seeds (ajwain-this is basically good for digestion)
5. 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
6. Salt to taste (Priya's tip is to use normal salt and a pinch of black salt (kaala namak) for parathas, as it's good for digestion)
7. 1 tablespoon coriander leaves, chopped finely

• With the exception of the salt, mix all the ingredients well in a bowl and keep aside (if you add salt at the beginning, it will become watery).
• Divide the dough into lemon-sized balls.
• (This would be the right time to heat up the tawa/griddle).
• Take one ball and roll it out into a circle of about 4 inches in diameter.
• Place a tablespoon of the filling in the middle and mix the salt into it now.
• Now dust some flour on top of the filling (to prevent it from getting wet when rolling out).
• Gather up the sides of the roti.
• Pull the sides up and press them together to seal it (will look like a dimsum/momo).
• Now flatten it lightly with your palm and roll it out again, without applying too much pressure. Dust with flour as needed. Don't worry if any of the filling spills out...that's life!!!
• When it is as thin or thick as you prefer, transfer to the waiting hot tawa/griddle.
• Lower the heat and wait for bubbles to arise, then flip over.
• When bubbles arise there and brown polka dots appear, press with a ladle or clean cotton cloth until it puffs up a little and both sides are polka-dotted.
• Now spread some ghee or oil, to your taste, on both sides and transfer to a warmer/casserole dish.
• Repeat with the other balls.

Serve hot with pickles and yogurt.

For the yogurt:

Season with salt and pepper if using just yogurt. If you're adding vegetables like onions, cucumber, tomato, green chillies, etc., then add jeera powder, a pinch of chilli powder for garnishing, and even dried and crushed mint leaves too for an extra taste.

                                                                         Other Stuffings:

1. Radish (Mooli)-Grate and mix with grated ginger, finely chopped green chillies, carrom seeds and chopped coriander leaves. Remember to salt it only at the end and to dust with flour after you place it on the roti, before rolling it out.
2. Potato (Aloo)-Mash the boiled pototoes with finely chopped onions, green chillies, coriander leaves/fresh or dried mint leaves, carrom seeds, roasted jeera (cumin) powder, dried mango powder, chilli powder, and salt (normal + black salt).
3. Stir-Fried Potato-In oil, splutter fennel seeds and cloves. Add the boiled and mashed potato, grated ginger, coriander powder, carrom seeds, dried mango powder, chilli powder, coriander/mint leaves, salt. Stir fry for a few minutes and proceed as usual.

TIPS:
The more the stuffing, the tastier the paratha!
If you're particularly nervous about the stuffing slipping out, then just use two rotis-place the stuffing on one, cover with the other roti, and roll it out to make it one stuffed paratha!

Experiment with the seasonings, subtract and add ingredients, and see what you can come up with!

Adding a blob of butter on the paratha just before eating it, when it is still hot and crispy, makes it even more yummilicious!

Here are the pics of the crucial steps:

With the filling placed in the middle.

With the sides all scrunched up and sealed with a pinch.

Flattened with my palm.

Rolled out into a larger disc.

Finally, the paratha with a blob of pickle on the side!

Neypathiri/Neypathal/Star-Appam

This is my 25th post, in the 26 days since I started this blog. Never did I think, when I began, that I would be able to post a recipe almost every day-but somehow I did. I hope I'll be able to maintain this enthusiasm as time goes by.

I'm aiming at a more realistic target of 3 to 4 recipes per week in the long term. This is because I've just landed a job that I could easily call my dream job at this point in my life-that of a featured writer on a women-centric website, where I have to write on topics as varied as marriage, feminism, spirituality, metaphysics...all my pet subjects. I will be working from home, which gives me the much-needed flexibility and freedom that is crucial to me, while at the same time giving me a certain degree of financial independence that is also important to me, after having tasted that for almost 8 to 9 years prior to my choosing to be a stay-at-home mom. In another month's time, I will also be starting my postgraduate studies in psychology, by distance learning, which is again, something I'm looking forward to.

Somewhere deep inside, a niggling doubt I have is whether I've bitten off more than I can chew-especially since the whole purpose of my being at home is so I can nurture and pay attention to my child's development-so that would mean keeping late nights and doing all this when he's asleep! Well, where there's a will, there's a way is what my mom and dad always say, and with a supportive husband in tow, I guess I shouldn't be worrying too much! So let's celebrate this 25th post of mine with something that is my all-time favorite dish-a North Kerala (Malabar) speciality called "Neypathiri" or "Neypathal" which can roughly be translated to mean "fried rice cakes"?!

My grandmother (dad's mother) used to make this for me as my "tiffin lunch" to take to college. Normally, this is shaped as discs, but she used to make it in another shape (see photo below), which my kid brother took to calling the "Star-appam" and the name stuck....

In almost every recipe for this, you'll find that it requires rice to be soaked for a couple of hours and ground to a paste (too complicated for me). But in my family, I remember this being made with rice flour-in my grandmother's time, this used to be made at home, but nowadays we use readymade roasted rice flour. You could use the rice flour used to make "idiyappam", "pathiri" or even "puttu" (will be mentioned on the label). A good brand to use is Double Horse or Eastern.

To serve 4

1. 2 to 3 cups rice powder
2. Salt to taste
3. 1 to 2 cups hot water

     To be ground to a fine paste:

1. 1 big onion, chopped coarsely or a handful of pearl onions
2. 1 teaspoon cumin (jeera) seeds
3. 1 tablespoon fennel (perinjeera) seeds
4. 1 cup fresh grated coconut

• Tip in the rice flour into a mixing bowl.
• Combine well with the salt.
• Add the ground coconut paste and mix.
• Now add the hot water, gradually mixing with a spoon at first, and later with your hands (when it's cool) to get a soft and moist dough.
• Divide into lemon-sized balls.
• Meanwhile, heat oil in a wok or kadai (about half to one cup of oil).
• Rub your palms together with a little oil.
• Take one ball in your hand and flatten into a disc that is about 4- to 5-mm thick (If you want the star shape, then flatten the disc and pinch all around the rim to get an inverted V-shape running all round it).
• When the oil is really hot, slowly slide the pathiri into the oil (depending on the size of your wok, you can fry 4-5 pathiris simultaneously).
• The pathiri will slowly rise to the top of the oil and float, at which point you should turn it over using a slotted spoon.
• When both sides become golden brown, remove and drain the excess oil by placing on paper towels.

Serve hot and crisp with stew-chicken, mutton, or veg-for breakfast, lunch, or dinner (or for all 3 meals a day-I promise you, you won't be fed up!).

See Swift Stew for recipe.

TIPS:

It is difficult to say exactly how much water you would need for mixing the rice flour, so just add in the water slowly and use only as much as needed until it gets combined into a dough that is moist and soft. If it is dry, the pathiris will crack up while frying.

Sometimes I add a little ghee (clarified butter) to the dough to keep it moist.

Don't forget to rub your palms with oil before shaping each one so they won't stick to your palms.

You could also place a plastic sheet with oil on your hand and shape the pathiri on the sheet, sliding it off the sheet into the kadai (I believe in the golden olden days, they used a banana leaf for this purpose).

This dough also keeps well in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.