Traditional Indian cuisine Archives - Page 2 of 3

Mooli ka bharva paratha

Radish (mooli) is used as a vegetable for lunch or dinner, as salad and during breakfast as mooli ka bharva paratha ( wheat flour flat bread stuffed with spicy radish). Mostly people either like radish or they don’t like it at all. Nobody compromises to have it in any form.
Generally in India people use white radish. At my parent’s house during winter season just before lunch my mother or I used to pick fresh radish from our kitchen garden for salad. You just can’t beat the taste of home grown fresh vegetables!!

Winter season is the best time to enjoy hot food. Generally in North India plain paratha or bharva (stuffed) paratha is very common for breakfast. But at our house everyone used to be in a hurry to go to the school or college early in the morning so stuffed parathas were always prepared for dinner. Memories of having hot parathas in the kitchen with all family members is very nostalgic memory at my parent’s house.

I have a few more posts on stuffed parathas in the blog….

Aaloo ka Paratha (paratha with spicy potato stuffing)

Pyaaz ka paratha (Indian flat bread, stuffed with roasted onion)

Ingredients:

To prepare radish masala:

3 medium size radish, 2 chopped green chillies, grated ginger, 1 tsp oil, salt, red chilli powder, dry mango powder (amchoor), turmeric powder, asafoetida and garam masala.

For paratha:
Wheat flour dough, dry wheat flour and oil.

Process :

Wash, peel and grate radish.

Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan and add grated radish , chopped green chillies, grated ginger and all spices.

Mix it and cook radish till the water completely evaporates.

Prepare wheat flour dough and heat tava. Take a small portion from the dough, approximately 50 gm and make a round ball, apply some dry flour on it and roll it in a small round shape.

Place some radish masala (just about 35 to 40 gm) on it and seal it by pinching from all the sides.

Again apply some dry flour and roll this in a round shape carefully and evenly from all sides. Don’t put too much pressure while rolling.

Carefully place this on hot tava and when you notice tiny bubbles, flip it to other side and apply oil and follow the same for other side also.

If you have rolled paratha evenly, it will puff up beautifully.

Serve hot mooli ka bharva paratha with curd, chutney, butter or pickle!!

May 22, 2020April 22, 2022

Deeksha Pathak57 Comments

Dahi waale aaloo (Potatoes with buttermilk)

Dahi waale aaloo or chach vaale aaloo ki sabzi or boiled potatoes cooked with buttermilk is a traditional Rajasthani cuisine. Rain was scarce in Rajasthan till few years back. So getting vegetables was very difficult, specially during summer. Therefore, people invented a few dishes so that they don’t get affected due to lack of rain and could taste variety. One such dish Mangodi ki subzi is already in the blog. Dahi ke aaloo is another such interesting dish where curry is prepared with buttermilk and along with regular spices boiled potatoes are added.

Curd is such a simple ingredient but you can create veritable dishes with it. I love using curd in my savoury dishes for regular meals like raita, sabzi or Besan ki kadi. The best part about Dahi ke aaloo is that it doesn’t require onion, garlic or even tomatoes. So you can have it during your one-time fasting meals.

Ingredients :

5 medium sized boiled potatoes
Curd 300 gm
3 cups water

Oil 2 tbsp
Jeera (cumin) 1/4 tsp
Rai 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida powder 1/8 tsp

Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder 1 tbsp +1 tsp
Red chilli powder 1 tsp
Green chillies chopped 2
3 tbsp water
Salt as per your taste

Garam masala powder 1 tsp
Oil 1 tsp
Dry red chillies 2
Chopped green coriander leaves

Process

Wash, boil, peel and mash potatoes in medium chunks and keep them aside in a bowl.

In a separate bowl churn curd nicely and add three cups of water and churn it again for a homogeneous mix (this is how we prepare buttermilk (chach) in India).

Heat 2 tbsp oil and splutter rai, jeera and asafoetida (hing) in a wok. Add red chilli, coriander and turmeric powder and chopped green chillies followed by 3 tbsp water. On sim heat let the masala get cooked for 5 minutes. Stir in between to avoid burning.

Once masala is cooked take out 1 tbsp out of it and keep it separate to be used later.

Add buttermilk in the wok once oil can be seen on the sides of masala. Increase the heat to high and keep stirring this mixture with quick movements until it starts boiling. Fast speed stirring is very important as otherwise buttermilk will curdle (phat jayega).

When buttermilk starts boiling, add mashed potatoes along with the salt.

Now reduce the heat to sim and let it cook for half an hour. It can be cooked on medium heat for 15 minutes but I like curries or gravies to be cooked on sim heat. Slow cooking enhances the flavor of dish.

Switch off the gas after half an hour and add garam masala powder and chopped green coriander leaves. Dahi ke aaloo or potatoes cooked in buttermilk are ready!!

Remember we had kept a little quantity of masala separate. We will use it now. Heat 1 tsp oil and roast dry red chillies in it for half a minute and add masala. Just before serving pour this in dahi waale aaloo and impress your guests and family members!!

May 20, 2020

Deeksha Pathak49 Comments

Imli ki meethi chutney

Imli ki meethi chutney (sweet tamarind chutney) is loved by all age groups. Indian chats (snack) are incomplete without chutney – either sweet or savory. Buy samosa or kachori and you will get sweet and savory chutneys along with them.

Bhel puri, Sev puri, Dahi puri, Papdi chaat or Dahi vada; all are incomplete without chutney. At my parents’ house, we never bought any chats. My mother used to prepare everything from the scratch. So, after my marriage, I also continued the same tradition. Preparing savory chutney with coriander or mint leaves is regular in my kitchen. But I always felt a little lazy to prepare imli ki meethi chutney at frequent intervals and so instead I started preparing in enough quantity that it will last for 6 months.

While cooking sweet tamarind chutney you might not be able to figure out exactly how it tastes because flavors really taste better the next day. Therefore, you wait till the next day for the developed taste and if you feel something is less or missing, add accordingly and boil a little bit more.

Ingredients :

120 gm tamarind
3 +1/2 cups water
300 gm sugar/jaggery powder
5 dates

For the rest of the ingredients, I am not giving specific measurements as you can add them according to your taste. You can prepare it as sweet tamarind chutney or it could be tangy tamarind chutney by reducing the sugar a little bit – choice is completely yours!

White salt
Black salt
Ginger powder
Garam masala powder
Red chili powder

Process :

Soak tamarind in 2 cups of water for 2 hours.

In a separate pan soak dates in water.

After 2 hours, mash tamarind and sieve it. Add the rest of the water in tamarind, mash it and sieve it again so that the whole pulp comes out.

Boil this sieved tamarind water and pulp on sim heat by adding de-seeded dates and sugar for at least 1+1/2 to 2 hours. If you are interested in thick consistency, boil for at least 2 hours but if you like thin consistency, boil for 1 to 1+1/2 hours. Just 10 minutes before the chutney is done, add the rest of the ingredients as per your taste.

Let the chutney cool down completely before filling in an airtight container and storing that in the fridge.

July 3, 2019January 4, 2021

Deeksha Pathak38 Comments

Pyaaz ka paratha

Weekend comes with a demand or hidden wish for special breakfast or brunch. For this Saturday, I had thought of doing Pyaaz ka paratha. Manish and Apoorva both want only Aaloo ka Paratha (wheat flour flat bread with spicy potato stuffing) . If I would have asked their choice, I could never prepare any other variety for paratha. So, I did the preparation and served them both onion and aaloo ka paratha. Both wanted next one aaloo ka paratha. I knew very well that I am going to get this feedback only , so I had kept aaloo masala ready.

But I thoroughly enjoyed two pyaaz ke parathe with plain curd, mint chutney and butter!!

I have posted recipe for aaloo ke parathe Aaloo ka Paratha (paratha with spicy potato stuffing)and coriander chutney Coriander Chutneyalso in the blog…. mint chutney also has same procedure as coriander chutney, just replace coriander leaves to mint leaves .

Ingredients :

Onion (medium-sized) 4

Green chillies 3-4

Ginger tiny piece

Oil 1tsp

Salt, red chilli powder, garam masala powder, dry mango powder, one pinch asafoetida. (add all spices as per your taste)

Wheat flour dough

Dry wheat flour

Oil for roasting paratha

Process :

Chop onions and green chillies finely and grate ginger.

Heat oil in a pan and add chopped onions, green chillies and grated ginger. Roast them till they become light brown.

Add salt, red chilli powder, garam masala powder, dry mango powder and hing (asafoetida) and switch off gas. Let it cool down completely .

Prepare wheat flour dough and heat tava. Take a small portion from the dough and make a round ball, apply some dry flour on it and roll it in a small round shape.

Keep some onion masala on it and seal it by pinching from all the sides.

Again apply some dry flour and roll this in a round shape carefully and evenly from all sides.

Place this on hot tava and when you notice tiny bubbles, flip it to other side and apply oil and follow the same for other side also.

If you have rolled paratha evenly it will puff up beautifully.

Serve hot Pyaaz ka paratha with curd, chutney, butter or pickle!!

September 8, 2018April 22, 2022

Deeksha Pathak31 Comments

Pyaaz ke pakode/onion bhajji

I have a very interesting story regarding how I have learnt to prepare these Pyaaz ke pakode/onion bhajji. After my marriage I came to Chennai with my husband and here I got introduced to the word bhajji. In North India ‘bhajji’ word is not used for any kind of pakode. Bhajji is South Indian term for pakoda and compared to North India, in South there are a big variety of bhajjis.

After staying 10 months in Chennai we went to Jamaica. There was an Indian restaurant named Akbar. As an appetizer pyaaz ke pakode/onion bhajji used to be served. It was less oily, and unlike onion pakode, crispy fried slices of onions were wrapped with less flour. We had enjoyed them thoroughly and I always wondered how do they manage to use such less flour and have every slice separate without getting stuck with each other. I tried to replicate at home but failed miserably.

Three years later when when we were settled down in Bangalore, Manish and I were watching Sanjeev Kapoor’s food show on TV and there he was cooking the same onion bhajji!!! We both jumped with joy to see the whole process and next weekend this onion bhajji was part of our breakfast!!!!

There is one more post based on onions in the blog. if you are interested, can take a look… Pyaaz ka paratha (Indian flat bread, stuffed with roasted onion)

Ingredients :
Vertically chopped onion slices
Oil for frying
Gram flour
salt as per taste

Process :
Peel onions and wash them nicely. Chop them vertically in long stripes.
You really need to chop a lot of onions here so take help from your family members…

Add salt as per your taste in these chopped onion and mix nicely. Let these salted onions rest for 20-30 minutes.

During this resting period salt will melt and onions will be wet.

Now start sprinkling gram flour (besan) 1 tbsp at a time over these wet salty onion. We are not going to add water here, so use gram flour wisely that it gets wrapped around with wet onions.

Heat oil in a deep wok on medium flame and fry these onions. As there is less flour wrapped around onions, pakodas/bhajjis wouldn’t absorb much oil during frying.

Serve hot pyaaz ke karare pakode/onion bhajji with your choice of chutney or sauce!!!

August 4, 2018April 22, 2022

Deeksha Pathak4 Comments

Tamatar ki chutney

I like tamatar ki chutney along with poori and paratha a lot in brunch. I like the word “brunch” a lot. It suits occasionally lazy people like me 😉. It allows us to cook just two meals rather than three in a day.

Generally while having poori for brunch I prefer to have curd along with sukhe aaloo ki sabzi Sukhe aaloo ki sabzi (boiled potatoes with Indian spices). But last weekend I thought of trying salty, sweet, tangy and spicy tamatar ki chutney. My mother used to prepare it as a side dish for stuffed parathas and was my favourite!

A small tip:

To prepare this chutney, always buy sour tomatoes, instead of sweet ones.

Ingredients :

Tomatoes, green chilies, dry mint powder or fresh mint leaves, salt, sugar, red chili powder, oil, turmeric powder, rai, cumin seeds and asafoetida. You can go with your choice of flavours like parsley, basil, rosemary, garlic, ginger etc…

Process:

Wash tomatoes, green chilies and fresh mint leaves.

Cut tomatoes into big pieces and chop green chilies.

In a pan heat 2 tbsp oil (I used mustard oil) and crackle rai, cumin seeds and asafoetida.

Add tomatoes and green chilies in the oil along with salt, red chilli powder and turmeric powder.

Cover it and let it cook on medium to sim flame for 15-20 minutes. Tomatoes are very tender so they don’t take long time to get cooked.

In between turn them upside down but don’t let tomatoes become completely mashed up.

Once tomatoes are cooked add sugar (according to your taste) and sprinkle dry mint powder for flavor. If you don’t have dry mint powder, chop finely fresh mint leaves and add.