Plain Paratha - Daily Indian Flat bread

This "plain paratha" is an advanced version of Chapati :-) I first tasted this dish at my in-laws place Kanpur and I liked it so much that I usually prepare paratha for dinner instead of chapati.

Ingredients:-

Aatta / Chapathi dough
Oil - As required

If you are a beginner in cooking then read my post How to Knead aatta to prepare perfect dough. Once you prepare the dough then prepare small balls of the dough and keep it aside.

Roll the paratha into a disk of 3-4 diameter. Apply oil in half of the disk and fold the paratha as shown in the picture. Now apply again on the half portion and fold again to half to make it a triangular shape.

Now sprinkle some wheat flour on the double folded dough and roll into a triangular or square shaped parathas.

Heat a pan and keep this paratha on the tava. Cook both sides and apply oil on both sides. Once the paratha is done then remove it from tava.

Serve hot with any sabji of your choice.


Tips:-
If you use more oil then the paratha's will come out very soft.
You can replace oil with ghee for better taste. But If you are health conscious then I recommend you to use only refined oil.

Methi parata - Fenugreek leaves Parata

You can find methi leaves very easily in this season at any vegetable shop. Here let us see how to prepare healthy methi parata.

Ingredients :-

Methi leaves - 1 bunch
Wheat flour - 1 cup
Salt - As required
Turmeric - 1 tsp
Water - For kneading the dough
Oil - for making parata

Remove the leave stems and clean and chop methi leaves and keep it aside.

Heat a kadai and add chopped methi leaves, salt and turmeric and let it cook for 3 minutes. Switch off the flame once the leaves get soft and reduce the quantity into half.

Take a wide pan and mix wheat flour and cooked methi leaves into it. Knead the aatta with water. Follow the steps How to knead aatta if you are new to cooking.

Once the dough is ready cover it and keep it for 15 minutes. Now make small ball of dough and start making chapatis out of it. Heat a tava and cook the chapatis in medium heat with little oil.

Serve hot with Curd or Achar or any curry of your choice.

Kerala Recipe :- Puttu a kerala special breakfast

I bet you can't find a single malayali who don't like puttu. So here the recipe is...the mouth watering tasty breakfast.

Ingredients:-

Puttu powder / Rice flour - 2 cups

Grated coconut - As required for layering

Salt - As required

Water - As required.

Mix the rice flour and salt in a wide bowl. Add water very little at a time and start mixing the flour. Repeat this step till the flour is in a moist consistency. To check the flour is properly mixed press the flour in your fist then should hold its shape but easily crumble when you press it.

Now take a puttu vessel / puttu maker (which is available in most of the vessel stores) and start layering the grated coconut and flour. First add 1 to 2 tbsp grated coconut and then add the rice flour till half way filled. Now again add coconut and then the flour. Now add the last coconut layer cover the vessel and steam it.

Steam about 5-8 minutes and once the steam started coming out well then switch off the flame. Unmould by pressing through the mould using a stick.

Serve it hot with kadala curry or chicken curry... Enjoy

Easy Breakfast Idea- Egg rava chilla/Dosa

This is an easy breakfast recipe which you can prepare in 15 minutes. This is healthy and heavy breakfast and easy snack box idea for the school going kids.

To prepare this tasty dish you need the below ingredients:-

Onion - 1

Green chilli - 1

Ginger - 1 small piece

Rava/Sooji/Semolina - 1 cup

Water - As required

Salt - As required

Egg - 2

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Oil - 2 tbsp

Cut the onion, ginger and green chilli into small pieces. Heat oil in a kadai and add the chopped onion, ginger and green chilli and saute for 3 minutes. Once the onion turned to light brown color switch off the stove.

If the rava is not roasted then roast the rava in a kadai and keep it aside. 

Note:-  

How to roast rava? -> Heat a kadai without oil and add rava into this. Stir continuously till the rava change it color.

Now in a bowl mix the rava, fried onion-ginger-green chilli together with salt and turmeric powder. Beat the egg in a glass and pour this egg mixture to the bowl. Now mix everything together and add water to make it to a dosa batter consistency. Check the salt.

Now heat a dosa tava and pour oil into that. Take a spoon full of the rava egg mixture and pour on to the tava. You will not be able to spread the mix like dosa batter, so carefully flatten it little bit and cover it. 

Once both sides of the dosa is done then transfer it to a plate and serve hot with sauce.

Tips:-

You can add chopped vegetables such as carrot, beans to make this dish more healthy.

Add tomatoes if you like.

You can pack this in the snack box and kids will love to eat this.

Kerala Recipe :- How to prepare chutney with dry red chillies and grated coconut

The basic difference between red color chutney and green color coconut chutney are the chillies used for preparing it.The red color coconut chutney is prepared of dry red chillies and the green color chutney is made of green chillies.

Here we will see how to prepare red color coconut chutney.

Ingredients:-

Grated coconut - 1/2 cup

Kunjulli / Shallots - 5

Ginger - 1 small piece

Garlic - 1 clove

Dry red chillies roasted on a tava with a drop of oil - 2

Puli / Tamarind - 1 small piece

Salt - As required

Curd - 3 tbsp

Note:- The red chillies need to be roasted before grinding. Heat a tava and add 2-3 drops of oil into that. Now fry the red chillies in oil and once you get the smell of the chilli switch of the flame and keep it aside for cooling.

Grind all the ingredients together and add curd at the end and grind again. Add some water and grind to make the chutney to a smooth paste. Transfer this to a bowl.

Heat oil for tempering, add mustard seeds and dry red chilli. Once the mustard seeds is done add curry leaves to this mixture and pour this to the chutney.

Serve with your favorite Idli/Vada or Dosa. 

Uzhunnu Vada / Urad dal vada @ home

An easy breakfast/snack recipe.

Uzhunnu/Urad dal - 1 cup
Salt - As required
Onion - 1
Pepper - 5
Curry leaves - 1 spring
Ginger - small piece
green chilli - 2

Soak uzhunnu / urad dal in water for 5 hours. Grind it with salt and few drops of water and keep it.The batter must be thick.

Mix ginger, green chilli, onion, pepper, curry leaves to this ground dal and keep it aside.

Heat kadai with oil. Wet hands with water and make balls off the paste. Make a hole in the center of the batter. Deep fry Uzhunnu/urad Vada in low flame till golden brown colour.

Serve hot with chutney and sambhar.

Tips:-

You can grind urad dal and keep it overnight for fermentation. This gives a very soft uzhunnu vada.

If required add some rice powder to the ground dal to make it thick.

Besan Ka Chilla (Cheela)- An easy breakfast

This easy breakfast is prepared with besan (gram flour). To prepare Chilla you need the below ingredients.

Gram flour - 2 cups
Onion chopped - 1
Tomato chopped - 1
Green Chilli Chopped - 2
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Jeera - 1/2 tsp
Crushed dried chilli - 1/2 tsp (Optional)
Grated carrot - 1 small (Optional)
oil - As required.
Water - 1 cup

Mix all the ingredients gram flour, onion, tomato, green chilli, turmeric powder, jeera, crushed dried chilli (optional), carrot (optional) and salt in a bowl with little water. Continue to add water till the batter becomes to a dosa batter consistency. Taste the batter to check the salt.

Now take a dosa tava, heat it and pour some oil into it. Now Pour a spoon full of mix on the tava(the same way as we make dosa) and spread it into circular motion. Cover it for a minute.

When one side is ready flip it over and cook the other side as well. When the chilla is ready remove it from tava and serve hot with sauce or chutney. Repeat the steps for the remaining batter.

Note:-
You can add grated vegetables like carrot, beans etc to make it colorful.
Add coriander leaves to the batter if required.

Vegetable Rava Upma

Here is another easy breakfast recipe, the vegetable rava upma. Many people don’t like upma but if you add some vegetables like carrot and beans then definitely it will be a hit. Here I am going to prepare upma with the ingredients listed in the below table.

S. No	Items Required	Quantity
1	Rava	1 cup
2	Musturd seeds	1 tsp
3	Urad dal	1 tsp
4	Dried Red chilli	1
5	Ginger Finely Choped	1 tsp
6	Green Chilli finely chopped	1
7	Onion dinely chopped	1
8	Tomato finely chopped	1
9	Salt	As required
10	Curry Leaves	Few Leaves
11	Water	1 n 1/2 Cup
12	Carrot Finely chopped	1 small
13	Beans finely chopped	4
14	Oil	1 tsp
15	Grated Coconut(optional)

Chopped Veggies for the upma preperation

Step 1: 

Heat a kadai and pour oil. Once the oil is hot add mustard seeds, Urad dal , dried red chilli and allow it to splutter.

Step 2: 

Now add the finely chopped onion, green chilli and ginger into it. Add curry leaves also.

Step 3:

Once the onion becomes soft add chopped tomatoes and cook till tomatoes are soft. Add carrot and beans and sauté again till all the vegies are cooked.

Step 4:

Now add water into this mix and put salt as much as required. Allow it to boil. Once the water comes to boil then add rava slowly into this and stir continuously. It’s important to stir otherwise the lumps will get formed.

Step 5:

Once the rava absorbs all the water, add grated coconut into it. If you don’t like to add coconut then leave this step as it is optional. 

Step 6: 

Cover and cook the upma for 2 minutes. Dont forget to stir in between.

Step 7:
The tasty tasty upma is ready to serve now. You can serve it with chutney, Achar, Sauce, banana or sugar.

The final product : The Vegetable Upma

The Tasty Tasty Aaloo Parata @ home

I love aaloo parata. I have not seen a single person who don't like aaloo parata in my friends circle. So here is the simple steps to make tasty aaloo parata.

Things you require to prepare aaloo parata is as below.

S. No	Items Required	Quantity
1	Whole wheat/aatta	2 cups
2	Water	1 1/4 cups
3	Salt	as required
4	aaloo	3
5	Green chilli	2
6	Coriander leaves	handful (finely chopped)
7	fennel seeds	1 tsp
8	Cumin Powder	1/2 tsp
9	Coriander powder	1 tsp
10	Salt	as required

Make soft dough same as for chapathi. For more details refer to my post "Beginners guide :- How to knead the perfect dough for chapathi". Make balls of dough similar to the size of a lemon and keep aside.

Pressure cook the potatos until smooth and peel off the skin and mash it in a bowl. Add finely chopped green chilly, salt, coriander leaves, fennal seeds, cumin powder and coriander powder to the mashed aaloo and mix well. Now your stuffing for the parata is ready.

Now take the small balls of dough and make a hole in the middle. Now fill the above stuffing in this and seal it properly. Roll it out very carefully and in between dip the parata to the extra wheat flour to avoid sticking. Make sure that the sealed part is always on the top.

Heat the tawa and keep the paratta on it. When you find small bubbles gets formed on the parata just turned it with the help of a stick and apply oil.

Press the parata with the stick and cook it till its done. Remove from tawa and place it in a kitchen tissue paper. 

Have this tasty aallo parata with curd, achar or sauce according to your taste. So girls, prepare this at home, eat healthy and save money. 

Tips:-

Don't fill too much stuffing in the dough.

Egg Parata or chapati egg Pizza? -- whatever, but it is very tasty

This is an awesome tasty breakfast you can prepare with very less time. This taste fantastic and kids will love this for sure. I named it egg parata J

First kneed the aatta/wheat flour same as for chapathi. I believe everybody knows how to make the dough for chapathi. Else please refer my post “Beginners guide :- How to knead the perfect dough for chapathi”.

Now beat the eggs in a glass and add pepper powder, salt and then cut the onion, tomato and green chilli as small as possible (the same way we cut for preparing egg omelette) and mix with it. Mix everything nicely and keep it aside.

Take small balls of aatta and make 2 thin chapathi. Heat a tava and cook the chapathi till small blisters appear. Don’t overcook. Keep these two half cooked chapathi’s aside.

Take a tava and pour some oil and keep one of the half cooked chapathi on that. Now pour the egg mixture on top of the chapathi and keep the other chapathi  to cover it. Cover the pan and cook for 1 minute. Now turn the chapathi to the other side and cook.

Remove this cooked egg parata from the tava and keep it in a plate. Now cut the egg parata to 4 pieces and enjoy with tomato sauce. Isn’t it yummy????

S. No	Items Required	Quantity
1	Wheat flour/aata	1 cup
2	Salt	as required
3	Water	as required
4	Onion	1
5	Tomato	1
6	Green Chilli	2
7	Egg	4
8	Oil	2 tbsp / as required
9	Pepper powder	1 tsp / as required

Tips :-

Add veggies like capsicum, carrot, beans and paneer with the egg mix to make this parata more delicious. 

Beat the Monday blues with beaten rice - Poha

Poha for 2 Adult and 1 Kid

A healthy breakfast for a healthy family. Yes as per doctors the Indian breakfast Poha is very healthy. Let’s see how to prepare a simple poha on a monday morning.

S. No	Items required	Quantity
1	Poha	2 cup
2	Dried red chilly	1
3	Musturd seeds	1 tsp
4	Curry leaf	1 spring
5	Peanuts	15
6	Turmeric	a pinch
7	Green Chilli	1
8	Onion	1 small
9	Tomato	1 small
10	salt	As required
11	Sugar	1 tsp
12	Oil	1tsp

Preparation :- 

Wash and soak the beaten rice with water and drain it and keep it aside. The beaten rice should not get very soft so drain the water when it becomes little soft.

Add 1 tbsp oil in a kadai and fry the peanuts till it’s done and keep it aside in a tissue paper. In the same kadai splutter mustard seeds and add dried red chilli and curry leaves. Add the chopped onion and saute till its soft. Add green chilli, tomato and saute till tomatoes are soft. Add turmeric and salt in the mixture. Add the soaked and drained poha to this mix and stir well. Add the fried peanuts and sugar into this. Switch off the flame and cover the poha for a minute. Now prepare your tea and enjoy with poha and sauce. 

Tips:- 

Cut small pieces of potato or Paneer and fry it after the peanuts are done. This can also be mixed with poha for better taste. You can put peas as well. But do it if you have time, may be on a weekend :)