Beetroot was one vegetable which was never made either at my mother’s place nor at my in law’s. I frankly have no clue why, as my mom and mother in law were both great cooks. I started including it as a sandwich filler for the children or made an upkari, but beyond that never ventured into making anything else with it. Those were days without the internet and we relied solely on cookery books.
The variety today that is made with this humble vegetable is simply amazing! Paratha, saaru, cake, halva…. The list is endless.
The post by my friend dear Nazia Rashidee prompted me to try out the Beetroot Parathas. Thank-you so much dear for the encouragement. They turned out awesome.
I just added some beetroot puree to the Paratha dough . The rest of the procedure remains the same. Sharing the link to the Paratha.
Parathas – be it plain or stuffed, are synonymous with the North of India. Down South the staple is more of rice . The GSB community does make Aloo Parathas for breakfast but they are known as Batatya Ubbatti and the seasoning used is a South Indian one. Each household uses the seasoning of their choice. Posting the recipe of the one that my dear friend Rekha Shenoy shared with me.
Ingredients for the filling:
4 medium sized potatoes boiled, peeled and mashed
3 tbsps grated coconut
8 green chillies ( you can increase or decrease as per requirement)
A kidney bean sized piece of Hing/ asafoetida
3 tbsps finely chopped coriander leaves
Salt
Ingredients for the dough:
4 cups/ around 300 gms of wheat flour
Salt
1 tbsp oil
Warm water to bind the dough.
Method:
Grind the coconut, green chillies and Hing together. Tip this paste into the mashed potatoes. Add finely chopped coriander leaves and salt. Mix well and make ten balls of the mash. Keep aside.
Tip the wheat flour and salt in a bowl. Adding a little water at a time knead it into a soft pliable dough. Add the oil and knead again for a couple of minutes. Allow to rest for about ten minutes. Make equal number of balls of the dough as that of the filling. You will notice that the ten balls made are slightly larger than that of the filling. This is to ensure that the filling does not come out when the Paratha is being rolled.
Take a ball of the dough and roll it into a three inch sized circle. Place the filling in the centre and cover it with the surrounding dough. Take care to see that the filling is completely covered. Similarly finish off with the remaining dough. Now dust a ball with wheat flour and roll it into an eight inch sized circle of medium thickness. Parathas are never rolled thin. Heat a tava/ skillet. Smear a tsp of ghee onto it and place the Paratha gently on the tava. Drizzle with ghee on the top too. Roast the Paratha to a golden brown. Flip. Roast the other side too. Serve hot with a blob of butter and curd or a subzi.
Ragi/ Finger millet/ Nachani is highly nutritious and can be used in a variety of breakfast eats or as the most popular Ragi mudde with Bas sopu saaru for lunch. I have posted quite a few recipes using Ragi in the Breakfast Eats section of this website. Today I tried out the recipe of a poori which my friend Reena Pillai shared with me. The addition of Ragi lends a sweet taste to the Poori and the best part is that it retains it’s shape for a long time.
Ingredients:
1 cup Ragi flour
1 cup wheat flour
1 tbsp oil
Salt
Water to bind the dough
Oil to fry the Pooris.
Method:
Tip in both the flours, salt and oil in a bowl. Mix thoroughly and then adding water a little at a time bind it to a hard dough. Knead the flour well for a couple of minutes, cover and rest for ten minutes. Give a quick knead once again and pinch tiny pieces of the dough. Roll into a ball and flatten it into a pellet. Dust the pellet with flour and roll it out into a circle three inches in diameter. It should be neither thick nor thin. Roll out ten to twelve pooris and cover the remaining dough while they are being fried. Heat oil in a pan. Sprinkle a little flour into the oil to check the temperature. If it sizzles, gently slide in the poori, press it down with a slotted spoon and allow it to fluff up. Flip, fry on the other side, drain and place on a kitchen towel. Finish frying the remaining pooris before you start rolling out the next batch. Serve hot with Potato bhaji or Chutney.
Jollada Rotti as it is popularly known in Uttar Karnataka is a type of flat bread made from Jowar or Sorghum flour. Though traditionally it is patted into shape rather than rolled, you can roll it out as I have by adding a few spoons of wheat flour to it. It requires expertise and a lot of practice to pat this Rotti, so rolling out is much easier. I thank my friend dear Girija Kurugund for sharing this traditional recipe with me.
Ingredients:
1 cup Jowar flour
2 tbsps wheat flour
1.5 cups of water
Salt
1/2 tsp oil
Method:
Mix the Jowar flour, wheat flour,salt and oil. Crumble it well. Now adding a little water at a time bind the flour into a soft dough. Knead well, cover and keep aside for a few minutes. Now pinch balls of the dough and roll it as you would a Chapati. Normally it is patted to around 8 inches in diameter. I have retained it to the regular six inch size. Heat a tava/ skillet. Place the rolled Rotti over it and apply a little water on top of the Rotti. Allow it to roast on the underside. Flip. Roast the other side as well. Remove and place it on a kitchen napkin or a cloth which is used to store Chapati. Cover and keep. Best eaten off the stove.
Kulcha is a soft bread which though traditionally made with Maida/ all purpose flour, is now made with wheat flour which is healthier. One can make a variety of Kulchas, plain and stuffed, but the most popular is the Garlic Kulcha which is fragrant because of the roasted garlic. I thank my friend Krithiga Sathya Narayanan for this lovely recipe.
Ingredients:
2 cups wheat flour
Salt
1/2tsp baking soda
3/4th tsp baking powder
4 tbsps curd/ yoghurt
Other ingredients:
25 garlic cloves chopped fine
5 tbsps coriander leaves chopped fine
2 tsps Black sesame seeds or Nigella seeds. Either one can be used.
Ghee to brush the Kulcha.
Method:
Mix the baking soda, baking powder, salt and the wheat flour in a bowl. Tip in the curd and adding a little water at a time, mix all the ingredients to a smooth and soft dough.
Cover with a cloth and keep it aside for two hours as it has to rise.
Knead the dough again and pinch a medium sized ball of dough. Roll it into a little thick circle of about six inches in diameter. Apply a little water on the surface of the Kulcha facing upwards and sprinkle chopped garlic, coriander leaves, and the Nigella or sesame seeds. Run the rolling pin once over them so that they adhere to the Kulcha.
Heat an iron tava/ skillet. Gently place the Kulcha over it . Sprinkle a little water around it and place a lid over it. Cook over medium flame for a few minutes. Flip. Apply a little ghee. Roast the other side too and serve hot with a blob of butter.
This is an amazing recipe of Instant Chapati that my friend Sabitha Shenoy shared with me. No kneading, no rolling nor does it need to be prepared in advance. Ready in just a few minutes. Extremely soft and delicious. You can see from the folds how soft it is. More like a Roomali roti made of wheat flour. Only requirement is a non stick tava/ skillet.
Ingredients:
1 cup wheat flour
Salt as required
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp oil
Water to make a batter of dosa consistency.
Method:
Take one cup of wheat flour in a bowl. Add the salt, sugar and oil. Keep adding water a little at a time taking care to see no lumps are formed. Whisk the batter in one direction adding water till you get a batter of flowing consistency. The batter should not be thick. Heat a non stick tava/ skillet. When it’s just warm, pour a ladleful of the batter and spread it thinly in concentric circles to a diameter of seven to eight inches. The size of the Chapati depends on the size of the tava. Turn up the heat to medium low and allow the Chapati to roast. Once you see bubbles appearing, flip and roast on the other side as well. Keep pressing down with the spatula. Once roasted remove and serve hot. You may brush it with ghee if required.
Note: The entire roasting process has to take place on a medium flame as turning on the heat too high can make the Chapati hard.
This Cheesy Garlic bread is a bread lover’s delight. Cheese and garlic, both are my weaknesses , so I was thrilled when my friend Jyothi Baliga posted her version of it. I can only say one thing…… It’s Divine!
Ingredients:
One loaf of garlic bread
Cheese spread
Grated Mozzarella cheese as per requirement
Chilly flakes, oregano and pepper for seasoning
Butter to roast the bread
Method:
Slice the Garlic bread to one inch thickness. Butter the slices on both sides and toast them lightly on a tava/ skillet. Apply some cheese spread, top it with grated Mozzarella, season with chilly flakes, oregano and pepper and place them in a grill. Allow the cheese to melt. Remove and serve hot.
Note: I have again added a layer of cheese spread and sprinkled some chilly flakes for aesthetics. You may avoid the same.
I normally bind the Paratha dough with water and a tsp of Ghee. Tried out the recipe shared by my friend Mukherjee Mala of binding it with milk and adding some Kasuri methi and ajwain to it. It’s turned out extremely fragrant and delicious.
Ingredients:
250 gms wheat flour
2 tsps oil
1/2 a tsp of Ajwain/ carom seeds
1 tbsp Kasuri methi
Salt
Milk enough to bind the dough
Ghee/ clarified butter to roast the Parathas
Method:
Gently crush the Ajwain and Kasuri methi with your palms and tip them into a bowl. This helps in releasing their fragrance. Add salt and half a cup of lukewarm milk. Add the wheat flour and bind a soft dough. Add more milk if required while binding. Add the oil and knead the dough for a couple of minutes. Cover and keep aside for about fifteen minutes. Knead the dough again for a minute and make ten balls of the dough. Roll out a ball into a circle of three inches diameter and apply half a tsp of Ghee on it. Fold it into half and again apply a little ghee. Fold it again into a triangle and roll out into a triangular shaped Paratha. Finish off similarly with the remaining balls of dough. Heat a tava/ skillet. Brush it with Ghee. Gently place the Paratha on the hot skillet and brush ghee on top. Roast to a golden brown. Flip and roast on the other side too. Serve hot with curd/ yoghurt and a subzi.
I have posted a couple of Bread Upma recipes earlier. One with onions and one without. I learnt this one from my late Mother in law who used to rustle up such quick delicious items when the children were hungry.
Ingredients :
12 slices of Bread cut into bite sized pieces
2 medium sized onions sliced
2 potatoes deskinned and cubed
9 green chillies chopped fine
2 sprigs Curry leaves
4 tbsps finely chopped coriander leaves
1/4 tsp Hing /Asafoetida
1/4 coconut grated
3 tbsps oil
2 tbsps Ghee/Clarified Butter
1 tsp Jeera /Cumin seeds
A pinch of Haldi /Turmeric powder
Salt
Method:
Add salt and Hing in a small glass of water. Mix and sprinkle it on the pieces of bread. Heat the oil and Ghee mixture in a pan. Drop in the Jeera and after it splutters, add the sliced onions, green chillies, cubed potatoes and curry leaves. Drop in a pinch of salt and roast till the onions are translucent and the potatoes are done. Add the Haldi. Toss. Drop in the bread and mix. Heat thoroughly. Garnish with grated coconut and coriander leaves. Mix thoroughly and serve hot.
