Makki ki roti and Sarson ka Saag - Corn pancakes with mustard greens

Those cold wintery nights and what would warm you up in this situation??? offcourse Makki di roti aur sarson da saag...wah ki swad! Although Ive spent a sufficient amount of my childhood in the north I was never able to make the makki ki rotis as the punjabis would do. Thanks to my neighbour back in jsr.....she told me the trick. Hope you guys enjoy making and eating them too :)

Sarson ka Saag

Ingredients:

1 bunch sarson(Mustard green)

1 cup packed - spinach

2 tomatoes (finely chopped)

1 red onion (finely chopped)

4 cloves - garlic (finely chopped)

2" - ginger (peeled and finely chopped)

2 - green chillies (chopped)

1 tsp - salt or to taste

2 tbsp - makki ki atta( corn flour)

For Tempering :

3 tbsp - ghee or oil

1" - ginger (finely chopped)

2 - green chillies (finely chopped)

3/4 tsp - red chilli powder

Method:

Wash and clean mustard leaves. Remove the leaves. Hold the stem closer to the leaf and pull the leaf downwards, stringing out the thick fiber of the stem(like the way you string beans). Stems add flavor to the saag, but string them before adding and the stems have to be tender. Chop them finely. Chop spinach and add to the mustard greens. Cook them with 1/2 cup water. Add ginger, garlic and green chillies while cooking the greens into the pan. Add salt. Cover and cook for 15 mins on a medium flame. Remove and set aside until cool. Grind into a coarse paste. Do not grind into a smooth paste. In a small bowl, take corn flour and add couple of tsps of water and make into paste. Set aside. In a separate pan, add ghee and do tadka(tempering) by adding ginger and green chillies. When ginger changes color, add chopped onions and tomatoes. Once they are cooked properly add the ground greens. Add corn flour paste and cook for 2-3 mins. Add red chilli powder and adjust salt. Cook for another 2-3 mins. Add water if the saag is too thick. Turn off the heat. Serve hot with Makki Ki Roti and with a dollop of butter.

Makki Ki Roti

Ingredients:

2 cups - makki ki atta( corn flour)

1/2 tsp - salt or to taste

hot water - to knead

ghee or oil for frying

2 small plastic sheets

Method:

Sieve the flour, add salt and knead gently with hot water to a soft dough. Do not knead the dough well in advance. Place one plastic sheet on the working surface. Place one ball of dough and place the other plastic sheet on it, such that there is plastic sheet above and beneath the dough ball.
Press carefully with your fingers or roll it into slightly thick roti. Heat a pan or tava on low flame. Carefully transfer the roti into the tava and both side by adding ghee. Serve hot immediately with Sarson ka Saag.

Thengoyal with a twist

With Diwali around the corner, this time I decided to make thengoyal. But making thengoyal the usual way was not my intention at all. One of my friends was mentioning about how they make thengoyal by using coconut milk. That gave me a great idea...............and resulted in an amazing thengoyal with a twist. Hope u guys like it!

Ingredients:

Rice flour 4 cups

Payatham paruppu (Moong dal) 1 cup

Urad dal 1 cup

Butter 2 tsp

Salt

Omam (carom seeds) 1 tsp

Crushed red chilies 4 tsp

Jeera (Cumin) 1 tsp

Ellu (Gingelly/Sesame seeds) 1tsp

Coconut milk – enough to make the dough

oil for frying

Method:

Roast the moong dal and urad dal separately in pan without oil till it turns light brown. Let both the dal’s cool and then grind them separately into a fine powder. Mix the rice flour, moong dal powder, and urad dal powder together. Add salt and butter and mix well. Add the omam (carom), jeera (cumin), ellu (gingelly/sesame), red chilies to the flour and mix well. Add the coconut milk to the flour to make dough Squeeze the dough through a muruku press (achhu) into oil to fry it till its golden brown.

Aval bhel puri/ Poha Bhel

This recipe was given to me by A's aunt. She's a wonderful cook herself and loves to explore new recipes. Few yrs back when I was very consious abt eating low fat food, she told me abt this recipe which was easy to prepare and tasted just like bhel puri but prep is way diff.

Ingredients:

1 cup poha/ Aval

1/2 cup curd

1/4 tsp red chilly powder

1/4 tsp garam masala

1/2 cup chopped onions and tomatoes

freshly chopped corriander leaves

salt to taste

mustard seeds

1 tsp oil

sev for garnish

Method:

Soak the aval/poha in water till they become soft. In a pan heat oil and add mustard seeds. When they splutter add the chopped tomatoes. add the masalas and let it cook for sometime. Once the tomatoes become soft add the curd and cook for 2 min. Add the poha/aval and salt and mix well till it is well coated with the gravy. Remove from stove and serve it in a cup and garnish with sev, chopped onions and corriander leaves.

More Kali

This one is my mom and A's favourtie dish. In most of the iyer/iyengar families this is a top rated tiffin item, very easy to prepare and filling too. Any day you have sour curd and you do not want to end up making more kozhambu....this is the dish u need to try.

Ingredients:

Rice flour – 1 cup

Buttermilk – 3 cups

Salt – 1 tsp

Mustard seeds – ½ tsp

Urad dal – 1 tbsp

Chana dal – 1 tbsp

Mor milagai/Chillies cured in yogurt or Red chillies – 4

few curry leaves

Oil – 1 tsp

Method:

Mix the rice flour ,buttermilk and salt and keep aside. Please see that there are no lumps formed. Heat a pan with oil and let the mustard seeds, chana dal, urad dal, curry leaves and red chillies splutter. Add the rice flour and buttermilk mixture into the pan. Keep stirring until you feel that its fully cooked. Once done transfer into a plate and set it and cut into pieces and serve with pickle. I just love to eat them as they are :)

Methi Paratha/ Fenugreek leaves indian bread

I remember those good old childhood days in jamshedpur, where during winter we got fresh methi leaves. Dad used to demand for methi rotis......and why not when they r so tasty. Methi leaves being a little bitter when made into rotis taste out of the world. The best side dish for methi paratha wld be a simple alu and tamatar gravy sabzi..........or just plain achaar (pickle).

Ingredients:

1 cup wheat flour

1 bunch fresh methi leaves

1 tsp red chilly powder

1/4 tsp aesofotida

1 green chilly - chopped finely

2 cloves garlic - chopped finely - (optional)

1/2 cup curd

1 tbsp oil

Method:

Separate the methi leaves from the bunch, wash and chop them. Mix wheat flour, methi leaves, green chilly, garlic, chilly poweder, aesofotida along with the curd. If you need some water to knead it...you can use little. add 1 tbsp oil and knead well enough and keep aside. Make into equal round balls and roll them as you wld make any roti. Make them in a tava and apply little oil on both sides of the paratha and cook them properly. Once done enjoy them hot with ur choice of side dish.

Paneer Kofta Curry - Cottage cheese in spicy gravy

After a very long time here come's my recipes. I was so bored the other day cooking the same old stuffs, I decided to make paneer koftas. A has tried them in restaurants but was never a big fan of it. So I made the paneer at home and thought paneer kofta's shld be given a chance :)
After having his dinner, A was so happy with the kofta's that he has become a big fan of it now.

Ingredients:

For Koftas:

200 gms Cottage Cheese (Paneer)
2 Potatoes

1/2 tsp Red Chili Powder
1/4 tsp Garam Masala

2 tblsp Cornflour

Oil for frying

For Gravy:

4 Onions
4 Tomatoes

Coriander Leaves

1/2 cup Curd - optional

1/2 cup Cashewnut Powder

1/2 tsp Cumin Seed
1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Red Chili Powder

1/4 tsp Turmeric

1/4 tsp Garam Masala

1 Bay Leaf

2 tbsp Ghee

Method:

Boil potatoes and peel them.
Grate paneer and potatoes.
Add salt, red chili powder, garam masala, cornflour and mix well.
Make round balls of this mixture.
Now heat oil in a pan.
Fry balls in the oil till brown in color.
Grind onion and tomatoes together.
Chop coriander leaves very finely.
Heat oil in a pan.
Add cumin seed and bay leaf.
Add onion, tomato paste and brown it, stirring continously.
When it leaves oil add curd, cashewnut powder, salt, red chili powder, turmeric, garam masala.
Stir it continously for a minute.
Then add 2 cup of water.
Put on the lid and simmer for 5 minutes.
While serving reheat the gravy and then add koftas to it.
Garnish it with chopped coriander leaves.

Paneer Kofta's go well with rotis as well as rice. I served it up with veg fried rice.

Chana Chaat

Another super hit dish from my daughter's birthday party was the chana chaat. The recipe for making chana is already there in http://annaprashana.blogspot.com/2009/01/luchi-gughni-authentic-recipe-of-west.html . The only variation while making the masala for the chana, I used only tomatoes, jeera seed and red chillies so that the gravy is very mild. This is because the chana and the masala shld be mild in order to get the taste of other additions made into this dish.

Once the chana is made mix in some tamarind chutney and pudina chutney, chopped onions, corriander leaves and grated carrots. Also crush some papdis or puri's of pani puri as they will give a nice a crisy texture to the dish.