Coriander laccha paratha

I had shared my basic Laccha paratha recipe. Recipe: Laccha paratha with wheat flour

Today sharing another version of how I tried to add coriander leaves and make this coriander laccha paratha.

Ingredients:

Wheat flour: 1 cup
Water to knead the dough
Oil or ghee: 1/2 tsp.
Ghee/butter for frying
Salt to taste
Red chilli powder
Cumin powder
Coriander powder
Mango powder
(All spices according to taste)
Fresh coriander leaves

1. Add the ghee/oil to the flour and mix well with fingers to a crumbling consistency. Add the salt, red chilli, cumin, coriander and mango powder to the flour and mix well. Now start adding very little water at a time to make the dough. Do not add a lot of water, the dough must be smooth and hard, not watery. Prepare the dough and keep covered for 10 minutes.
2. Begin by pinching balls from the prepared dough. Make a round ball as you would for a roti, but take a bigger ball. Flatten it with a rolling pin to a big size, I make it to the biggest size possible.
3. Now spread the chopped coriander leaves all over the paratha and roll it as we do in the plain paratha and then roll in dusting flour and flatten it with the rolling pin with light pressure. 
   
   
   
   
4. Now add this to a very hot griddle/pan on maximum flame. Let cook on one side for about 30 seconds and quickly turn the paratha and repeat from the other side. 
   
   
   
   
5. Cook evenly on both sides and remove from the griddle. Cook and prepare all the parathas in this way and keep aside. Fry all the parathas with ghee/butter on both sides, like you would do with a normal paratha, on medium flame so they don't become hard. Remove from flame and serve hot.

How to make chapatti (roti/Indian flatbread)

Making chappati (Indian flatbread) is the most basic thing in an Indian household, but also it can be the most difficult thing sometimes. It's a blessing that I could make nice, soft, round puffed-up chappatis since the age of 9.. and the credit goes to.. obviously my Nani-ji. She was the one who taught me to make the basic roti dough and chappatis. She always used to tell me: Beta, where ever you live, no matter how much you earn, you MUST know how to feed yourself, because not every time you will find someone who would be willing to cook for you in exchange of money, not every day you will love what someone else can cook for you, and you must NEVER trust on anybody to fill up yourself with nice, healthy food; because anybody can deceive you when you want a nice, simple home-cooked food, but not your own hands. Your hands will always be with you, and if you know how to create simple and basic food, you will be satisfied and happy and independent.

So here's sharing how I make basic chappatis:

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour
Water to knead
Dry wheat flour for dusting

1. Make a nice dough with the wheat flour. See here: Making basic roti dough.
2. Pinch out a small ball from the dough, it must not be very big, not small. Now, how you roll this into a ball will affect how the chappati will turn out. So this ball needs to be punched a bit with the first two fingers and then rolled in a ball. The smoother the ball, the better the roti.
3. Now roll this ball into the dusting flour and press lightly with fingers. Dust off the excess flour and begin rolling, putting mild pressure. Rotis are best flattened when the rolling pin in held not too far from the part from the thicker part.
   
4. Roll in one direction, do not change sides often. Dust it in the flour whenever required, but do not dust more than twice for one chappati, and do not change sides more than twice for one chappati.
5. When the roti is rolled, it should neither be thick nor very thin, because the thick roti will not be done properly and very thin roti will dry out and become more like papad. Now dust off all the excess dusting flour from the chappati by carefully lifting up the chappati. The extra dusting flour makes the chappati dry and burns in to leave the red patches in chappti.
6. Now heat the tawa/griddle/pan on the maximum heat. When it is hot, carefully put the chappati. After 10 seconds, flip sides. Wait. After 20 seconds flip sides again and then lighly press with a kitchen cloth. The roti will begin to puff up. At this time, turn the flame to low. 
7. Flip sides quickly and lightly press with the kitchen cloth and by this time the roti will be done. Remove from flame. I do not use anything like a wire mesh and always prepare on my non-stick tawa. Repeat for all the dough. Enjoy soft chappatis with anything.

Royal Green Paratha

Ingredients:

Wheat flour: 2 cups for making 4 parathas
Water to knead
Gram flour: 1/4 cup
Yoghurt: 3 tsp.
Cooking oil: 1 tsp.
Cumin seeds: 1/2 tsp.
Spinach leaves: 2 cups
Carrots: 1
Green chilli (finely chopped): 1
Salt to taste
Red chilli powder
Mango powder
Garam masala
(All spices according to taste)

1. Heat oil in a shallow pan and crackle the cumin seeds. Add very finely chopped spinach to the pan and let it cook on medium flame for about 2 minutes. The leaves will start to wilt. Turn off the flame and let it cool. 
   
2. Take the flour in a bowl and add everything: gram flour, grated carrots, green chilli, yoghurt, salt, red chilli, mango powder and garam masala. Also add the cooked spinach. Mix everything well. 
3. Now make a dough by adding very little water at a time and form it into a solid dough. We will make parathas immediately as salt is added to the dough which will make the dough sticky if kept for sometime. 
4. Pinch out small balls from the dough and roll carefully using a little dusting from the dried wheat flour. 
   
5. Heat the griddle/tawa on highest temperature and carefully put the rolled out paratha on the tawa. 
6. Turn after 20 seconds. Let cook completely from both sides. Ideally it is cooked evenly,just past the stage of not remaining uncooked, but we prefer a little bit burnt flavour in the same, adds to the taste (just as you could see in the pictures). This comes with experience, you might not want to burn it much, as it will spoil the entire taste. So cook it just until past the uncooked stage. 
   
7. Now fry both sides with butter and take out on a plate. Add a dollop of butter and serve hot with any pickle or coriander-mint chutney.

Mughlai Paratha

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour (according to number of parathas required)
Water to knead the flour
Potatoes (boiled): 4
Salt to taste
Red chilli powder
Asafoetida
Cumin powder
Coriander powder
Garam masala
Mango powder
Chaat masala
Carom seeds
(All spices according to taste)
Cooking oil: 1 tsp.
Curry leaves: a few
Green chilli (finely chopped): 1
Peas (one cup)

1. Add all the masala to the wheat flour: salt, red chilli, asafoetida, cumin powder, coriander powder, garam masala, mango powder,chaat masala and carom seeds. Mix well in the flour and start kneading, adding little water. Knead to a firm dough and keep aside. If you need guidance on kneading, refer to my post here:  Making basic roti dough.
2. Heat oil in a pan on medium flame and add curry leaves. Fry for a bit and add green chilli. After about half a minute, add in the peas and let cook on medium-low flame until the peas are soft.
3. Turn off the flame and mix this cooked peas to the boiled and mashed potatoes and add a little salt and red chilli powder if required. The filling is ready.
4. Now pinch out small balls from the dough and roll carefully using a little dusting from the dried wheat flour.
5. Spread on the filling carefully. The filling doesn't have to be too less, nor be too much. Carefully close it from all the sides and very softly roll it in a ball in your palms again. Be careful not to press too hard else the filling will come out.
6. Now dust it all over with the wheat flour and start rolling with a rolling pin, adding little pressure. Roll only on one side, do not roll from both sides.
7. Heat the griddle/tawa on highest temperature and carefully put the rolled out paratha on the tawa.
8. Turn after 20 seconds. Let cook completely from both sides. Ideally it is cooked evenly,just past the stage of not remaining uncooked, but we prefer a little bit burnt flavour in the same, adds to the taste (just as you could see in the pictures). This comes with experience, you might not want to burn it much, as it will spoil the entire taste. So cook it just until past the uncooked stage.
9. Now fry both sides with butter and take out on a plate. Add a dollop of butter and serve hot with any pickle/raita.

Making basic roti dough

I have shared so many recipes and foods on my blog, but because a lot of people have problems in doing some of the basics in kitchen, I decided to help by posting some basic things in the kitchen. Here's posting the dough-making method for basic chappatis and parathas.

Making food is an art. And a large part of Indian households consists of making chappatis. For making the perfect, round chappatis, you need to have a nicely done dough.

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour
Water as required

1. The first step is to make the dough in a wide vessel (but not a deep one), specially if you are a beginner or your dough and chappatis never turn out good. I usually make in a small vessel, like a bowl because I rarely make a lot of dough at once. 
2. Add the flour to the vessel you are making the dough in. I do not add anything at all, no salt and nothing else because the less salt we eat, it's better, and you really don't need that much salt. But if you are used to adding salt, try reducing the amount you add. 
3. Do not add any ghee/oil to the dough. Yes, it does make the task easy and makes the dough less sticky, but that's really not the right way of doing it. Also it is not really needed to consume those extra calories the ghee/oil has.
4. Now begin by slowly adding a little water to the flour and mix well. Begin adding more water, bit by bit and begin kneading when the dough is not too dry. I use one hand to knead and the other to hold my bowl; but you can use both hands too. 
5. Be careful not to add more water at any stage and add very patiently. When you have a big wide bowl, you can knead in parts and start keeping aside the parts which you did knead a bit. Repeat for all the dough.
6. Now you will have roughly kneaded dough in parts. Combine them all together and knead a little again. Now wet your hands just a bit (not adding water, just wetting hands) and pat the dough gently. It should not be sticky at this stage if you did the kneading adding little water. 
7. Now again press on the whole dough with knuckles and roll it, knead a bit more. Repeat this step if the dough is not soft and smooth enough at this stage. Do not repeat again after two times as adding more water (even with the bit of water on hands) can make the dough sticky and we clearly don't want that.
8. At this stage the dough must be ready and soft. When you poke a finger in the dough it must be soft and not hard and not feel sticky. (If it is sticky, unfortunately now you cannot make it really nice, but add a very little flour and try to balance and try not to add more water, not more than a bit). 
9. Transfer to an air tight container (if not covered, the upper layers of the dough will begin to dry out and that eventually will need to be trashed) and keep in the refrigerator. I refrigerate overnight and it makes all the difference. When I make chappatis or parathas from instantly made dough, they never come out as good as they do even if I refrigerate for 2 hours. 
10. Hoping this helps some. Happy kneading !!

Lacchha Paratha (Whole Wheat)

Lacchha Paratha is a soft, layered and flaky paratha which I usually love to order in restaurants in India with some wonderful subzi. But I had never tried making it myself as I used to think the process must be quire complicated. Also this is made with maida and I did not want to include maida in my eating. So I decided to make this with whole wheat flour, not even a bit of maida, and it's really easy and comes out so soft and wonderful. Of course this is not perfect, yet to be practised; but was good for a first-timer. Here's how I made it:

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour (according to the number of parathas to be prepared)
Water to make the dough
Ghee or oil to add to the flour: a tsp. every cup of flour
Butter or ghee for frying
Wheat flour for dusting
Salt to taste
Carom seeds (optional)

1. Add the ghee/oil to the flour and mix well with fingers to a crumbling consistency. Add the salt and carom seeds to the flour and mix well. Now start adding very little water at a time to make the dough. Do not add a lot of water, the dough must be smooth and hard, not watery. Prepare the dough and keep covered for 10 minutes.
2. Begin by pinching balls from the prepared dough. Make a round ball as you would for a roti, but take a bigger ball. Flatten it with a rolling pin to a big size, I make it to the biggest size possible.
   
    
3. Dust the flattened dough with wheat flour. 
   
4. Begin folding the flattened and dusted roti in small folds until the whole roti is folded. The smaller folds, the more layers will show up in the paratha.
   
5. When the whole roti is folded, carefully make the folded roti into a circle and seal the ends. 
   
6. Begin by dusting the roti and flattening it very carefully with a rolling pin, putting minimum pressure. The roti will be prepared. 
   
7. Now add this to a very hot griddle/pan on maximum flame. Let cook on one side for about 30 seconds and quickly turn the paratha and repeat from the other side.
   
8. Cook evenly on both sides and remove from the griddle. Cook and prepare all the parathas in this way and keep aside. 
   
   
9. Fry all the parathas with ghee/butter on both sides, like you would do with a normal paratha, on medium flame so they don't become hard. Remove from flame and serve hot with any wonderful subzi !! 
   

Mint paratha

Ingredients:

Mint leaves: a cup
Whole wheat flour: 2 cups
Water to knead the flour
Green chilli (finely chopped): 1
Ginger (grated): 1 inch
Butter for frying
Salt to taste
Red chilli powder
Coriander powder
Cumin powder
Carom seeds
Asafoetida
Mango powder
Garam masala
(All spices to be added according to taste, any spice can be added or subtracted)

1. Wash and chop the mint leaves very finely. Add these leaves to the flour. Add the green chilli and ginger. Mix well with the flour.
2. Add all the dry spices according to taste and mix well with the flour. 
3. Adding water slowly, knead the flour into a firm dough. The dough must not be watery else it cannot be used to make parathas.
4. Pinch out small balls from the dough and roll carefully using a little dusting from the dried wheat flour.
5. Heat the griddle/tawa on highest temperature and carefully put the rolled out paratha on the tawa.
6. Turn after 20 seconds. Let cook completely from both sides. Ideally it is cooked evenly,just past the stage of not remaining uncooked, but we prefer a little bit burnt flavour in the same, adds to the taste (just as you could see in the pictures). This comes with experience, you might not want to burn it much, as it will spoil the entire taste. So cook it just until past the uncooked stage. 
7. Now fry both sides with butter and take out on a plate. Add a dollop of butter and serve hot with any pickle or coriander-mint chutney.

Peas Paratha

Ingredients: 

Peas: 1 cup

Whole wheat flour (According to the number of parathas to be prepared)

Salt to taste

Red chilli powder
Cumin powder
Coriander powder
Asafoetida
Mango powder
Chaat Masala/Garam Masala
Mint powder
(All spices according to taste)
Butter (for frying)

1. Boil peas in water for 5-7 minutes until they are soft and a bit mushy. Drain water and keep aside. I use frozen peas so I just microwave in water for 1 minute.
2.  Mix all the dry spices with the wheat flour completely. Add the boiled peas to the flour and knead the flour adding very little water at a time. Remember that the flour must not be sticky otherwise parathas cannot be made from the flour.
3. Pinch out small balls from the dough and roll carefully using a little dusting from the dried wheat flour.
4. Heat the griddle/tawa on highest temperature and carefully put the rolled out paratha on the tawa.
5. Turn after 20 seconds. Let cook completely from both sides. Ideally it is cooked evenly,just past the stage of not remaining uncooked, but we prefer a little bit burnt flavour in the same, adds to the taste (just as you could see in the pictures). This comes with experience, you might not want to burn it much, as it will spoil the entire taste. So cook it just until past the uncooked stage. 
6. Now fry both sides with butter and take out on a plate. Add a dollop of butter and serve hot with any pickle/raita. I served it with Mint Onion Raita.

Pyaaz Paratha

Pyaaz Paratha.. OMG drool !! every single time I see these pictures !! Because this itself is so heavenly and pleasing, with the added benefit of it being easy to make.. and with minimum ingredients.. what could be better than this !! This has been our Sunday morning breakfast for the last 3 weeks, on special demand from hubby..

Ingredients:

Wheat flour: 2 cups
Spring onions (very finely chopped): 10
Green chilli (very finely chopped): 1
Salt to taste
Red chilli powder
Cumin powder
Coriander powder
Asafoetida
Mango powder
Chaat Masala/Garam Masala
Mint powder
(All spices according to taste)
Butter (for frying)

1. Add all the spices with the wheat flour and mix really well. For best results, first add all the dried spices, mix well and add onions and green chilli. 
2. Knead the dough adding very little water carefully, so that it does not become sticky, otherwise parathas cannot be made from that dough. Make a nice dough.
3. Pinch out small balls from the dough and roll carefully using a little dusting from the dried wheat flour. 
4. Heat the griddle/tawa on highest temperature and carefully put the rolled out paratha on the tawa.
5. Turn after 20 seconds. Let cook completely from both sides. Ideally it is cooked evenly,just past the stage of not remaining uncooked, but we prefer a little bit burnt flavour in the same, adds to the taste (just as you could see in the pictures). This comes with experience, you might not want to burn it much, as it will spoil the entire taste. So cook it just until past the uncooked stage.
6. Now fry both sides with butter and take out on a plate. Add a dollop of butter and serve hot with any pickle/raita.

Pyaaz Paratha in the process..

Tandoori Roti in Oven

Tandoori Roti has always been loved by me.. Every restaurant we used to visit, we order either tandoori roti or naan, which is wonderfully satisfying and tastes amazing, specially with any non-vegetarian dish. Traditionally this is prepared in a big tandoor, but can be prepared in the regular oven as well. There will be a slight difference in the colour and texture because it is very different from the tandoor, but there is no compromise in taste.. Made with whole wheat, I served these with Dhaba Style Chicken Curry. These are best eaten hot, because when cooled down, they become hard and stiff, not easy to eat.

Ingredients:

Whole wheat: 2 cups
Water as required
Salt (optional)
Butter/Ghee: to grease the surface and to top the rotis.

1. Mix the salt with the wheat flour (if using, I did not use any).
2. Knead to a soft dough just liek we do for chappatis. Keep aside for 15 minutes.
3. Pinch out balls and roll into chappatis, just that the chappatis be a bit thicker than the usual which we cook on a girdle. Roll all the chappatis.
4. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200 for 10 minutes. 
5. Grease a baking tray well and place all the rolled chappatis over the top. Set in oven and reduce temperature to 150. Turn after 3-4 minutes, keep a watchful eye so as not to burn the rotis from one side. 
6. Let cook from both sides, remove carefully from oven, top with ghee/butter and serve hot.

Puffed Poori

The hot, round, fried puffed poori.. who doesn't love it.. Every household have it's own variation of dishes to be consumed with poori. While growing up, we used to have a heavy breakfast of aaloo-poori (Aaloo recipe); and a lot of times we would eat poori- chhole (Chhole recipe: soon). When I moved out of India, I continued the same. So these are the only two dishes I make poori with; but of course it can be experimented with a wide variety of dishes. And of course, a yoghurt dish HAS TO BE there; be it the plain Boondi Raita, Garlic Raita or Spinach Raita.

A lot of friends of mine, and a lot of people I know have a hard time in puffing up the pooris perfectly. I learnt to make the pooris from my nani ji, right from the dough to frying; so here I'm sharing the tips from nani; hope it helps some people.

Wheat flour 2 cups Oil 3 tablespoons Warm water As required Salt (optional) to taste Oil (for deep frying)



Mix the oil in the flour and also the salt if using (I do not prefer to add salt). Mix well with your hands to bring it to a crumbling consistency. Now very slowly add water to the flour to make a hard dough. Keep aside for 10 minutes. Now pinch very little balls from the dough and keep little oil on the side in a bowl. This oil will be used in place of the dusting flour we usually use for the regular chappatis. Take one ball, roll and shape it in your palms. Now add little oil to both sides of the ball; just remember you will NOT add any more oil while flattening it. Now with the help of a rolling pin, roll it slowly to a little poori, it will be less than half the size of roti. TIP: Roll it just on one side, don't roll from both sides as we do the roti. This is the reason pooris don't puff up while frying. Repeat for all the dough and keep on a dry and clean plate. Heat the oil on high heat and add one poori. We use a slottled/ spider spoon for deep frying. Another tip here for frying: As soon as you add the poori to the oil, it will begin sizzling. Very lightly press with the spider spoon to all the poori before turning; it will already puff by then. Turn and fry completely. Drain on a kitchen paper. Repeat for all the pooris. Serve hot.

Roomali Roti

Soft, smooth and melt in the mouth.. this is what is roomali roti. Basically the name of the dish is adapted from a "roomal" i.e. a handkerchief.. because it is just so soft, and so big and thin that it just disappears quick; and goes well with any main course dish. I served it with Chicken Achaari and Kashmiri Pulao.

Originally it is made of all purpose flour (maida) and is cooked in an oven. But I cooked it on the stove-top with the regular what flour, hence a little difference in the texture.. Tasted wonderful nonetheless.

Ingredients:

Wheat flour: 2 cups
Warm water to knead the dough
Oil: 2 tsp.
All purpose flour for dusting

1. Make a soft pliable dough using warm water. The dough must not be hard, and it should not be runny. It should be just right consistency, so add water carefully.
2. Cover and let sit for 5 minutes. Then add a few drops of oil and knead the dough again. It will start to become soft. Cover and keep for 5 minutes again. 
3. Re-knead the dough a total of 3 times, letting it sit for 5 minutes after each time you knead. It will start to get softer and softer.
4. After kneading the third time, pinch little balls from the dough. We'll work on two balls at a time, which will make 2 roomali rotis at once.
5. Using all purpose flour for dusting, roll one of the ball into a very thin roti. Take care not to break it. Keep aside. Now do the same for the second ball.
6. Brush with oil and dust lightly with all purpose flour. Keep the first roti on the top of it and roll again. Carefully lift and put it to a very hot tawa/pan on the highest heat.
7. Quickly turn it and cook from the other side as well. Remove from heat and very carefully separate both the rotis. 
8. Repeat for all the dough. Serve these soft, melt-in the mouth rotis with any main course.

Khubba Paratha

Wondering what in the world is that? Probably this word is coined by my nani-ji.. I have no idea. But khubba paratha is what we used to have every time we visited her house. She lived with us for a fair number of years and very often she has been making these for me and my brother. It used to be so heavy that more often than not, one each would be more than enough. The simple joys of life were in visiting her place in a little Indian village, sitting on the floor and eating "khubba paratha" with raw chutney (without using any mixer) and a plain, simple raita.. wow, those were the golden days!!

So, when we got bored of eating the same rotis and rice and parathas everyday, I called up my nani and asked for her recipe of khubba paratha; and happily she obliged. "Khubba" in Punjabi basically means to dig in.. this paratha is made by digging in ghee/butter in the paratha while it is being fried (which is the most important part).. and probably that's how she coined this word..

The paratha being done from both sides before frying..

Paratha being fried in ghee/butter over medium heat..

The final product.. topped generously with ghee/butter to suit the taste buds..