Another classic stuffed paratha. The pure taste of it goes well with a cup of curd and any pickle.

Paneer Peas Paratha

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Recipe: Paneer Peas Paratha
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Resting time: 3 hrs
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Yields: 6 pieces (as shown in the picture)
Recipe Level: Medium
Recipe by: Viji

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Ingredients:

Outer layer

Pillsberry Atta 2 cups (for 6 parathas)
Lemon pepper ½ tsp (it gives a nice taste)
Thick laban/buttermilk ¼ cup
Salt to taste
Oil 1 tbsp

Mix everything with enough water to bind. Knead them for 2-3 minutes. Let it rest for 2-3 hours with lid closed. The batter must be pliable but at the same time not loose.  

For Stuffing
1 cup of green peas
½ cup grated paneer
2 green chili
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tbsp mint and coriander leaves
1 tsp garam masala powder
Salt to taste

Cook the peas in MW and mash it well. Add the grated panner to it. Grind the rest of the ingredients without adding water. In a skillet take 1 tsp ghee and saute the stuffing till the extra water evaporates and slightly dry. Let it cool.

Before rolling, knead the dough again. Make balls slightly bigger in size when compared to stuffing. To have uniform rolling, just before stuffing you need to roll the dough as shown. Just roll the edges alone. The center part is thick. So that when you close it it will be even after rolling. If the stuffing is dry and cool, it will never come out. Roll them all and fry it on tava with little butter on both sides. I used the pastry brush to coat the butter on both sides. Serve it hot. Very tasty with wheat flour.

The beauty of the stuffed parathas is two things.

Number one outer layer – shining dough – soft and slicky – makes the rolling job interesting.

Inner stuffing – dry stuffing  will listen and obey your order while rolling.

Enjoy preparing stuffed parathas. 

Mornings are hectic..is there anyone who feels otherwise? Lucky you !

Anyways, in the maddening rush of waking up cranky kids, going through the mammoth task of feeding them early morning before going to school so that they have the energy to go on till Recess, budging kids to get ready for school, fixing breakfast, lunch, packing tiffins etc.

You pause to breathe when finally they leave for the day, but just then you remember the unending chores of daily life, stuffing laundry in washing machine, making breakfast for rest of the family, packing their lunchboxes, and if you are a working woman, pack yours too, giving instructions to your help, wondering what to keep handy for kids to munch upon after they are back, sipping that three times heated Tea/coffee (coz, every time you thought to sip one, some or other important task made you leave that precious cuppa and go through the daily grind) you suddenly feel grumpy cause now after taking care of everyone else in family you simply forgot to make something to eat for yourself? Sounds like your story ? Well then welcome to the club of "Good mothers-bad- eaters ladies", who can take care of every one around, except herself.

It happens with me many times, not that I am too doting or too sacrificing homemaker, I am just lousy when it comes to make something for myself. But knowing that eating healthy and filling is just as important for me as it is, for the rest of family, keeps me away from binging on Maggie (ah the comfort but!) or crackers for breakfast. So some quick fix (that's the most important factor when it comes to cooking for myself) yet healthy stuff, is what I always look for.

Savory pancakes are one such thing that I love to fix for myself when I am into Oh-doesn't -feel-like-cooking mode, its easy, its healthy, its filling and I can play with the ingredients to make it
taste different every time, so it saves from monotony too.

Cheela ~Savory Pancakes

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Recipe: Cheela (chilra) Savory wholewheat flour Pancakes
Prep Time:5 minutes
Cooking Time: 8-10 minutes
Makes: 3
Serves: 1 adult and 1 kid
Shelf Life: Serve right away!
Recipe Level: Basic
Spice Level:Low
Recipe/Post by: Alka

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Ingredients:
2 cups Whole wheat flour (Atta)
1 tsp Semolina (sooji)
1-2 tsp Gram flour (besan)
1 Medium size Onion
1-2 Green chillies(Adjust as per need)
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
A pinch of Soda bi carbonate (Meethi soda) or baking soda
A handful of chopped, fresh coriander leaves
1/2 tsp Dried pomegranate seeds crushed (optional)
Salt as per taste
Water to make dough
Oil to shallow fry

Procedure:

1. Peel and finely chop onion.Chop chillies and coriander too.
2. Sift the flours , add rest of ingredients except water and oil.
3. Mix well, then slowly add water little by little, mixing properly so that no lumps remain and a batter of thick consistency is obtained.The consistency should be something in between of Dosa and Uttapa.
4. Heat a griddle (preferably Iron griddle), drizzle some oil, and carefully pour a ladle full of batter and gently spread it a little so as to make a pancake/uttapa/thick dosa. Lower the flame while pouring and raise it to medium level as soon as you finish spreading.
5. Drizzle some more oil and flip/toss it on other side after few seconds, when the surface starts appearing dry.
6. Cook on both sides, flipping at intervals, keeping the flame in between medium to low, drizzling a tad of oil if it appears to stick to the griddle.
7. Cook till crispy brown, and relish it piping hot with Ketchup/Mint coriander chutney with some freshly made tea/coffee.

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Special Notes/Tips:

• If you are finding it hard to break the lumps, CHURN it with manual churner (Mathni).
• You can add some grated vegetables like carrot/radish or can add spring onions/ Fenugreek leaves/ cheese etc to make it more healthy and filling and to taste different.
• Instead of whole wheat flour, you can use Gram flour which taste equally great

Ragi was not quite common in our house. I think the connection with ragi for me stopped when I started eating solid foods other than the traditional ragi kanji which is given for infants. Later I started or I should say that I tried to start using ragi after my marriage when I moved to US. That's definitely a very big gap. Some of my experiments with ragi were not that successful so I sort of avoided using ragi flour. One of my resolution (or the only one I guess) for this year is to try different healthy ingredients which I have not tried so far. So when I got a chance to host JFI this month I couldn't think of anything other than Ragi. I was inclined to use whole ragi instead of the ragi flour which is readily available in the stores because ragi flour is not whole grain. While searching of recipes I found this whole ragi dosa recipe in Tarla Dalal's website and decided to try it immediately.

I'm so happy that I tried it because everybody in our family liked this dosa very much. I usually prefer paper like crispy dosas so I was taken by surprise that I liked this thick and chewy dosa as much.

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Recipe: Whole Ragi Dosa (Finger Millet Savory Crepes)
Soaking Time: Overnight
Prep Time: 10-15 minutes grinding time
Cooking Time: 2-3 minutes per dosa
Makes: 10 small size dosas
Shelf Life: Best eaten hot as soon as it is prepared
Recipe Inspiration/Source: www.TarlaDalal.com
Recipe Level: Basic/Beginner/Easy
Spice Level: Low
Recipe/Post by: Madhuram

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Ingredients:

Whole Ragi - 1 cup
Salt - to taste
Onion, medium size - finely chopped
Ginger, finely grated - 1 tablespoon
Green chilies, finely minced - 1
Oil

Special Utensils:
Dosa Tava and a thin spatula

Procedure:

1. Wash, rinse and soak whole ragi overnight with enough water.
2. The next day, drain the water and grind the ragi into a smooth batter adding water little by little as needed.
3. Meanwhile chop the onions, ginger and green chilies. Reserve the top and bottom of the onion; don't throw it away.
4. Once the batter is ready transfer it to a bowl and add the remaining chopped ingredients and salt; mix well.
5. Heat a dosa pan. Rub the pan with the top of the onion. This ensures that you will be able to lift the dosa from the pan without sticking to it.
6. Take a ladleful of ragi dosa batter and place it on the hot pan and spread it into a small circle. This dosa tastes better if it is thick like adai. Close the dosa with a lid. I use a glass lid so I know when the batter has been cooked completely. Once it is cooked remove the lid and drizzle little oil around the dosa within the edges and flip it the other side.
7. Let the dosa cook for another minute on the other side. Flip to a plate and ragi dosa is ready to eat. If you make it spicy you don't need any side dish at all.
   

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Special Notes/Tips:

• I used my wet grinder to grind the ragi and felt that an Indian mixie or a food processor would have been better because of the texture of the ragi. Add water little by little while grinding the ragi or else it becomes way too thin. That's what happened to me. So I stored the batter in the fridge overnight and by the next morning all the excess water started collecting on top leaving a thick ragi batter in the bottom. So I transferred the water to another small container and kept it just in case. The batter below was thick; exactly in the consistency of usual dosa batter.
• Instead of adding grated ginger and finely minced chilies you can also add this to the ragi while it is grinding so the spice will be spread throughout the batter evenly.

As a self professed hard core lover of Dosas of all types, I can't but get excited when I am trying a new Dosa variety. It was my aim to cover 101 types of Dosas, though I have only about 35 of them till date. This Onion dosa had always being on top of my mind ever since I read about it in a paper cutting that has been with me for years now, I have tweaked the recipe as per our taste.

When we choose Indian Breads, I looked up again to know what gets covered as part of Indian Breads and was pleasantly surprised to see that even crepes or Dosas are part of Indian Bread. So I was keen on expanding my knowledge by trying yet another type. This dosa is very similar to the regular Adai that is prepared, though its taste is elevated by adding onions and other ingredients.

I was particularly looking for one that doesn't require fermentation or long hours of soaking. Though in a typical environment you can't but let it soak for long. Imagine working and you have to worry about soaking the dals for hours and then again fermenting it, which sure ends up as a regular lengthy process. Whenever I make Dosas that are instant, of course not as instant as Goduma Dosa or Rava Dosa which only needs 15 mins of soaking time, these are instant in sense you don't have to worry whether they ferment well or not. Of course the down side of this, is that you don't always have a crispy crepes in process. But then for a Dosa lover, any dosa is fine by my standards.

You can still get these dosas by adding Rice flour and making the batter really thin. But that again takes practice in spreading the batter properly. So forgot the hassle and enjoy as such. This dosa is one good variety to try if you are bored of the usual ones.

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Recipe: Onion Dosa ~ Onion Crepes
Soaking Time : For the dals 4- 5 hours
Resting Time for the batter : 30 - 60 mins
Preparation Time for batter : 10 mins
Yields : 10 medium dosas or more
Recipe Level: Easy/ Beginner
Recipe/Post by: Srivalli

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Onion Dosa ~ Onion Crepes

Ingredients Needed:

Channa Dal - 50 gms
Toor Dal - 50 gms
Raw Rice - 50 gms
Fresh Coconut grated - 50 gms
Onions - 2 medium
Dry Red Chili - 4 nos (as per taste)
Salt to taste
Tamarind - small gooseberry
Fresh Coriander leaves - 1/2 cup
Oil for cooking the dosas

Procedure

1. Wash and soak the dals and rice for 4- 5 hours. Grind to fine paste and let to rest for 1 hour.
2. Soak Tamarind separately in a bowl till soft and extract pulp.
3. Grind Onions, Red chilis, coconut, coriander leaves to fine paste.
4. Then mix this onion paste, tamarind pulp, salt to the ground batter.
5. Heat a tawa or pan with oil, pour one ladleful of batter and spread as a dosa. Sprinkle oil on top.
6. Cook on one side and flip on the other side.
   

Coconut Chutney

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Special Notes/Tips:

• The batter should be thin and cooked on medium flame as that the dosa comes out crispy.
• The batter can be soaked for longer hours too but after grinding you can store it in the fridge.
• Red chilies can be increased as per taste.
• I have used only about 50 gms of all, yet after soaking and grinding I had more batter than I thought. So adjust accordingly to your requirement keeping in mind the proportions.

On Bogi – the first day of Pongal, we prepare many dishes and one important item is Poli. Here is the recipe for veggie poli. It is not only colorful but also healthy with all veggies.

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Recipe: Veggie Poli
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Resting time: 5 hrs
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Recipe Source: My own creation
Yields: 6 pieces (as shown in the picture)
Recipe Level: Medium
Recipe by: Viji

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Ingredients:

For the Dough

Maida/all purpose flour 1 ½ cup (plus for dusting)
Salt a pinch
Turmeric powder ¼ tsp
Oil 1 tsp

With enough water prepare pliable dough and leave it for 5-6 hours (covered).

Veggie Pooran

Grated carrot, beetroot, cabbage, sweet potato and peas - 3 tbsp each – it will come to 1 cup approximately
Grated khoya/unsweetened gova – 1 cup
Nuts powder (I used only pista powder this time) – 1 tbsp (or besan flour)
Sugar ¾ cup
Elaichi powder ¼ tsp

Ghee 2 tbsp for frying (I used one tbsp only)

Procedure:

For making the pooran

1. Steam cook the veggies for 3-4 minutes or in MW high for 3-4 minutes with 1 tbsp water.
2. Mash it little bit. Add rest of the ingredients and MW high for 5-6 minutes till it forms like pooran. Leave it to cool. This is important. The pooran will be able to hold but at the same time dry also.

For making the Poli

1. Knead the dough well and make small lemon sized balls.
2. Prepare the pooran in the same way.
3. Roll each ball into 3 inch diameter circles. Keep the pooran at the center. Cover and roll it into balls again. With the pin roll this ball into 5” dia thin circle. Use maida for dusting. Make sure you don’t have any break. Otherwise the pooran will be exposed. Fry in tava with little ghee on both sides.
   

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Special Notes/Tips:

• You get khoya/gova in the shop.
• If not, take 2 tbsp of carnation milk and mix it with 1 cup of full fat milk powder. Freeze for 1 hour. Grate and use it. Quite easy but taste the same.

A colourful nutritious poli for your kids. Will anyone say “No” to this? I can’t say.

Hope you enjoyed this post as usual. We can make our authentic recipes healthier by giving some twists. Let me know your ideas too.

Sometimes its easier to decide the main course menu when you are expecting guests, than the accompaniments.Usually a gravy based dish is almost mandatory, but a Roti or chapati seems to be too boring or humble to go along with heavy gravies, and Stuffed parathas makes the meal heavier if served along with Dal, Dry subzi and salad etc.(since for guests its generally an elaborate Menu). In such situations, unstuffed parathas make a good deal.Though these need some practice and patience, and some real good time too, but nevertheless makes a different than usual, and crispy, flaky accompaniment.

Lets discuss one such unstuffed wholewheat flatbread, called satpura phulka, or satpura paratha.

There are many different ways of making unstuffed paratha, and for making satpura, there are two popular ways...one, when seven layers of thin rotis are placed one above each other and re-rolled to make flaky parathas, and other one is the way given below.

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Recipe: Satpura phulka(paratha) (Seven layered flaky flatbread)
Prep Time: 5-10 minutes
Cooking Time: 2-3 minutes for each paratha
Makes: in numbers 3 Parathas
Serves:2-3 people
Shelf Life: Tastes best when piping hot, turns stiff if stored
Recipe Level: Medium
Spice Level: Low
Recipe/Post by: Alka

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Ingredients:

2 cups of whole wheat flour(Atta)
Some more flour to dust the paratha while rolling
Salt to taste
Freshly crushed black pepper , or red chilly powder
Oil 2 tsp to add to the flour and some oil for drizzling over parathas

Procedure:

1. Sift the flour, add oil, salt, and pepper and knead a dough using little water. Keep aside for sometime and punch the dough again to make it soft and pliable dough.
2. Divide the dough into 3 portions, roll each one between your palms to make a round ball





3. Take one portion, roll it with the help of rolling pin into a thick disc.
   
   



4. Now with a help of a knife cut it vertically into strips at distance of about one inch (or less) each. Depending upon the diameter of roti, you can get 5-7 strips and it doesn't really matters. So don't panic if you get only 5-6 strips.





5. Now dust some flour over it, and drizzle bit of oil.


6. Carefully take one strip, roll it, place the roll over second strip and roll it carefully over the first roll. Repeat till all the strips are rolled over each other.





7. This gives us a rolled, layered ball of dough.





8. Now dust the surface of rolling board with some dry flour(atta), and very lightly roll the layered ball into a thick paratha.Take care that you do not apply lot of pressure, as it will merge the layers and you wont get a flaky paratha.





9. Repeat the whole procedure with remaining dough and keep the rolled parathas covered (Do not keep these for long, as they will stick to each other,cook as soon as possible).
10. Heat the griddle, place one paratha and drizzle some oil/ghee over it.Toss it , and cook on other side, pouring some oil again. Lower the flame, and cook it till tiny brown patches appear on both sides.
11. Serve hot with any curry, dal or dry subzi or even with plain curd, its very filling , you might need just one paratha to feel "HEAVY".

I'm not lying when I tell that I had not tasted bottle gourd (sorakkaya) until after I moved to the US after my marriage. It was never bought in our house. After moving to the US, I saw this a lot in the Indian grocery stores and picked it up once. I tried the usual kootu (dal) and sambar and did not like it because I felt that it had some unpleasant smell. Maybe that's the reason it never appeared in my mother's kitchen. So I was avoiding this vegetable by all means. I never picked it up but my husband will never forget to get this when he went grocery shopping. Thanks to the internet and zillion food blogs I started finding a lot of interesting recipes using this vegetable and have been cooking those recipes quite frequently. Valli's Chettinad Sorakkai Kurma is very famous in our house.

Last week I decided to try bottle gourd stuffed parathas just like the way I would make radish parathas. For the radish parathas, I would squeeze out the water after grating it, but I completely forgot about this step while preparing the bottle gourd parathas. I didn't remember this until I started frying the bottle gourd. I was wondering if the parathas would turn out well but I need not have worried after all. Since the water is not squeezed out it takes a couple of minutes extra for the water to evaporate but otherwise there was no problem at all.

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Recipe: Lauki/Dudhi Paratha (Bottle Gourd stuffed Flatbread)
Prep Time for the stuffing: 15-20 minutes
Prep Time for the dough: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 3-4 minutes per paratha
Makes: 10 parathas
Shelf Life: Better consumed the same day
Recipe Level: Basic/Beginner/Easy
Spice Level: High
Recipe/Post by: Madhuram

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Ingredients:

For the parathas:
Whole Wheat Flour - 2 and 1/2 cups
Hot water as required
Oil - 1 teaspoon
Salt as required

For the stuffing:
Oil - 1 tablespoon
Cumin Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Bottle Gourd, grated - 2 cups
Turmeric Powder - a pinch
Cumin Powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Coriander Powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Chili Powder - 3/4 teaspoon or as required
Salt - 3/4 teaspoon or as per your taste
Lemon Juice - Juice of half a lemon (optional)



Procedure:

1. Take the flour and salt in a medium size bowl. Oil your right palm and fingers with the 1 teaspoon of oil. Slowly add the hot water with your left hand to the flour mixture and form a soft dough with your right hand. Knead it a couple of times. Since you have oiled your hand the dough will not stick to your fingers and also it will add softness to the dough. Place the dough in a covered vessel and keep it aside for at least 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile prepare the bottle gourd stuffing. In a big frying pan add the 1 tablespoon of oil and wait until it is hot. Add the cumin seeds and let it crackle. Now add the grated bottle gourd and all the other spice powders and salt. Do not add lemon juice now. Do not add any water, because the bottle gourd will itself secrete enough water to cook it. Cover the frying pan with a lid. Doing so will create condensation and hence some more water. This is enough to cook the bottle gourd. Cook it for 7-8 minutes. Then remove the lid and let it cook until all the water has evaporated. This may take another 6 -8 minutes. Make sure that there is no more water left. Cook until it is dry. Then add the lemon juice and mix it well. Divide the stuffing into 10 small pieces and roll it; keep it aside.
3. Heat the tava on high heat. Divide the paratha dough into 10 equal balls. The size of the chapathi dough balls has to be bigger than the size of the stuffing ball to ensure that the stuffing does not come out while rolling the dough.
4. Have some flour in a plate to roll the dough. Take a piece of the dough, roll it on the flour and slightly flatten it with the center of your palms. Form that into a small cup like structure, making a small dent in the center with your thumb and rotating it. Place one stuffing ball inside the dough cup and close it forming like a modak and press down the tip of the dough; making it into a thick round disk.
5. Again flip both the sides of this disk in the flour and start rolling it with a rolling pin applying gentle pressure evenly. Be very delicate while rolling or else the stuffing will start showing out.
6. Spray the tava with non stick cooking spray and place the rolled paratha and cook it for 1-2 minutes. Spray again or apply oil on the top of the paratha and flip it. Let the other side cook for another 1-2 minutes. Repeat the same process for rest of the parathas.
   

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Special Notes/Tips:

• Make the stuffing spicier than you are normally used to, otherwise the parathas will be bland.
• After grating the bottle gourd you could also squeeze out the excess water before cooking it. I do this while preparing radish parathas.
• Zucchini and radish parathas can be prepared in the similar method.

You must be familiar with spinach paratha or green paratha what kids call. In the same way you can make the broccoli paratha. Low in calories and loaded with nutrients, it is too good with a cup of plain yoghurt or a tea spoon of pickle. The procedure is simple. Mix everything and roll and then fry like our regular parathas.

Shredded Broccoli

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Recipe: Broccoli Paratha
Preparation time: 35 minutes
Cooking: 15 minutes
Yields: 6 pieces (as shown in the picture)
Shelf Life: Will be fresh for a month in the fridge
Recipe Level: Easy
Recipe by: Viji

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Ingredients

1 cup Atta/wheat flour
1 cup shredded broccoli
2 green chilis
Small wedge of ginger
1 tsp garam masala powder
3 tbsp of cottage cheese or plain yoghurt
Salt to taste

2 tsp butter for greasing while folding
Oil for frying

Utensils needed:
Veggie chopper
Tava

Broccoli Paratha

Procedure:

1. Wash and cut the broccoli bud. Grate them along with green chili and ginger preferably in chopper if available. You will get fine ones through this.
   
2. Mix all the ingredients and knead them like regular paratha dough. Add water if needed. Leave the dough for 30 minutes.
3. Roll them into circle. Apply butter lightly and fold it like triangle shape parathas. Fry them like by smearing oil on both sides till they are done. Delicious it was.

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Special Notes/Tips:

• Other veggies can be used here. Adjust the liquid accordingly.
• Taste better when fresh. You can prepare and freeze them for later use also.

This month at Beyond Curries, its Indian Breads that are in limelight.

Today's post is about Indian Flatbread. Some of good things about Indian Flat breads are, that generally these are made from wholewheat flour , without using yeast (except in some types of Naans), the dough is simple to make and do not require a long standing time, and top of it, the variety is unlimited.

The staple Roti or chapati is simple unleavened bread, and is always used as an accompaniment to dunk into Dal, or eaten with dry or semi dry vegetable curries. The parathas are other type of Indian Flat breads, very versatile, very simple to make and filling too.Stuff these with raw vegetables, cooked Pulses/Grams, Paneer or cheese, and these goes well with any vegetable curry, Curd, papad or even jam/dips/chutney.

Then there are many other flatbreads, made from different Flours, like chickpea flour, Shorgum flour, Ragi, Bajra, Rice flour etc.

Today it's Koki, a spiced up flatbread made from whole wheat flour, a very popular accompaniment, that could be relished with anything ranging from Curd, Raita, Jam, Murba, pickle, Tea, simply anything. Though its best loved with Saibhaji, a signature Sindhi style spinach curry, it won't disappoint you even if eaten without any side dish. And since its oil content is higher than Roti, it could be stored without refrigeration , from anywhere between 2 days to 4 days, depending upon the climatic conditions.So its ideal for picnics or for kid's lunch boxes.

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Recipe: Koki (Spiced up wholewheat flat bread)
Prep Time:Less than five minutes.
Cooking Time:3-4 minutes for each koki.
Shelf Life:1-2 days in hot and humid climate, but if refrigerated properly, could be stored for 4 days.
Recipe Level: Basic/ Beginner
Spice Level: Low
Recipe/Post by: Alka

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Ingredients:

4 cups (or roughly 4 handful) wheat flour (makes 2 koki)
1 large onion finely chopped
2 green chillies finely chopped
1 tbsp. coriander leaves finely chopped
2 tbsp. ghee or oil.(I prefer Oil, since many times ghee makes the koki stiff, if stored)
1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
1/2 tsp Annardana (dried pomegranate seeds, optional but highly recommended)
salt to taste
Oil for shallow frying

Special Utensils:

An iron griddle is best for Koki. Nonstick ones, gives a very chewy and rubbery texture to koki.

Procedure:

1. Chop onions very fine.
2. Sieve flour, add salt, onions, annardana (optional), cumin seeds, chopped green chillies,coriander leaves and oil(excluding oil for shallow frying).
3. Mix well, add very little water, and knead into a stiff dough.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Divide the dough into two, roll each portion into a thick small disc.
5. Roast it on both sides, for few seconds, on hot tawa, till slightly cooked.
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Take it off heat, place on rolling board, roll it again till it is slightly thicker than Roti.
   
7. Place it on tawa again, cook on each side, adding little oil or ghee from sides, first on high heat, then on medium flame, till very small brown patches appears on surface.Carefully flip it twice or thrice in whole process.You can even prick it with fork at few places, to ensure that it doesn't remain uncooked inside.If needed, you can take the help of a flat base plate or Thali, carefully slide the koki on the flat side of plate, hold the plate over griddle , and flip it, to release the koki on griddle.Now the opposite side of koki will be facing the heat of griddle ;-).Repeat the flipping, if needed.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. Repeat the whole procedure for remaining dough.
9. Serve hot with Curd or tea or Papad, or with any side dish.
   
10. It has a shelf life of about 24-40 hrs, so is ideal for picnics or while traveling long distances.

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Special Notes/Tips:

• Do not cut on oil, or else the Koki will be very stiff.
• If possible use iron griddle, non stick pans makes Koki rubbery and not soft.
• Instead of adding onions and all, just salt and black pepper could be used, along with oil.It tastes equally good.

A very happy new year to all BC readers! For the month of January we are going to focus on Indian Breads. Indian Breads comprises both of Crapes and Flatbreads. Yes you got it right, so we not only get to talk about rotis and parathas, I hope we will be able to talk about different dosas too. Coming to Rotis, the most common Wheat or Maida based flat breads are Chapatis (Wheat Flour), Parottas (Maida)

You have already seen how to make Pulka, the dry rotis by Viji. From what I understood from my North Indian friends is this, they call Roti or pulka which is dry fired over tawa and flame and is not layered. While South Indians fold the rolled ones and roll it out and finally fried by applying oil. These are called chapatis. But North Indians call these as parathas. While we understand parathas as mostly stuffed ones. So by this you know how much of a confusion it is.

On top while I had Roti mela on my blog, I was attempting to learn and experiment with all types of Flatbreads. But only ended up getting many entries, but no less confused. Because while reading through all the different types available, I came across simple types like the Lachcha Paratha and guess what it is like Parotta only made with Whole wheat flour.

In the end I didn't make some of them I planned. But I am happy that I didn't then, for I got an opportunity to talk about it now. Beginning of the month, we decided on the theme and I was searching my drafts on what I can make. Finally I decided on Lachcha Paratha. It was most convenient that this weekend it was a vegetarian meal for lunch and I promptly decided on this.

Though these look very much like the regular chapatis and I mostly make it this way at home, only I never knew its called Lachcha paratha!

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Recipe: Lachcha Paratha
Prep Time: 3 -4 mins per paratha
Resting Time for the dough - 1/2 hr
Makes: 6 parathas
Recipe Level: Easy/ Beginner
Recipe/Post by: Srivalli

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Ingredients:

3 cups Whole Wheat Flour / Gehun ka atta
Salt to taste
2 tsp Ghee / Clarified butter
2 -3 tsp Ghee + 3 tsp wheat flour
2 -3 tbsp flour for dusting
Water as required to make the dough
2 -3 Oil

Tawa for frying

Procedure:

1. Take the flour in a bowl along with salt and ghee. Mix well. Slowly add the water and knead to a soft pliable dough. Cover with a wet muslin cloth and let it rest for 20 - 30 mins.
2. In a bowl, make a mix of the ghee and flour together and keep it aside.
3. Divide into equal balls. Dust with flour and using a rolling pin, roll out the balls into thin discs.
4. Spread 1/2 tsp of the ghee+atta mix on the disc. Start from one side and roll inwards, till you roll completely as a rope. The way you do it, you will end up with a tight rope.
5. Dip your fingers into the ghee mix and spread over the top of the rope. Circle it again as a spiral with the ghee covered. You will end up with a spiraled disc again.
6. Dust it with flour and gently roll it again.
7. Meanwhile heat a tawa and once it's hot, fry the rolled out paratha. When one side is cooked and rises up, spread a little of the ghee atta mix on the top and sprinkle oil around the parathas.
8. Flip over the other side and cook in the same way. Ensure it doesn't get burnt.
9. Once it's cooked on both sides, remove to a plat and clap at it while it's hot. This way you will loosen the layers.
10. This paratha ends up being very heavy. Serve it with a gravy of choice

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Special Notes/Tips:

• Melt the ghee before mixing with the flour for spreading.
• Ensure the rope is tightly rolled in and then don't apply too much force while rolling it out. Else the flaky layers will not get separated.
• The flour tends to get burnt while you apply over the top and then cook, dust it away before you remove.

Eggless Spritzgeback - Almond Piped German Cookies

Christmas is gone but I am sure a festive treat for the New Year is always welcome, isn't it? I tried these cookies during the long weekend off we were treated to as Christmas and Muharram prefixed and suffixed Saturday and Sunday.

My 2Penn'orth, by Thorsten Kraska is a wonderful blog that has had me smitten since my first visit. The recipes are easy, the write up simple and the pictures exquisite beyond words! I have adapted the recipe for these German Cookies (Spritzgeback) to make it vegetarian by substituting the egg yolks with a tablespoon of coconut cream as I had promised my children a vegetarian bake with real butter. Next time I will go a step further and try a vegan version. Don't let the large yield scare you! My children have been making more than usual trips to the kitchen and the quantity of cookies in the jar tell me the reason why! Do visit the original recipe if you try this and like it as much as my family did. The flavour of the cookie is very buttery and the texture is light, crisp and very fragile.

Spritzeback are traditional German cookies baked during Christmas and popular in most Scandinavian Countries. They are named so because 'spritzen' in German means 'squirt' in English and these cookies are made by squirting out pipes through patterned holes. You could use icing nozzles that have large holes or any other press. (I was tempted to use my son's play dough press which seemed ideal but it has so much play dough stuck that I could not clean it enough!). Towards the end I just dropped teaspoonfuls and flattened the dough a bit into a rough circle.

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Recipe: Mandelspritzgeback (Almond Piped Christmas Cookies - Eggless)
Recipe modified with permission from 'My 2penn'orth'
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Baking Time:8-10 minutes per batch
Yield: 80-90 cookies
Recipe Level:Easy
Recipe/Post by: Sunshinemom

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Ingredients:

250g Softened butter
160g sugar
1 vanilla bean split and scraped into the sugar
A dash of salt
1tbsp thick coconut cream (I used canned)
100g Ground blanched almonds
200g All purpose flour / Maida
200g Cornstarch
Melted dark chocolate

Oven temperature - 190 deg. Celsius.

Eggless Spritzgeback - Almond Piped German Cookies

Procedure:

1. To make the almond flour, blanch almonds in hot water, let cool and skin. Dry almonds in refrigerator overnight to get rid of the moisture and grind. The original recipe also recommends the use of bitter almond oil as an option but I used mamra badam instead which is the best variety of bitter almonds.
2. Preheat oven to 190 deg. Celsius. Line baking trays with butter paper.
3. Mix butter, salt, vanilla and sugar together with a blender till very creamy. Add coconut cream and beat till well mixed. Add almond flour and mix.
4. Mix the cornstarch and maida together well. Add this little by little to the butter mixture until the dough gets firm/thick enough to press out. I filled the batter into an icing bag and pressed out 2 inch long 'trees' with an icing nozzle. Traditionally pipes, 's' or 'o' shapes are pressed out. After a few batches I just dropped teaspoonfuls and spread it with the back of a spoon.
5. The original recipe instructs baking at 190 deg. Cel. I baked the first batch at 190 deg. Cel. and then I reduced the temperature to 150 deg. Cel. and baked for 8-10 minutes from the second batch onwards. Adjust the temperature as per your oven.
6. Let cool completely before removing from the tray as these are fragile and crisp.
7. Drizzle melted chocolate over the cookies and store in an airtight jar.

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Special Notes/Tips:

• Keep an eye on the cookies as they are not to brown round the edges. If they brown too much reduce temperature like I did.
  
• Cool for about 5-10 minutes as these crack very easily when hot.