Aloo Paratha

Potato Rules! I personally do not know any person who does not succumb to the taste of potato fries or aloo paratha or aloo palak or aloo methi or aloo whatever! Aloo paratha is one of my favorite dishes and makes a wonderful item for dinner.
I don't make thick parathas and I sincerely try to keep the oil to a minimum. Lets leave that for the local restaurant chef! This is how I make it.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups wheat flour (atta)
• 3 potatoes
• 1 tsp Grated Ginger
• Some turmeric, chilly powder, corriander powder, chole masala, chaat masala
• Salt
• Corriander leaves
• oil
• Water

Directions

• Knead the atta with some salt, water to make a dough. Keep aside covered.
• Cook the potato till they are soft. Allow to cool. Then peel and mash it evenly.
• Mix in the spices to make the potato masala
• In a pan, heat some oil. Add ginger. When the ginger starts turning brown, add the potato masala and fry to remove all the raw flavor.
• Allow to cool. Once cool, cut the corriander leaves and mix them in.
• Make equal sized balls of the atta dough and the potato masala.
• Roll the atta ball into a small circular shape. Put the potato ball in the center and pull the edges together and seal them.
• Roll it slowly in all directions to spread the filling.

• Heat the tawa. Cook the paratha applying oil to each side as it cooks.

Serve with cold raitha.

Home-made food for babies

As a mom of a seven months old baby who, luckily for me, shows a healthy interest in food, I am forever trying to come up with ways to provide him nutritious food as well as introduce his fresh palate to the myriad tastes and flavors of adult food. One thing that's very true of babies is their sense of taste, like their little bodies, is continously developing. So, a food that they reject today might be their favorite next month (or next week). My little one disliked apples a month ago but last week, he was happy to gobble up half an apple. I guess till they are about a year or so old, their palate cannot handle hot/spicy food. Little Ani has had only bland/sweet food till now. He has inherited daddy's sweet tooth and likes to sample everything from Indian desserts like suji/gajar halwa to ice-creams, kulfi, crullers etc. It's really very amusing when he makes a sound like 'hmmm', 'hmmm', when he sees hubby dearest and myself eat something interesting.

It is easy to incorporate fruits into the baby's diet since most fruits can be made into a juice and given in a bottle. But vegetables should also be made a part of the diet not only for their nutritional value but also so that the baby develops a taste for them. It might be difficult to get toddlers to start liking vegetables.

Some of the stuff that I make for him at home is:

• Apples peeled and cut into small pieces and cooked till they become soft. Sometimes I add a little cinnamon to it. Red delicious apples work well for this. Once its cool, I mash it well and feed him
• Sweet potato cooked in water till soft. It can be then peeled, mashed and used for feeding
• Red millets (ragi) soaked in water and ground to extract the milk. This can then be cooked along with very little palm jaggery to form a syrup like consistency (that can be fed using a spoon).
• Carrots grated and fried in a pan for 5 mins. This is then beaten to a paste in the blender. Same can be done for beans/beetroot too.
• Yellow Moong dal (split gram) cooked well and mashed to a paste. This can be given flavored with a little salt and a drop of ghee (clarified butter)

I am sure there are a lot more baby food recipes out there. If you happen to know any, I would appreciate your letting me know.
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It's important to give water intermittently when feeding solids to the baby to prevent choking. I keep boiled and cooled water in a sippy cup and make him drink water for every 3-4 mouthfuls of solids.

You tube is probably the biggest invention of the modern era. Find both baby food and popular nursery rhymes in you tube.

Spring onion (scallions) fry

Usually I use spring onions either in a fried rice or as a spring onion - potato fry. This time I tried something different. I fried them with gram flour. The thing to keep in mind while doing this is to first fry the gram flour and then add the spring onions. The spring onions tend to ooze out a lot of water. So, if the gram flour is not cooked prior to adding the onions, it forms a really sticky mess.

Ingredients

• Spring onion - 2 bunches
• Gram flour (besan) - 1 tbsp
• Salt to taste
• Chilly powder to taste
• Turmeric powder - a pinch
• Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp
• Oil

Directions

• Chop spring onions into small pieces (include leaf and bulb)
• Heat oil in a pan. Put in the cumin seeds.
• When the cumin seeds splutter, add the gram flour and fry till they are brown
• Add the chopped spring onions along with salt, chilly powder and turmeric powder
• Stir fry till the spring onion is cooked.

Beetroot Puri

This is another recipe I learnt from my mother-in-law, also my entry for Priya's/Harini's FIC pink/rose event.

Ingredients

• 3 cups wheat flour (atta)
• 1 medium sized beetroot
• 1/2 tsp chilly powder
• 1/4 tsp cumin powder
• Salt to taste
• Water
• Oil
  

Directions

• Grate the beetroot and beat into a paste using a blender
• Add salt, chilly powder and cumin powder to the paste
• Add the wheat flour and just enough water to make a tight dough
• Keep aside covered for about an hour
• After an hour, roll into puris and deep fry in oil

Plantain (Vazhakkai) Roundels

Growing up, plantain was one of the vegetables I sincerely disliked. Four years in the college hostel with its watery dal, half cooked rice and stiff as a frisbee chapattis helped me appreciate my mom's cooking and developed in me a new found respect for all vegetables. I learnt this particular recipe from my mom-in-law and this also happens to be a favorite of my husband.

Ingredients

1. 2 medium Plantains
2. 2 large pods of garlic
3. 1 tsp chilly powder or to taste
4. Pinch of turmeric powder
5. Salt
6. 2 tsp oil
   

Directions

1. Grind the garlic, chilly powder and turmeric into a paste.
2. Peel and cut the plantain into slightly thick round slices.
3. Cover and cook the plantain along with the paste. Take care not to over cook it so that the slices don't break.
4. Heat a griddle with some oil. Spread the plantain on it and roast both sides for couple of minutes.

Goes well with rice and curry.

Broken wheat (Crushed wheat) payasam

Yesterday evening, it was one of those moments when I am suddenly caught up in a desire to dig into some hot dessert. Scrounging my kitchen for ideas, I saw some broken wheat that has been lying around for quite some time now. Broken wheat payasam Satiated my apetite and sure was able to have hot payasam waiting for hubby dear when he returned from work. (He is a baby who likes to be pampered every now and then. Sshhh!)
Ingredients

1. 2 cups broken wheat
2. 1 cup milk
3. 2 tbsp ghee
4. Jaggery
5. 1/2 tsp salt
6. 1/2 cup grated coconut or a handful of cashews & raisins
7. Pinch of cardamom
   
8. Water
   

Directions

1. Heat the ghee in the pressure cooker. Fry the broken wheat for about 5 mins on medium heat. Pour water, cover and cook for 3-4 whistles.
2. When the steam is gone, open the cooker, turn on the heat and add the jaggery and salt. Add some more water if required
3. When the jaggery has melted and the whole thing comes to a boil, add the milk and cook for some more time. Switch off, add the cardamom and stir well
4. In a pan, heat some ghee and fry the coconut till its light brown and crispy. Alternatively, fry the cashews and raisins till the cashews brown and raisins swell up. Add to the payasam. Serve hot
   

Methi (Fenugreek) is well known for its medicinal properties. So, it makes a lot of sense to bring it to the dinner table every once in a while. One of the easiest recipes using methi leaves is probably methi paratha. I like to fry the methi with salt, turmeric, chilly powder and a little bit of garam masala before adding it to the paratha dough. This takes away any raw flavour. Another advantage is this enables you to use the stems as well. Cooking softens the stems so that they don't tear the paratha while rolling.

Ingredients

1. 2 1/2 cups wheat flour
2. Bunch of methi leaves
3. 1/2 tsp chilly powder
4. 1/2 tsp jeera (cumin seeds)
5. A pinch of turmeric powder
6. A pinch of garam masala
7. 1 tbsp yogurt
8. Salt to taste
9. Water

Directions

1. Wash the methi leaves carefully and cut them to small pieces.
2. Heat oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds
3. When the seeds start to splutter, add the chopped methi leaves along with salt, turmeric and chilly powder. Cook covered stirring it occasionally until the leaves and stem (if you have included them) are soft. Add garam masala and remove from the stove. Allow to cool.
4. Add the cooked methi to the wheat flour along with some water, salt and yogurt. You can also add a tsp of oil. Knead to form a firm dough. Keep this dough covered for 1 hour. You can lightly smear oil on the surface of the dough to keep it from drying.
5. Roll them into parathas and cook them on a griddle, applying oil on each side.