Avocado-Palak Roti

Blogging Marathon# 66: Week 3/ Day 1

Theme: Kid's Delight -- Lunch Box Recipes

Dish: Bean Burrito with Potatoes
For the final day of this week's marathon, I have a healthy roti for the kids lunchbox. I was planning to make Nalini's Avocado roti but then had some baby spinach in the fridge that needed to be used up, so that's how these avocado-spinach rotis were born.

Avocados are very healthy and provide nearly 20 essential nutrients, including fiber, potassium, vitamin E and folic acids. I like it quite a bit but my husband is allergic to it, so I usually eat it by myself but never make it for the family. But I wanted to at least see how the kids like it.

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Rotlis (Gujarati Rotis)

Rotlis are nothing but Gujarati paper thin phulkas. Being from the south, I knew only about phulka (puffed up roti), chapathi (pan fried roti) while growing up. But after coming to the US, I came to know about rotli, bhakri, thepla and so on, thanks to my North Indian friends.

The first time I had rotlis were at one of my Gujarati friend's cousins house while in Graduate school. The lovely couple invited us over for dinner and bhabhi (my friend's SIL) made a huge spread of delicious Gujarati dishes. But all I can remember from that day were her super soft freshly made rotlis. She even used to send a pack of rotlis with our friend for all of us. So whenever I think of rotlis, I think of bhabhi and her amazing hospitality.

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Khoba Roti (Rajasthani Moti Roti)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 2: Rajasthani Cuisine 

Day 11: K for Khoba Roti
Today's Rajasthani dish showcases the artistic side of the desert state. Rajasthan is famous for all its handicrafts and colorful fabrics. This Khoba roti looks like a work of art and the good thing about it is that the technique is not too hard to do.

I saw this roti for the very first time on Valli's blog for one of the previous BMs. It looked so appealing and sounded so interesting that it went into my to-make list. It took all this time (actually 2 years) for me make these. Khoba means deep indentation in Rajasthani, hence the name for the roti.

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Spelt Sweet Potato Paratha for #BreadBakers

It's time for this month's BreadBakers' and the theme for this edition is Ancient Grains and is being hosted by Robin at A Shaggy Dough Story. Ancient grains are generally accepted to mean grains that have remained largely unchanged/un-hybridized over the last several hundred years, which means NO MODERN WHEAT. 

I have to say this was probably the most challenging theme I have done for the BreadBakers. Finding ancient grains or even their flour was not the hard part, but finding a bread recipe with just ancient grains was hard. Also my family is not much into rustic breads, so my search for soft sandwich bread without any wheat flour turned up nothing.

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Kashmiri Mini Thali - Roti, Dum Aloo, Apple Chutney and Saffron Rice

Buffet on Table: Week 2 -- Indian States

Day 8: Kashmir -- Kashmiri Roti with Dum Aloo, Doon Chetin & Kashmiri Yellow Rice

After seeing my marathon buddies make amazing thalis, I made a mini Kashmiri thali for today's mega marathon. Thanks to Valli's and Vaishali's Kashmiri posts for the inspiration. I picked the recipes from their thalis to make mine. Here's what I made:

• Kashmiri Roti (recipe follows)
• Kashmiri Dum Aloo
• Kashmiri Kesari Rice
• Doon Chetin (Apple Chutney)

Kashmiri roti is a very flavorful recipe with spices that are added right into the dough. It is kneaded with milk instead of water to make soft and delicious rotis. Served with Kashmiri Dum Aloo, these rotis tasted simply amazing.

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Poori with Besan Aloo Curry

Blogging Marathon# 52: Week 3/ Day 3

Theme: Weekend Special Dinners

Dish: Poori with Aloo Curry
Poori with aloo curry is a classic combination that I crave once in a while but rarely make at home. First thing I'm reluctant to deep fry anything and second I'm scared that my pooris won't puff up and will turn hard. So I decided to give pooris another try one weekend.

I watched Vah Chef making pooris and gained some confidence. My pooris turned pretty good -- they were puffy, soft and didn't absorb too much oil. I made smallish pooris because I only have a small poori press :-) (The green contraption in the pic below).

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Zucchini Paratha

Blogging Marathon# 49: Week 3/ Day 3

Theme: One Vegetable - 3 Dishes

Dish: Bread - Zucchini Paratha

For the third day of this week's blogging marathon, I wanted to make a bread with Zucchini. I have tried quite a few bread recipes with zucchini, like this sweet carrot-zucchini bread, this everyday sourdough bread and this double chocolate bread. I wasn't in a mood to bake anything or make any sweet dish, so tried making parathas with zucchini.

I kept the paratha recipe simple with just grated zucchini and few spices because I was serving them with a spicy side dish. But you can add more spices and serve it with some yogurt and pickle.

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Bajra Methi na Thepla (Pearl Millet/ Sajjala Thepla)

I'm sticking with the theme of the week, All about Millets and made these theplas with bajra flour (pearl millet flour) and methi. This year I planted only a few greens in my backyard because with the India trip I didn't want the plants to suffer while we were away. I harvested most of them and gave some away to family and friends.

I had half a pot of methi leaves that needed to be used up. I bookmarked this recipe from 'India: The  Cookbook' by Pushpesh Pant. I borrowed this book from the library, but had to return it since ran out of my renewals. I think I renewed it about 6 times, but finally had to return the book before they snatch my library card permanently from me. Even with all the renewals, I couldn't get through most of my bookmarked recipes. So I took pictures of the recipes on my phone, this way I can get to them whenever I want to.

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A Vegetarian Indian Thali

Blogging Marathon# 40: Week 4/ Day 3
Theme: Bookmarked recipes from BM# 39
Dish: Indian Thali

So for the last day of the marathon, I created a thali with some of the recipes that I bookmarked from last month's mega marathon. Indian thali usually consists of a Bread, Rice dish, a dry curry, a gravy curry, chutney and something sweet to end the meal. 

Most of the dishes in this thali are from the North Eastern states of India. To be honest, I had no idea about the eating habits or the popular dishes from any of the North Eastern states. Thanks to the research that all of the marathoners have done last month, I know a lot more about these cuisines now. I also wanted to make this black rice pudding from Nagaland for dessert, but I made this thali for myself and I wasn't motivated enough to make a dessert and also I was tooooo full after eating this meal. buuurp!!

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Methi Thepla

Blogging Marathon# 36: Week 2/ Day 2
Theme: Travel Food
Dish: Main Course -- Methi Thepla

When I think of the good old days summer travel to Vijayawada is something that I always remember and cherish. Right after our annual exams, my mom would take us sisters for almost 2 months to my grandparents house to spend the summer vacation. We used to take the train and my mom had either pulihora or roti with potato curry packed for our meal. We were never allowed to buy anything on the train. I especially liked the cutlets that were sold on trains but never got a chance to try them. But my mom made sure we were not hungry and we had more than enough munchies to munch on.

As I was thinking of what main course dish to make for Day 2 of BM# 36 under travel food theme, I remembered one of my friend bringing Methi Theplas on a road trip we had together few years back. I think we ate them on day 2 of the trip and they were still soft and tasted delicious with some pickle she had packed.

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Kerala Parotta & Mixed Vegetable Curry

Blogging Marathon# 35: Day 2/ Week 2
Theme: Regional Dishes - Course Specific
Dish: Dinner --- Kerala Parotta & Mixed Vegetable Curry

For Day 2 of BM# 35, I decided to explore the dinner recipes of Kerala. I have seen Kerala Parotta on a number of blogs and wanted to give them a try. I never ate a properly made Kerala Parotta, I might have eaten a frozen version of it, even that I'm not very sure.

After looking through the recipe the techniquee of making it is similar to lachcha paratha. Only difference being Kerala Parotta is made with all-purpose flour or maida whereas lachcha paratha is made with atta or whole wheat flour. Also parotta has significant amount of oil used.

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Dill & Spring Onion Roti

For Day 2 under "Cooking with Greens" theme, I made these Dill and Spring onion rotis. To be honest, dill is not one of my favorite greens, I feel that it have a overwhelming flavor. But knowing that this fern looking green is packed with anti-oxidants and a ton of health benefits, I wanted to give it another try. 

I used about ¼ cup of the chopped dill along with spring onions to make the rotis. I was pleasantly surprised that I actually liked the mild dill flavor and even more surprised when my son asked for seconds.

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Palak Thepla

For the last day of our week long blogging marathon, Valli paired us with a fellow marathoner and we have to choose a dish that fits our theme from their blog. I got paired with Jayashree @ Luvgoodfood and I found this healthy & delicious Methi theplas that are just perfect as picnic food. They are filling, nutritious and easy to pack AND eat.

I didn’t have enough methi in my container garden, but I had a bunch of spinach that was waiting to be used up, so I made palak/ spinach theplas instead. I changed the recipe a little bit because I was short of time and increased the ingredients. These were an instant hit at home and most of them were eaten before I took my pictures. I had one and half theplas left that I had to use for the pictures.

Ingredients:
Wheat flour – 3 cups
Besan (Chickpea flour) – ¾ cup (I used kala chana besan)
Spinach – 3 cups, finely chopped
Yogurt – 1 cup
Red chili powder – 1 tsp
Cumin powder – 1tsp
Salt – to taste

Method:

• Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl. Add warm water if needed to make a smooth and pliable dough. Cover with damp kitchen towel and let it rest for at least 30 – 45 minutes.
• Divide the dough into lemon size balls and roll them into slightly thick rotis.
• Cook on preheated griddle until brown spots are formed on both sides. Smear some oil or ghee if desired. Serve hot with yogurt or pickle of choice.

Big thanks to Jay for a delicious recipe. Thanks to Valli for organizing the Marathon and looking forward to the next edition.

Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have been cooking up for the last day of BM#6.

Missi Roti & Mixed veggie Curry

For some reason besan in roti sounds so yummy and I wanted to give these Missi rotis a try and the resulting rotis where so different from my regular plain rotis; you can taste the besan in the background and once they cool they have a chila kind of texture that I love. I adapted DK’s missi roti recipe.

Ingredients:
Besan – 2 cups
Atta (Whole wheat flour) – 1cup
Cumin seeds – 1tsp
Ajwain – 1tsp
Green onions – 2, finely chopped
Coriander – 2tbsp, finely chopped
Red chili powder – 1tsp
Salt – to taste

Method:

• Mix all the ingredients and knead into a smooth dough with lukewarm water. Cover with damp cloth and set aside for 30 minutes.
  
• Heat a griddle on medium-high heat. Divide the dough into lemon size balls. Roll each ball into a not-too thin or not-too thick disc. Cook on the hot griddle until blistered on both sides. Smear ghee or oil and serve hot with any spicy curry.
  

I made a mixed veggie curry with coconut milk; this recipe is also inspired from Vaishali’s carrot & peas curry with coconut milk. I used green tomatoes, broccoli, frozen green beans & peas. Here’s how I made it:

Ingredients:
Green onions – 1 bunch, both white & green parts chopped
Broccoli – 1 cup, cut into florets
Green beans – ½ cup, thawed if frozen
Peas – ½ cup, thawed
Tomatoes – 4 small, chopped
Tomato puree – 3tbsp
Red chili powder – 1tsp
Kitchen king masala (or garam masala) – ½ tsp
Coconut milk – ½ cup
Cumin seeds – 1tsp

Method:

• Heat 1tbsp oil in a sauté pan; add cumin seeds and after they splutter, add green onions and sauté till translucent.
  
• Add all the other veggies except for tomatoes. Cover and cook till tender and cooked through.
  
• Add tomatoes; cover and cook till tomatoes turn mushy. Add red chili powder and garam masala, mix well.
  
• Finally add coconut milk and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Enjoy with roti or rice.