Its simple to make a regular type roti, but sometimes to impress my daughter and get her to have roti I roll it up in interesting ways. During our car travels in India, many a times we used to park the car near a tea kadai (shop) for our driver to get his caffeine fill. Next to the tea kadai there was always a parota making place and I used to watch with great interest at the way they worked the dough, spreading, folding and finally make into balls for making parota. I was talking to my daughter about it and I decided to make the roti rolled the parota way to show her. 

Gadgets:

Rolling Pin
Rolling Board
Tava/Griddle
Spatula

Ingredients:

Whole Wheat Flour Dough - 2 portions
Whole Wheat Flour - Enough to dab for making roti
Ghee - 1 tbsp

Preparation:

1. Take one portion of the dough and dab it with some flour. Roll and spread the dough into a think roti.

2. Spread some ghee over the roti and roll it into a thin rope.

3. Coil the rope into a ball and then roll it out into a circle again. This time make a thick roti.

4. Cook them on the tava on both sides, spread some ghee and serve them hot.

My Krishna Jayanthi celebrations post that I had missed to publish....

It has been a very busy week with Krishna Janmastami celebrations. IT always brings fond memories of making snacks with my perima and amma, decorating Krishna with flowers and in the end singing songs all evening. It was a very fun celebration at our home and my sister Sowmya and I always recollect those days. This year for Krishna Jayanthi, I made Poha Halwa, which is a little different from the Avil Kesari that I have posted here. It was very easy to prepare and can be done in under 10 Minutes. It was so perfect with puri and is one of my favorite halwas to prepare.

Gadgets:

Blender
Wok
Spatula
Measuring Cups and Spoons

Ingredients:

Poha/ Avil - 1 cup powdered along with elachi
Elachi/ Cardamom - 3 pods
Ghee -  4 tbsps
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Cashew Nuts - a few
Saffron - a few strands
Milk - 1/2 cup

 

Preparation:

1. Blend the poha with elachi into a fine powder.

2. Heat the wok with ghee, fry the cashews and set aside. Add the poha in the rest of the ghee and roast well until the aroma surfaces and poha looks roasted.

3. Add sugar and mix well along with milk and saffron.

4. Cook until the sugar blends well. Add the cashew nuts and serve hot with puris.

We made this awesome pavakkai curry a few weeks ago. I always tend to forget the recipe that are mostly experimented.  On high recommendations  I decided to make a note of it. I got some bitter gourd from the market to prepare it again this week. Not my favorite kind of vegetable to make, but I kind of liked the crunchy bitter gourd mixed with the onions and tomatoes. Though it does not have any gravy, it still was good enough to pair with rotis.

Gadgets:

Baking Tray
Measuring Cups and Spoons
Wok
Spatula
Cutting Board
Knife
Bowl

Ingredients:

For Chips :

Bitter Gourd - 6 ( I always pick the dark green longer ones)
Salt
Chickpea Flour/ Besan - a cup
Rice Flour - 1 cup
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Chili Powder - 1 tsp
Oil - 1 tbsp
Asafoetida Powder - 1/4 tsp
Water - Enough to make a think paste plus 2 cups

For Masala:

Onions - 1 big finely chopped
Tomatoes - 3 firm tomatoes finely chopped
Curry leaves - a few
Cilantro - a tbsp chopped
Garlic - 3 cloves
Ginger - i inch grated
Oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Dry red Chillies - a few
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida Powder - 1/4 tsp

Preparation:

1. Set the oven to broil. Cut the bitter gourd into thin slices remove the inner seeds. Add salt and set aside for 20 minutes. Remove in a minute rinse in cold water and set for it dry on kitchen towel.

2. Mix the rest of the ingredients for the chips into the bowl. Add the mix well so that bitter gourd is well coated with the besan mix. Place in the baking tray and broil for 12 minutes or less and flip the chips over and broil for 4 minutes or until you get a very crunchy chips.

3. When the bitter gourd is in the oven, heat the wok with oil. Add mustard seeds, asafetida, and allow the mustard to splatter. Add curry leaves, dry chillies and onions along with garlic and ginger.

4. Cook the onions until they are transparent and then add chopped tomatoes, salt, turmeric powder,

5. When the bitter gourd is crisp and crunchy remove and add to the onion mix. Give it a toss, garnish with cilantro and serve.