Aloo Parota (Chapati with potato filling)

Good Morning :) :) Long time since I have filled up something in this place. There are quite a few recipes to be posted still :) I'll post all by the end of next week. :) My Wish List is at stake. :-/ But I'll catch up soon with it. :) :)

I'm on holidays just after I'm done with my Engineering completely; so a lot of playfulness has creeped into me :) I've lost touch with subjects you could say. Need to catch up with that too :) Coming to what I'll be posting today, I had been to my friend's place last Sunday. I keep visiting her frequently these days and I shamelessly keep trying out my recipes in her house too. :) Thanks to her mother who always is enthusiastic to hand over her kitchen to me :) There we decide at the nth moment that we'll prepare lunch by ourselves as her parents had been out to a temple. I decided that I'm going to cook the lunch. We thought for a long time to decide what to cook. Then came to a decision of making Aloo Parotas (Aloo means potato, Parota is a kind of an Indian bread). We took off and here is how it went.

Ingredients (For 6-7 parotas)

To make the dough for Parota

4-5 tbsp of wheat flour
1 tbsp of oil
1 tsp of salt (To taste)
Water to knead the dough (Quantity: Add water that is suffiecient to make a soft but non sticky dough)

To make the Potato (Aloo filling)

2 medium sized potatoes
1 onion (Finely chopped)
2 tsp red chilly powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
2 green chillies (chopped)
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 a cup coriander leaves (chopped)
1 and 1/2 tsp salt (To taste)

Method

Boil the potatoes, onions, green chillies together and keep it aside.

On the other side, make the dough take wheat flour salt and oil in a bowl.

Add water one table spoon at a time and keep kneading the dough.

Keep adding water until it starts sticking to your hands like glue. After this knead the dough for 5 to 10 minutes. It becomes soft and smooth.

Make oval shapes, slightly smaller than a lemon size, out of the dough and keep it aside.

For the filling

Mash the potato, onion and green chilly mixture. Add salt, red chilly powder, cumin seeds and turmeric powder and mix thoroughly.

To make the Aloo Parota

Roll out the oval shaped into a flat disc of diameter about 4 to 5 inches. Add a little amount of maida while rolling so that it becomes easy to roll the Parota.

Place a lemon sized potato stuffing at the center of the Parota.

Close the Parota as shown below. Make the same of these kind and keep it side for 20 minutes.

Note: This is a very important step because if you do not keep it aside for sometime, the potato stuffing may come out of the dough covering while you roll it out to make the parota. Hence it is very important to keep this for sometime and then roll it out to make the actual parotas.

After 20 minutes, roll out the potato stuffed dough into a flat disc (chapati) using a rolling pin. Add maida over the Parota while rolling it out so that the Parota doesn't stick to the rolling pin. Diameter of the parota which I made from the above quantity was about 7-8 inches.

After this heat a flat pan to the maximum and place this parota in the pan.

After 2 minutes, invert the parota and smear ghee/oil/butter over it.

After 2 minutes again invert the parota and smear ghee/oil/butter on the other side too. See to it that both sides are fried as shown below.

Serve it with curd raita or any other side dish.

I made the curd raita which required the following ingredients

3 cups of curd
2 tsp of chopped ginger
2 finely chopped green chillies
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 pinch of Asafoetida (Hingu in Kannada)
1/2 cup coriander leaves
1 tsp salt (To taste)

Method

Mix all the ingredients mentioned above thoroughly.

Serve the Parotas and Raita together. :) It was a very good lunch. We ate the parotas followed by curd rice. It was simply divine :) Later uncle and aunt came and we made for them too. I'm happy they loved it genuinely :) :)

If you haven't made these yet, do make them :)

Take care till I write.

Happy cooking :) :)

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Samosa

Good morning :) A holiday on a rainy day... Hot luscious samosas dipped in sauce and accompanied with hot coffee :) This is what I was relishing few days back :) It is indeed a marvelous weather. I'm typing this post and I can see the greenery outside my window with the mild rustling of leaves when the rain slowly pours. This is what I call an alluring scene :)

There are many ways of making a samosa. The stuffing that is prepared is of various types. Some use only potatoes. Some add potatoes and beetroots as a combination. Yet some make them with whatever vegetables they have :)

The stuffing is very easy, but I was thinking of "How to shape it up?" I wanted to make the properly shaped samosas. Thankfully I came across this video. I went through it I guess around 7-8 times and then got the trick of how shape up a samosa :) All credits to the lovely site ;Manjula's Kitchen. I prepared samosas for the first time and it turned out a success :)

So here goes the recipe

Ingredients (For 9-10 samosas)

For the stuffing
2 large potatoes
1 tomato
1 medium sized carrot
5 sticks of beans (chopped)
1/2 cup soaked peas
3 green chillies (chopped finely)
1 medium sized onion (chopped)
6-7 garlic pods (chopped)
4 tbsp chilly powder
1 and 1/2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp coriander powder
1 tbsp cumin powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tbsp cumin seeds
2 tsp ginger garlic paste
2 tbsp cooking oil/ghee
1/2 cup coriander leaves
5-6 chopped curry leaves
1 full tsp Salt (To taste)

For the outer crusty covering
6-7 tbsp maida flour
3 tbsp cooking oil / ghee
1 tsp sesame seeds (black or white)
1 tsp salt
Hot water to knead the dough

Method

For the dough (To make the outer crust)

Take the maida, salt, oil and sesame seeds in a bowl.

Now mix it in your hands to make a dough. Add hot water about 1 tsp at a time and knead the dough until it becomes soft. It should look as follows. Remember it should be soft and not like a stone. Keep it aside for 20 minutes.

For the stuffing

Boil potaoes, tomato, carrots, beans, peas, onions (Chopped) along with chillies and garlic and keep them. Mash them a little bit.

Now heat oil in a pan, add cumin seeds, chopped curry leaves, ginger garlic paste.

Now add all the boiled ingredients that was kept aside. Stir fry for about 10 minutes and mash them slightly.

Add the spices i.e. cumin powder, coriander powder, chilly powder, sugar, turmeric powder and garam masala.

Mix well. Stir fry for about 10 minutes and then add salt. Mix well. Add chopped coriander. Keep it aside for cooling.

To make the Samosa

Take a lemon sized amount of dough and make round balls of it and keep aside.

Roll out the balls into a flat chapati using a rolling pin. DO NOT put any extra flour while rolling out the samosas

Now slit it into two halves using a knife.

Now take one half of the chapati and make a cone shape out of it. Smear a little water to the edges so that the cone stays firm and does not open up while deep frying the samosas.

Add the stuffing inside the cone.

Now close the cone as shown below.

Now close the edges and make the three pointed edges to the samosa.

This way you need to do for the remaining amount and keep it aside for atleast 10 minutes.

Now heat oil for deep frying the samosas.

Once the oil heats add the samosas one by one and deep fry them. Keep rolling the samosas while frying so that the color is even on all sides.

Hot samosas are ready to be served :) Serve it with anything you want. Chutneys or sauce :)

Please try this and let me know your feedback :) Any suggestions.. always welcome :)

So take care till I write.

Happy cooking :) :)

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Vermicelli Kheer

Good Morning :) Today's recipe to be learnt is the most famous and favorite of all I can say "Vermicelli Kheer" :) I made it long back and took pictures of it, but posting it now.I know it is a common recipe and everybody knows to make it. But still I want to post it as my enthusiasm level is high these days to post recipes here and articles on my personal blog too. :) :)

Taking you towards the making of Kheer:

Ingredients (Serves 7-8 glasses of kheer)

Around 2 cups of Vermicelli
7-8 tsp of sugar (you can add more or less based on what you require)
1 tsp of ghee
1/2 a liter of milk
2 tbsp sweetened milkmaid (optional)
Saffron (Kesar) strands (for coloring)
1 tsp Cardomom seeds
Cashewnuts and dried grapes for garnishing (You can add how much ever you like)

Note: You can add coconut milk and jaggery instead of milk and sugar. It becomes even more tasty.

Method

Take 1 tsp ghee in a vessel and roast the vermicelli for only 5 minutes on a medium flame.

It should be just about to turn brown. (Lightest brown color)

Then add the milk to the vermicelli.

Let it come to a boil. Keep it on a low flame.

After it starts boiling add sugar, milkmaid, cardomom seeds.

Keep stiring it so that the vermicelli doesn't stick underneath in the vessel.

When the vermicelli boils it will be soft.

In the mean time put 2 tsp of hot water to the saffron strands and keep it aside.

Now roast the roasted cashews, dried grapes with 1 tsp of ghee and add it to the kheer.

Add saffron water to the kheer and mix well.

The kheer needs to be served hot :)

So that is your kheer :)
Take care :) Till I write. :)

Happy cooking :)

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