Lacha Parathas or South Indian Parottas

So… in my last recipe of kuruma, I mentioned parottas (parathas) that I had at Kanchi hotel, some of the best I recall. My hugely popular blogging buddy Jay of Tasty Appetite had blogged these incredible looking parottas (south Indian style) and I was craving them the moment I saw them. Kuruma leftovers today – the kids have the day off from school, which is good, because we have all been down with some viral infection with stomachs hurting, throats that were sore, headaches and general fatigue – as I was saying leftover kuruma warranted some nice parottas and that’s what I made – it turned out well even if I did not use as much oil as the recipe suggested, but otherwise I stuck to Jay’s recipe fully.

Ingredients

3 cups all purpose flour

3tbsp oil

1sp of sugar

1 pinch of salt

1pinch of baking soda

1cup of warm water and some as “kneaded” ;)

Preparation

Add all the ingredients in a mixer and let it mix in a gentle pace at first and when all the dough has come together increase the mixer speed to medium and let it knead for about 5- 10 minutes, stopping every now and then for a spoon of water here and there if you need to bind all the flour.  At about 8 minutes, I took the speed to max and had the ball of dough going nuts :)

Remove from mixer, make a tight ball, put in a vessel and keep closed for about 30 minutes to an hour

When time is up, put back in the mixer and knead for another 3 minutes. Remove and make lemon-sized balls – I got about 11 of those evenly distributed.

Now take a plate and add 1 -2 tsp of oil and roll these balls in the oil and set aside

Once they are all greased roll them the size of a chappati, peel off the surface and make folds with them much like a sari as Jay suggests. Once pleated, hold the ends to stretch them out to the max, because they have a tendency to shrink back. Keeping the length, place one end at the center and roll the dough around to make a pinwheel.  Once they are all done we start to roll them out again.

Here is a trick

To keep the circles and layers intact, oil the bottoms of the pinwheels to give it some elasticity as you roll while dusting the top with dry flour to allow you to keep the stretch going. Again, once they are the size of a chappati, put them on a pan/tawa, basting them with a lightest brush of oil. Let both sides brown before you remove from the pan and place them in your serving platter.

Serve with spicy kuruma or side dish of your choice – Thanks Jay!

This is off to Sweet Karam Kapi's Flavors of Tamilnadu Event

Vegetable Kuruma (Korma)

Kormas or Kurumas as they are pronounced in the South is a curry that is popular in south Asia is said to have Mughlai roots. The method of preparation varies considerably from place to place and even among the same people – It often is yogurt or cream based and can be veg or non-veg and a side dish with Parathas Pooris or rice. For as long as I lived in my parents home, I have NEVER had this dish because my amma never prepared it and for some reason the use of garlic, onions and too many rich spices was never a big thing. But I grew up and started working and in DHL where I interned for a while, I recall that if we worked Sundays, the company ordered rice parathas and kuruma from Hotel Kanchi and would serve all its employees – I recall turning my nose up at it and the unfamiliar smells when I first saw it – but with some coaxing from my colleagues, I tried and it lo and behold, LOVED it! I remember going home feeling unclean, like I had done something wrong and in violation of my parents. A few more Sundays and I thought nothing of it.

Kanchi hotel, btw made the best kuruma the taste of which still tickles my tongue.

I have tried to recreate that Kuruma for my family using non-starchy, healthy veggies creaming it up with a few cashews. This was accompanied by pooris

It was enjoyed well and made for a perfect Sunday back home lunch.

Do enjoy this simple yet delicious dish with your families. You can always avoid the garlic and the onions, but they do give the kuruma the flavors I always associated with it.

Here is the recipe:

Non-starchy veggies of your choice – I used beets, (which gave it a rich red color), carrots, cauliflower, fennel, & zucchini

For the puree, I used a can of diced tomatoes (equals to roughly 4-5 juicy Roma tomatoes or tomatoes on the vine)

1 medium sized red-purple onion

3 green chilies

4 red cry chilies (please observe the spice plate for the exact numbers)

For the spices – again please see the plate of spices I have posted for quantities

I used garlic, chilies red and green, ginger, black peppers, cinnamon, cloves, bay leaves, 3 black seeds of cardamom, turmeric and 2 tbsp of dried coconut powder (fresh coconuts are fine or even better)

5-6 whole raw cashews

The entire preparation took 2 tbsp of oil – I used olive.

Preparation

First roast the ingredients in a tsp of oil and roast until brown – I also roast the coconuts at this same time.

Heat two separate pans, cook the onions in oil in one and the tomatoes in the other.
Add to the spice mix in to the blender along with the cooked tomatoes and tenderized onions to make the gravy.

Cook the veggies in a wide mouthed pan until they were tender. Then add the gravy to the veggies and salt, allowing it to simmer in the gravy for 5 minutes. Garnish with cilantro and serve with hot pooris J Bon appetite!

Sending this off to Sweet Karam Kapi's Flavor's of Tamilnadu event

Fondue with Steamed Veggies

I am back after a month long vacation in India and a week of absolute inertia - a combination of jet lag and complete exhaustion from travel, unpacking, washing, putting away stuff - you know how it goes and contrived though it is, I would love a no strings attached vacation right now - in an beautiful island - in a tranquil and exquisitely decorated suite overlooking aquamarine waters - where i sleep as I wish, have massages aplenty and lots and lots of wonderfully nourishing vegetarian food brought to me for the asking or on a pre-planned schedule - a yoga and dance workout when I feel like it or I may most likely prefer a dip in that azure water - Someone to towel my hair dry and paint my nails as I read some books I've been meaning to for a long time... sigh - see - the holiday stupor has not left me one bit!  And this is a very concerted effort to get back to my blog in the hope that I will feel motivated with your comments - so PLEASE leave your comments for me and get me back to reality! Hugs in advance :)

Fondue with Steamed Veggie Platter

Fondue is a very high fat meal. Under normal circumstances makes me cringe at the number of fat calories we consume while eating this highly delicious, yet horrifically caloric meal. Hmm, what to do? How can I have my Fondue and eat it too?

This is when I start becoming an inventor – well I don’t dare claim that this has not been done before. Hardly that! But I think smart ideas cannot be copyrighted, censored or censured since many people have them at different times and when it comes to the gastric pleasures, people do experiment a lot. A typical fondue preparation required Gruyere or Emmentaler cheese (a couple fine Swiss cheese) white wine for the dip.  What we can do is find things to dip in the fondue that are low calories, and help offset the fat of the cheese like, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, peppers, green, red, yellow and orange and avoid meats, bread and other heavy stuff that compound the calorie intake.

If you are craving a chocolate fondue, try a semi sweet, dark chocolate melted with a little sherry or port wine or liqueur like Kahlua. But rather than dip pound cakes, rice crispy treats, or Blondies, restrict yourself to the pleasure of dipping strawberries, crisp apples or pears, nuts like walnuts or almonds.

The moral being, there are certain foods that are meant to be fatty or sugary. While we cannot put up much resistance to them, unless we decide to go vegan and use potato starch to make a stringy dip, the best we can do is control what we dip in these and make it a less guilt-ridden dish.

We love fondues and have always used lightly steamed veggies to dip, but bread has been a part of it which I now wish to avoid.  I have bought the awesomest steamer from India which I used for the veggies. turned out perfect!  

For the Fondue Preparation

1) 1 cup each (or more) of grated Gruyere & Emmentaler cheeses. I did not get Emmentaler yesterday but substituted with Fontina - basically you need cheese that will melt smoothly and easily so I am sure there are other choices.

2) 3 cloves of garlic

3) 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper (optional)

4) 1/4 cup of white wine  (I used a moscato -sweet wine which tasted brilliant in this since it was far too sweet to drink) Again many other kinds of wines will suit - google mama will only be too happy to help ya with your selection :) (this again is optional and can be substituted with 1/4 cup of milk, just to get the melting process started.

5) A pinch of nutmeg

Preparation

On low heat, start the melting process on a regular stove.

If you have a fondue pot, then transfer this into it and have a candle flame underneath to keep the cheeses from thickening - If this happens keep the pot on the stove ready and re melt. 

Go with non-startchy veggies like cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, mushrooms etc... Attack with gusto - it makes for a fun meal when some of us ate standing to get a better swipe of the cheese. The fun also lies in losing your veggies in the cheese. Enjoy and I hope to be back with more.

Happy New Year all and May all your dreams and wishes come true and may you have good health and good food always :)

Paneer-yarams with Creamy Fennel dip

Just when I thought I'd exhausted all my ideas for leftover idli atta, of course, kuzhi paniyarams struck me. When I posted on Facebook for ideas with Fennel greens, I had a wonderful list of things I could do with it from a bunch of friends, each one of them gems which i plan to make-
But the easy and delicious one which was immediately executable was Priya's suggestion of a dip - Then I decided I would also chop the greens and the bulb and use for the kuzhi paniyarams - had a block of paneer sitting around and decided to grate that into the kuzhi paniyarams making for delicious paneeryarams :)) Nothing like a little twist to tradition, what say?

I used
1/2 a bulb of fennel,
2 stalks of fennel greens,
1/4 red onion, 1 green chili,
1/2 tsp of turmeric
3/4 cup of grated paneer,
1/4 cup of grated cheddar.
I lightly sauteed the fennel, greens, onions. turmeric and chili in 1 tsp of olive oil.

Batch 1

First batch I made, I tried to do a sandwich with the cheeses. It tasted great but made for messy pouring - so I simply incorporated the paneer & cheddar into the batter and poured the second batch like that - result = awesomeness!

Batch 2

Fennel Dip
3 short stems of fennel greens chopped fine
1 tbsp mayonnaise
1tbsp low fat yogurt
1tsp of Tzatziki herb mix
1tsp salad spice mix (this is like paprika)
mix in and serve with hot Paneeryarams.

Showcasing dip and my peeling nail polish :)

Idli Manchurian

This part 2 of the leftover idli saga :) So those of you who read my post on Idli Bajjis, I saved some of those Idli Bajjis and made an Indian- Chinese dish out of it - Please do try - I assure you that you will LOVE it.

I added 1 tbsp each of  Spricy Szechwan stir-fry sauce and Asian hot sauce;
2tbsp each of garlic chives and spring onions
3 spicy red chilies
1 tsp of sesame oil

Prepare
Saute the above ingredients (except the sauces) in hot oil and add the idli bajjis and stir.
Add the sauces last and mix it in well -
Hear the sizzle of the sauces evaporating  - its time to switch off the stove. Serve piping hot :)

There you have it - the new and exotic avatars of a rather seeda sada and chammathu idlis :)

Idli Bajjis A.K.A Seetha aur Geetha Idlis :)

Car update - Dealing with the insurance was LOT less scary than I anticipated. But sometimes expecting the worst could actually be beneficial (this comes from the most optimistic person I know - me :) because when then anything lesser seems to be a huge relief - Saw my sweet van being towed away an hour ago and then started to of lunch - there were my idlis from yesterday and I was feeling bad as in I wanted to be bad, as in taking a perfectly healthy thing and turning into something wicked-good?  so I cut the idlis up into cubes and mixed up a handful of besan/ chickpea flour (kadalamavu) threw in some sambar powder, added water and made the batter  (I want to say 2 tsp), fired up the oil and before I knew it was on my way to eating one of THE most delicious dishes  - Idli bajjis :) I KID YOU NOT!
A simple twist to make a delicious Geetha evil-twin of the healthy idlis :) Seetha Bangayi Geetha- (For those who not have watched Seetha aur Geetha, Seetha is an utterly boring twin sister of the rather spunky Geetha in a Hinid movie from the 70s, which got remade in Tamil as Vani-Rani with Vanishree in the lead) The western connotation would be Dr. Jekyl & Mr Hyde :)

I have not fried anything in my home for over a month now so I quell the guilt - besides when I was out this morning after the insurance was dealt with, met up with my sweet prego friend and enjoyed a wonderful session of girl-chat.
Here is a 4 step pictorial of the process :) Please do try it and let me know how you liked it!

Not wanting to stop at the evil twin, I created another avatar with them which I will blog about next - You can hold your breath - I am not planning to take long to post this next one lol!

Mixed Veggies in Cashew Gravy

For blog hop wednesday, I was paired with Divya of Divya Z EasyRecipes. I picked a mixed veggie with Cashew gravy among her many wonderful recipes.  The dish looked tempting and delicious.  But yesterday turned out to be a most bizarre day with not just the horrible accident where a deer ran on to my car literally from nowhere and crushed the front hood verily leaving me shaken and distraught at the insurance claims to be dealt with!! I also forgot to serve this dish to my sweetest friend who had come over for lunch - I had made idli sambar and chutney and I guess this did not go with any of those and my brain froze! Well whatever! I don't have much time to edit my pictures, but I used the veggies I had to make it and beets kinda took over the color :) - I used some sambar powder, bay leaves and garlic for flavors. And I used my cashew butter (2 tbsp) instead of crushing cashews etc... here is my dish and I am so sorry about this haphazard post! It is almost 8 am and I have a busy day ahead of me!!! Wish me luck and think only good thoughts of me please :) Love you all!

This is part of Radhika's humungous-ly successful Blog Hop Wednesday Event -