Aloo Paratha

I Love them, love them and just love them... learnt this recipe by observing the guy at "Laddoos" in Bangalore. They used to serve garma garam parathas with just a cup of cold dahi and pickle. Their parathas are the best and they offered a wide variety... paneer, gobi, mooli, matar and what not....

What I used

1 Cup of wheat flour (aata)
1/4 cup of water
Salt to taste
A dollop of Ghee or butter

For filling
1 big potato (boiled and mashed)
a handful of finely chopped green coriander leaves
A pinch of salt to taste
A pinch of chilli powder
1 tsp of oil

How I made it

For the dough, in a bowl add water and salt. Then add the wheat flour and knead well. Make a soft dough and sprinkle a little water if needed. Allow the dough to rest for 30 minutes.

For the filling, mix the boiled, mashed potato, chopped coriander leaves, salt, chilli powder and a tsp of oil and mix well and make a equal sized balls out of it. Make sure the potato is mashed finely and there are no lumps.

Divide the dough into slightly bigger balls and roll out. Place the potato filling in the center, and cover the filling. Roll this dough out into 1/2 inch thick parathas. Heat a tawa and cook the parathas on both sides. Add 1/4 tsp of ghee or butter and serve hot with curd and pickle.

Trick of the trade:
Amma uses a little luke warm milk to make the dough a little more softer.
Knead the dough well, else you will not be able to roll out the parathas after you fill them.

Kuzhi Paniyaram / Vellaiyappam

Just in case, you had guests and you werent expecting anyone!! Just in case your hubby / child comes home... and asks you to fix a snack immediately !!! Heres the answer...

Learnt this age old trick from amma... "Just In Time" Recipes... where she used to make absolutely yummy snacks from the left over stuff and the basic ingredients she used to have in store.... 

What I used

1 cup of left over Idli / dosa batter 

1 tbsp of Channa flour (kadala maavu)

1 tbsp of Rice flour

1 finely chopped onion

1 green chilli ginely chopped

A small piece of ginger finely chopped

Corriander and curry leaves.

A pinch of salt

A wee bit of crushed pepper

A few drops of oil for frying ;)

How I made it

Mix all the ingredients and taste for salt. Add a little water to thin it out, so that it is a little thicker than the idli batter. Heat the non-stick paniyaram pan. Add two or three drops of oil in each  mold. Fill up  3/4 with batter and let it cook for 2 - 3 minutes until its golden brown. Use a skewer to turn it on to the other side. Add another drop of oil and let this brown for another 2 minutes. Remove and serve hot.

Serve this with tomato / mint / coconut chutney...

Microwave - Instant Theratti Pal / Pal Khoa

Kake just loves this so much... I still remember... 1st day of every month, amma used to get us Aavin Pal khoa... and we kids used to loooooooove this... I even chewed the paper to get to the last bit of pal khoa...

Making Theatti Pal / Pal Khoa always was a laborius process... amma had to reduce litres and litres of milk for hours and hours together to make a cup of pal khoa... And poor thing.. even before she knew... it would all be gone.. :)

Got this recipe from Rums n Akshara's blog... and I just loved it... Thank you gals... Mr. B was so happy when I gave him a sweet surprise this evening... I have been boasting about this to mom n mil... and asking them to try it out... now that they have a microwave at home...

What they used
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
2 tablespoons of milk
2 tablespoons of curd

How they made it

Mix all the ingredients and microwave on high for 5 -6 minutes.... Yep and thats it...Lickalicious Theratti pal....Ready !!!

That was amazingly simple... but is mindblowing... you get the authentic taste of Aavin Pal khoa... yummmmmm...

Tricks:

1. You might want to remove it every 2 minutes or so, stir it and put it back in the microwave, lest it might overflow.
2. Use a big microwave bowl, so that the mixture doesnt flow out when it boils.