Recipe - Aloo Paratha (Stuffed Indian Flatbread)

Ok, It's been more than a week since I posted anything. Was tied up with work. I did manage to have a few good dinners during the week though! Anyway, so today, I wanna post a simple recipe of Aloo Paratha. There are many variations to this; I will post the one that we tried and usually make.

Ingredients:

1. Whole wheat flour (Atta) - 150 gms
2. Potatoes - 2 medium
3. Onions - 1 medium
4. Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
5. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
6. Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
7. Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
8. Green chillies - 2 finely chopped (if you like them)
9. Ginger Garlic paste - 1 or 1+1/2 tsp
10. Salt to taste
11. Oil

Method:

1. The most important aspect of this is a well kneaded dough. Take the wheat flour in a bowl or a big flat pan with high edge. Put a pinch of salt in it and also 1 tsp of peanut/sunflower (or your favorite, but thin) oil. Now add a little water and start mixing and kneading. Keep adding water intermittently till you make it into a dough. The dough should be very soft (even a little sticky). The harder the dough, the more difficult it is to make good paratha

One suggestion is to take water in a small bowl from which you can pour in just a little bit at a time. It's very easy to over do the water. Be very careful. Make equal sized balls of it (about 1+1/2 inch diameter roughly). Let the dough rest for 15 min (or more if you are not too hungry

2. Boil the potatoes (I put them in a bowl of water and microwave for 7-8 minutes). Meanwhile, chop the onions and green chillies very fine.

3. Peel off the skin from the boiled potatoes and mash them up. Saute the onions in a little oil and also the green chillies. Mix them up with the mashed potatoes and put the chilli powder, turmeric powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and salt. Make a homogeneous mix.

4. Dust the rolling board with flour and flatten the doughball into a circle of about 5 inch diameter using a rolling pin. Apply a little oil at the center.

5. Make a small ball of the potato mix and put it at the center

6. Pull up the ends of the flattened dough and stick them to enclose the potatoes inside. Use a little oil to smooth-en out any cracks

7. Use the rolling pin lightly to flatten out the ball again into a circle of about 8 inch diameter (or as thin as you can without breaking it). Keep using flour to keep it from sticking to the rolling board or the rolling pin. This is why you need soft kneaded dough.

8. Heat a tawa or a flat thick bottomed pan and put a tsp of oil on it. Put the the paratha on it for cooking.

9. When the paratha is cooked a little on the underside, flip it around. Pour a little (1 tsp) oil around the paratha edges so it cooks better.

10. When properly cooked on both sides, serve with curd or spicy pickle :)

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This dish was made a  week ago (maybe more) but I do remember that I had a great time eating it! It's easy to make, fills the tummy and tastes amazing.

The filling can be changed to anything you want (including minced meat) and it will still taste good! The name would then change from Aloo paratha to minced meat paratha of course!

Recipe - Kheema Bharwa Mirch (Stuffed Chilli with minced meat)

Kheema Bharwa Mirch is what I decided to cook last night after a shopping filled weekend (more food items and storage... that's my fav shopping). Now, this recipe is something that I have been wanting to make since a long time. Had a few ideas that I implemented yesterday.

Ingredients - 

(Serves 2-3 people at least)

1. Minced lamb - 250 gms
2. Big sweet chilli - 125 gms (or 5-6 in number)
3. Onions - 2 medium
4. Tomato - 2 medium
5. Peanuts - 1/4 cup
6. Ginger-garlic paste - 2 tsp
7. Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
8. Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
9. Red chilli powder - 1-1/2 tsp
10. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
11. Garam masala - 1 tsp (or more)
12. Salt as per taste
13. Oil - 2tsp, 3 tsp and 1 TabSp

Method - 

1. Finely chop onion and tomatoes. Very fine!

2. Roast the peanuts in a pan and peel off the skin by rubbing them between your palms, a few nuts at a time (make sure they are not too hot when you are doing this). It's not necessary to peel them, just remember that the taste and colour of the dish changes a bit depending on whether you do this or not.Grind them into a coarse powder.

3. In a smaller wok, take 2 tsp of oil and put about 1/3rd of the chopped onion. When they are almost golden brown, put 1 tsp of ginger garlic paste and then mix in 1/4th of the minced lamb. Put half a tsp of red chilli powder and cumin powder. Put the ground peanuts and a pinch of salt. Mix well and cook for 3 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, take 5-6 big green chillies. They are not spicy; they are also called sweet chillies. I used only three coz mine were a little too big!

5. Make a slit along the length of the chilli using a sharp knife.

6. De-seed the chillies

7. Fill the chilli up with the mixture we made earlier. The slit should be made such that the chilli cavity is tight enough not to spill the mixture. If it's loose, then you can tie the chilli with a clean thread.

8. In another pan, heat 3 tsp of oil and put the cumin seeds in. Put the remaining onions and mix well till golden brown.

9. Put the remaining minced lamb and mix well.

10. Put the remainder of the ginger garlic paste, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and Garam masala.Mix in the tomatoes and put salt as per taste. Let it cook for 3 minutes.

11. In the earlier wok, put 1 tablespoon of oil and shallow fry the stuffed chillies till the skin becomes a little white in colour. 

12. Put the chillies in the other pan and "submerge" them in the mix as much as possible.

13. Put 1-1/2 cups of water and cover the pan. Cook on low flame for 30 minutes or until the meat is nicely cooked. Serve with chapati/roti or plain/jeera rice. Also, an accompaniment of Raita is nice as this kills the heat of the dish a bit.

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I will be trying out different fillings in future and upload the recipe. And needless to say, this dish tasted amazing! A successful experiment!