Masala Bread Toast

Bread is always a super easy fix for breakfast. It also an quick fix for the lunch box. The masala version adds some spice to our Indian taste. Give this a try and you will love it. Egg does makes it filling and remains soft even for lunch box.

Ingredients:

• Egg – 4
• Bread – 6
• Garam masala powder- 1/4 tsp
• Ginger garlic paste – 1/4 tsp
• Chili powder – 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric – a pinch
• Garlic – 2 cloves
• Onion – 2 tbsp
• Salt – to taste
• Oil – to toast

Recipe:

1. Grind Onion and Garlic as paste.
2. Apart from Bread and Oil, mix all the ingredients with Egg and beat it well.
3. Heat Oil in a pan, dip the bread slices in egg mix and place it on pan, apply oil on all sides of bread.
4. Toast the Bread on both sides and remove from heat.

 

Parotta

Mom: What shall I order for you?
Me: (spontaneously..without looking thru menu card) Parotta
Mom: Want to try something else today
Me: No. I am fine with Parotta
Mom: smiling.. ok.

This was a usual converstation between me and my mom wenever we eat out. That much I loved it when I was little. One reason for that is its a food which was not made frequently at home like idly, dosa, poori, rice etc., And another one being the tast and flaky nature of parotta thats so inviting for the taste buds.

I have treid to make it so many times, but I would be missing something. Especially the flaky and still soft nature of the parotta. When I wanted to try this time, I was searching for some different recipes and I got this one from ifood.tv with some nice video, though quite a lengthy one. But its worth checking it if you want to try out. And the results were really good too.

 

Ingredients
Maida / All purpose flour - 3 cups
Salt - 2 tsp
Sugar - 2 tbsp
Water - approx 1 cup
Oil - 1/2 cup for kneading
Oil - 1/4 cup for toasting


Method:
Dough making and kneading:

Heap 3 cups of maida on a wide bowl. Make a dent or well inside.

Slowly add the water inside. To this water add salt and sugar and mix it slowly with the flour on the sides. Check out for water and be careful not to add too much water.

After all mixing up add oil and knead well well. This is the most important part and it has to be beaten up so the dough gets mixed/kneaded very well. This has to be done for almost 15-20 minutes to get the nice soft texture. Apply some oil on top and keep it closed aside for 30 mts.

After 30 minutes the dough will have rised a little. Make small balls out of it and apply oil on top of it again and let it rest for 10 minutes keeping it covered with moist kitchen towels. If you could notice, it will rise a little.

Spreading and coiling:

Take the balls one by one and roll it as much as you can with a rolling pin, the funny part is, you can watch as you stretch, it rolls back, so apply oil say about a tsp for each parotta and stretch it to paper thin size. It might tear in some areas… thats ok. Stretch using your hands or use the rolling pin, oil makes the work easier.

Hold any one corner of the rolled dough and lift it up. Slowly spiral the dough and make it a ball again. Note that this may need more oil.  Repeat this for all the balls and make them spiral coils and keep them covered under a moist cloth again.

Rolling and toasting:

Take the spirals one by one and start stetching with a rolling pin slightly without applying too much pressure.
Roll them on one side only and don't flip them to roll on the other side. This makes the layers to merge and we won't get the flaky layered texture of parottas. Note parottas will not be too thin like chapatis. So roll them like the size of a pancake.

Heat a griddle/ tawa and keep it on medium flame. Take the rolled parottas one by one and let them cook slightly on both sides. After seeing some spots add about 1 tsp oil/ghee and toast.

You will see it becoming fluffy, flip one more time and then put it back on the counter. Using both hands, try to beat it once, just like clapping, to seperate the layers. Serve hot with your favorite side dish.

Naan with yeast

I have tried Naan all time with baking soda and fruit salt. But this time I tried it with yeast and the results were really good. The same soft and fluffy naan were ready for dinner. I uesd instant yeast and the dough rises in about 1 hr. I read that instant yeast helps to rise the dough fast than normal dry yeast. But many recipes uses the active dry yeast. But if you have to prepare in short time go for instant yeast.

I used the same method of cooking on tawa for this naan as with chappatis. But some recipes recommend using the convection oven. Try out this and enjoy your delicious soft Naans

Ingredients:

Maida/ All purpose flour - 2 cups
Milk - 1/4 cup
Fresh curd - 1/4 cup
Instant Yeast - 1 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 1 tsp
Salt - 1 tsp or as required
Butter - 1 tsp


Procedure:

Mix sugar in warm milk. Milk should be just warm as bearable when you touch with your fingers.
Add yeast to this and leave for 5 mts. After add curd to this and leave it covered for 10 mts. The mix will be frothy and bubbly by this time

Mix salt and butter to the flour in a large mixing bowl. To this add the yeast mixture and knead to a soft dough. Add water if required but be careful not to add too much. Apply oil on your fingers if the dough is sticky. After kneading apply oil on top surface of dough and leave this covered for 1 - 1/2 hrs in a warm place.

The dough will raise after 1 1/2 hours. Gently knead the dough again and make balls slightly bigger than for chappatis.

Dust the rolling surface with flour and roll the balls. It should be slightly thicker and try to elongate on the sides like the traditional naans.

Heat the tawa on medium flame. Apply water on one side of the rolled naan. And put this side on  the hot tawa. This helps it to stick the rolled dough on the tawa. It will start bubbling up slowly.

After you see the bubbles, turn the tawa upside and show it direcly on the flame. This will help in cooking the top part of the naan. After you even spotting on the naan remove from the tawa and apply butter on top.

Alternatively you can take the naan and flip it on a flame directly over a stand which is used for making rotis directly on flame. and flip it on wither sides to get even coloring. Spread butter on top. a

Serve the butter naans hot with your favorite side dish.


Options:

After rolling to the desired size, add thin slices of garlic pieces and roll again slightly. This will give Garlic naans
Similarly you can add sesame/cumin seeds on top and roll once to get Sesame/Cumin Naans

Easy Bread Sandwich

Bread has become an daily food in our family and it is easy to fix the breakfast with it and its filling too. So I'm just posting a simple, easy and healthy Bread sandwich.

Lets eat healthy and stay healthy while we celebrate "Womens Day"

Ingredients:

Bread - 4 slices
Steamed vegetables (I used Potato, peas and carrots) - 1 bowl
Sprouted Whole moong dal - 2 tbsp
Shredded Cheese - 2 tsp
Salt & Pepper
Chopped coriander leaves



Procedure:

Mash the steamed veggies and mix salt and pepper to it
Take one bread slice and spread the mashed vegetables. To this mix chopped coriander leaves
Place 1 tbsp of sprouted moong dal over that and sprinkle cheese
Place other bread slice and press slightly. Cut the bread into halves as triangles
Repeat the same for the other 2 slices
Toast them on sandwich maker or on tava on a low flame till bread is browned a little
Serve hot

Kids Special - Colorful Mini Chapati

I was just thinking of a fun way to have food for kids. But I was only planning for chapati for dinner. Then got an idea and made it colorful and in different shapes too. This is a healthy than the regular chapatis and inviting too. My kid always refuses to take any side-dish and eats the chapati alone. For the colorful chapatis, I didn't have to worry abt making him have side dish as this had all vegetables in itself. After dinner I was proud of giving a nutrious meal. To make it more appealing I made different shapes using cookie cutter and my kid was the first to come to the dining table today.

Ingredients:

Chapati flour - 3 cups (have each 1 cup separately)

Boiled and ground carrot puree - 1 cup
Boiled and ground peas puree - 1 cup
Boiled and ground beetroot puree - 1 cup
Salt
Oil
Water - if needed

Procedure:

1. Take 1 cup of flour and add salt as required and mix well. To this add the carrot puree little by little as needed and knead well to a soft dough. This is for orange chapatis

2. Take 1 cup of flour and add salt as required and mix well. To this add the peas puree little by little as needed and knead well to a soft dough. This is for green (slight) chapatis. For more green options try out spinach/ cilantro/mint leaves.

3. Take 1 cup of flour and add salt as required and mix well. To this add the beetroot puree little by little as needed and knead well to a soft dough. This is for red chapatis

4. Make balls of the dough and roll them as we do for regular chapatis. Then take cookie cutter and cut the rolled dough to make different shaped mini versions of colorful chapatis. You can also use any utensils cap/cups with sharp ends to get the shapes.

5. Heat tawa and place them in a batch. Add oil and flip over as we make regular chapatis.

6. Serve them hot. Healthy Colorful chapatis are ready for kids
 

Tricolor Chapati

I was just bored of regular of making regular chapatis. And luckily came across this different recipe and tried it out. It looks colourful, tastes good and serves healthy too. I used carrots for the orange color, coriander and mint leaves for the green color. You can try other veggies like beetroot, broccoli etc., for different colors.




Ingredients

Chapati flour - 3 cups
carrots -2 (steam and grind to a thick paste)
Coriander and mint leaves - 1 cup (grind with little water to a smooth and thick paste)
salt
oil

Method




1. Add water and salt to 1st cup of flour and make a soft chapati dough. This is the usual brown dough

2. Add grinded carrot paste and salt to 2nd cup of flour and make a soft chapati dough. Add water if needed. You'll get a orange dough

3. Add grinded coriander and mint paste and salt to 3rd cup of flour and make a soft chapati dough. Add water if needed. This serves for the green dough

4. Flatten each dough separately using hand or rolling pin to the size of a roti. Arrange the flattened doughs one on top of other ie., keep brown down on top of it keep orange and then green.

5. Now roll it together cylindrically and cut to the size of a chapati ball using knife. Don't make the ball as this blends the color and you maynot be able to the unique colors

6. Take each piece and roll the colorful chapati and cook over tawa as usual

7. Colorful Chapatis are ready for serving

Naan with Gobi Manchurian

Naan

I wanted to try home-made Naans for a long time but got missed somehow (except for my first failure long back). I saw a Naan recipe without yeast in rakskitchen and wanted to try. Believe me it was really good. My husband didn't believed its homemade and it was soft and fluffy. Check out here for the actual recipe and I replaced cooking soda with Eno fruit salt.



Gobi Manchurian

Ingredients
Cauliflower florets- 2 cups
Chopped Onion - 1 cup
cut Capsicum - 1 cup
Green chili - 1
Tomato sauce/ketchup - 2 tbsp
Soy sauce - 2 tbsp
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
Salt
Oil

Gobi masala
Corn flour - 1 tbsp
Plain flour - 1 tbsp
Rice flour - 1/2 tsp (optional for crispiness)
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
soy sauce - 1/2 tsp
salt

Procedure:

Marinate the cauliflower florets with the ingredients mentioned under Gobi masala. sprinkle little water and mix them well and keep aside for 20 mts

After 20 mts deep fry the marinated gobi florets and keep aside (too tempting and may get over before gravy gets ready..make sure to make a little more)

Pour oil in a wide pan and saute onions till they become soft.

Add ginger garlic paster and green chill. Fry while till the raw smell goes away.

Mix the capsicum and fry for a while.

Its now time to add the sauce. Add enough tomato and soya sauce according to taste. If you want gravy add 1/2 cup water.

Now add the fried cauliflower and mix well.

Garnish with spring onions and coriander leaves and serve hot


Tip:

If you are preaparing ahead, warm up the gravy and add cauliflower just before serving as it tends to become soggy.