Aloo Paratha

Aloo paratha is one variety of Indian flat bread that is quite popular. It is invariably included in most Indian restaurant menus. The recipe below is slightly modified from the traditional aloo paratha recipe.


Ingredients (Serves 4):

• 2 large potatoes (2 inch diameter, 4-5 inch long Russet potatoes)
  
• 2 tsp ginger paste
• 3 tbsp chopped cilantro
  
• 4 tsp subrus
• 1 tsp hing (asafoetida)
• 2 tsp aamchur
• Salt to taste
• 2 cup chopped raw spinach
• 4 cups wheat flour for dough
  
• 1/2 cup wheat flour
• 4 tbsp oil
• Oil to shallow fry or Pam Original No Stick Cooking Spray
  

Directions:

1. Boil or microwave potatoes to cook them.
2. Peel the potatoes, then mash them.
   
3. Add ginger paste, cilantro, hing, subrus, aamchur and salt.
4. Mix well. Make 8 balls of potato stuffing
   
5. Mix spinach, flour, oil and salt to taste. Make a dough soft to touch but not sticky. Make 8 balls.
6. Making the paratha ball: In left hand take a dough ball and with right hand thumb and fingers start making a bowl. Put potato stuffing ball on top. At this stage both hands work: the right one pushes the potato ball gently downwards and then the left thumb and fingers gradually cover it by dough. At the end, it looks like a big ball of dough. Pat it and make a patty.
   
7. Using rolling pin on a clean surface covered with dry flour, make a circle of about 8 inches diameter. This is a raw paratha.
   
8. Frying paratha: If afraid of lifting paratha without breaking by hand, use aluminium foil. Put on non stick gridle at medium hot temperature. Flip it when color darkens. Put some oil and cover whole surface. One can use brush. Alternatively use Pam Original No Stick Cooking Spray. Again flip and cover the surface with oil. In a few minutes, paratha starts showing bumps and developes few brown patches on the bottom surface. Flip the paratha over and cook it until both sides show brown patches.
9. Put on cooling rack. After cooling briefly, the paratha is ready to serve.

I usually serve it with plain yogurt and mango pickle. Instead of potato stuffing, one can use grated paneer, grated cauliflower, grated raddish/mulee or any other combination to create your own variety of paratha. The only consideration is that the stuffing and dough should have similar dryness and soft texture. You may serve paratha as a full meal and dessert of pie or cake.

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Puri

Puri is a deep fried Indian flat bread preparation made of wheat often served on special occassions. Various curries or desserts such as kheer, Srikhand, or Aamrus often accompany puri. Halwa and sabji go well with puris also.

Ingredients (Serves 4):

• 4 cups of wheat flour
• 1/2 cup besan flour (Gram or Soya flour: optional)
  
• 2 tablespoons oil (increase amount for fragile crisp puris)
• Salt to taste
• 2 teaspoons sugar (for crisp puris)
  
• Oil or ghee to fry
  

Directions:

1. Mix all dry ingredients.
   
2. Work in oil and knead dough to firm consistency.
3. Divide dough in to 24 parts and make balls. Apply some oil to keep balls from sticking to each other.
4. Using a rolling pin, flatten each ball to about 4" circle (puri). Use a drop of oil if needed.
   
5. Heat the oil in a frying pan. After the oil is heated, fry each puri as follows:
6. Details of frying: As soon as each puri is dipped in hot oil, it should be covered with oil. When it comes to the surface, it should swell up; if not, help it by gently pressing with a spatula (zaara) in the oil. Once sufficiently puffed, turn it over and fry till lower side becomes light brown.
7. Remove from the pan, and put it in a big sieve to drain excess oil.
8. After 5 minutes, put it in a plate with absorbent paper at the bottom.
   

The left over puris can be stacked like Pringles and wrapped in foil.

Puran Poli

Puran poli is a flat bread dish popular in central India, particularly Maharashtra and Karnataka. It is similar to paratha with sweet stuffing of jaggery and gram daal.

Ingredients (Serves 2):
For dough

• 4 cups whole wheat flour
  
• 4 tbsp oil
• Wheat or rice flour for rolling poli
  

For Puran

• 2 cups Chana-daal
• 2 cups Jaggery
• 2 tbsp Nutmeg fine fresh powder
• 6 pod seeds of cardamom, freshly ground
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tbsp oil
  
• Salt (optional)
  

Directions:

For making dough:

1. Depending upon the quality of wheat, the amount of water needed will change, so add water gradually while kneading. The final consistency of the dough should be soft, like a cheese spread.
2. In a bowl, put oil. Add a little more water, and knead dough to make it glutenous. Cover with extra oil and set aside for an hour.
3. Make 1 inch diameter balls.
   

For making puran:

1. In a 2-1/2-Quart saucepan, wash Chana-daal 2 to 3 times, and add 2 cups of water, turmeric, oil.
2. Start cooking on medium heat.
3. Remove the foam that forms and keep cooking on medium heat. Add 2 cups of water if want to make "Katachi Aamti" when daal is completely cooked. To check, put one grain in spoon and press with finger tip. Cooked daal will be crushed and feel soft. Note: Steps 1 and 2 are combined if a pressure cooker is used.
   
4. Remove excess water and add jaggery. Mix well and while stirring intermittently cook till mixture becomes moist but solid.
5. Make a smooth paste using food processor or crush it and pass through sieve. Add nutmeg and cardamom. Mix well.
   
6. Make 1 inch diameter balls.

For making Puran Poli:

1. Start heating 10 inch non stick griddle (tawa) on medium heat.
   
2. Take a ball of dough. Using your index fingers and thumbs, make a bowl with a small opening out of the ball.
3. Put the ball of puran in it and slowly cover the puran ball with dough without breaking it. Make a nice ball and press gently. Note: Depending upon the quality of wheat and the stretching capacity of dough, experts put almost double the quantity of puran. For very soft poli, add excess puran; for increased stiffness, reduce the amount of puran.
   
4. Use dry flour to cover the ball. Sprinkle some dry flour on the clean, dry surface (use smooth cutting board or Chakalota) and roll the ball in to about 6-8 inches diameter poli.
   
5. To remove it from surface without breaking, use an aluminium foil square bigger than the roti and flip the roti on the square supported by one spread out palm.
6. Immediately flip it onto pre-heated griddle.
7. When color starts to change and roti becomes little firm, flip using spatula. Brush both sides with oil and cook until both sides develop reddish-brown patches.
   
8. Remove from the fire and put on cake rack for 5 minutes to cool.
9. Serve with ghee and milk.

Puran poli will stay fresh for 2 to 3 days. This dish can also be modified by adding khoya or coconut. Coconut milk can be substituted for plain milk. Areas such as Ratnagiri may opt for coconut milk, whereas dairy producing areas like Gujrat are more likely to use milk.

Homemade Pizza

Pizza has become our favorite f00d 0n weekends. Also while out of town we typically eat pizza to replace a few meals. Pizza is simple, fresh, and appetizing when done right. Here is a pizza recipe that I have modified to suit our tastes.

Ingredients (Serves 4) : 15" pizza and 8 bread sticks OR two 12" pizza
for pizza dough (modified from booklet accompanying bread maker)

• 1-1/4 cup warm water
• 2 tbsp olive oil in dough + some to brush
• 4-1/4 cup whole wheat flour + dry flour to roll
• 2 cups chopped spinach
• 1 carrot coarsely grated
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 packet Fleischmann's RapidRise highly active yeast
  

Pizza sauce:

• 2 ripe tomatoes finely chopped
• 1 cup tomato paste
• 2 tbsp dried oregano
• 2 tbsp fresh basil leaves chopped
• 4 stems of celery chopped
• 2 tsp subrus
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp salt

Pizza toppings:

• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 large bell pepper seeded and diced into 1/4" square pieces
• 1 cup olives sliced
• 1 cup pineapple chunks from can or fresh

Directions:

1. In a bowl, put all the dry ingredients for dough and mix well.
2. Add spinach, carrot, and oil and mix well.
3. Add warm water and knead well for about 5 minutes to make a ball.
4. Cover bowl and set aside to rise for about 2 hours.
5. Get sauce and toppings ready meanwhile.
6. For sauce: in a pan, put oil, and add celery, diced tomato. Fry on medium heat till soft.
7. Add tomato paste, subrus, herbs, salt. Stir to mix, cover and cook for 20 minutes on medium heat. Cool it to room temperature.
8. When dough is raised enough, punch it down and take out dough to make eight 1/2" balls.
9. For bread sticks roll, balls into about 5" long strands. Arrange them on baking sheet and brush with oil.
10. Roll remaining dough in to a circle about 15" diameter. Put it on a lightly oiled pizza plate.
11. Keep 4 tbsp sauce aside for bread sticks. Spread the remaining sauce evenly on pizza base.
12. Arrange pizza toppings evenly and cover with cheese.
13. At this point, adjust time by refrigerating pizza and bread sticks. About 25 minutes before serving time, follow the remaining steps.
14. Bake pizza at 425 degrees Celsius on middle rack for 12-15 minutes. Start bread sticks at the same time but remove when they become brown in about 8-10 minutes.
15. Take out of the oven. After 5 minutes cut pizza into 8 slices. Serve hot
    

For making pizza pockets, divide dough in to 8 balls. Roll each ball in to 4-5" diameter circle . Mix sauce, toppings and cheese. Use it as a stuffing. Make 4" x 2" rectangles or half circles like calzones. Bake as in Step 14 above.

You can also prepare the dough using a breadmaker. If interested, check out the following products: