Palak/Spinach parata

This parata/flat bread is a great breakfast, brunch or lunch recipe. With a lovely contrast of textures and flavours, altogether it’s a total pleasure to eat.

Ingredients:

1. 2Bunches of Spinach (about 300gms)
2. 3 cups Whole wheat flour
3. 10 Green chillies or to taste
4. 1/2tsp Ajwain/carom seeds
5. 1tsp Garam Masala
6. 4-5,finely chopped garlic cloves
7. 1tsp, chopped Ginger
8. 1tbsp oil
9. Ghee or oil for basting
10. Salt to taste
11. 1/2 cup Wheat flour for dusting
    

Method:

• wash and chop spinach leaves and keep aside.
• Heat 1tbsp of oil in a pan,add caram seeds followed by garlic,ginger and green chillies,saute for a 4-5 seconds.
• Now add chopped spinach and salt to taste, saute untill it changes to dark green.It takes about 4-5 minutes.Now add garam masala and saute for couple of minutes.Switch off the fire and let it cool a bit.
• Once the spinach mixture is cooled down,make a coarse puree out of it using a hand blender or food processor until incorporated but make sure it slightly coarse in texture.
• Now take a mixing bowl,add pureed spinach and add little flour at time,till all the flour is used up.if you feel the dough is little hard then use some curd or water to make it softer.Rub few drops of oil or ghee on it to prevent drying.
• Divide the dough into a big lemon sized balls and flatten it out into your palms.
• Dip into dry flour and roll into 7-8 inches big circle.
• Heat tava/skillet,add ghee or butter and fry parata's until bubbles appear and then flip over.wait again for few seconds and flip it over again.
• Now add some ghee and fry again.Press gently with spatula to make the parata swell up a little.when the brown spot appear on both sides remove the parata and serve hot with home made butter,pickle or thick yoghurt....Enjoy ;)

Sankranti special... white sesame seed/thil chikki

 

 Winter special...crunchy n healthy white sesame brittle or chikki a perfect afternoon snack.
Chikki is a sweet, prepared by mixing various types of nuts and other ingredients either with jaggery or sugar. These ingredients are mixed with thick syrup made of jaggery or sugar. thil and ground nut chikki is great for health and very popular in India.
It's normally eaten in winter season. Both protein and iron are found in this chikki, in adequate quantity. If you like peanuts you will definitely like the peanuts chikki. Today, let`s  prepare the  thil and peanut Chikki.Preparation Time: 10-15 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Servings: 10

1. 1/2 cup White Sesame Seeds or Til
2. 1/4 cup,Ground nut/shenga
3. 1/4 cup,grated jaggery,ghud
4. 2tbsp sugar
5. 2tsp Ghee
6. Ghee for greasing

Method:

• Over a medium flame, lightly roast the sesame seeds for a few minutes or until the light brown in color.
• Once done, keep the seeds aside to cool and then repeat the process with the Ground nuts 
• once you are done with the roasting,peel off the skin and grind it to coarse powder.
• Grease the back of a flat plate or wooder flat board with a little ghee and keep it aside.
• Next, in a pan, heat the ghee and then add the jaggery and sugar
• Simmer under low flame until the entire jaggery melts and caramelizes such that it forms a hard ball when you place a drop in cold water.
  
• Once the jaggery is melted, mix it thoroughly with the roasted seeds and Ground nut powder. Next, pour the entire mixture over the greased plate and roll it into thin sheets with the help of a greased rolling pin.
• Allow it to cool for some time and then cut it into square pieces.
• Store it in an air tight container, so that you can have the chikki, whenever you feel like it.