Ragi Rotti (Finger Millet flatbread)

If there is one thing which is quintessential Karnataka food it would have to be Ragi. Karnataka is one of the biggest producers of Ragi in India. And no wonder that almost every kannada household would stock it in their pantry to readily whip up Mudde (cooked Ragi ball) or Rotti (Ragi flat bread) best eaten with Bussaru or Chutney respectively.

I prefer the Rotti over Mudde and make it often at home. It is one of the best after school snacks for kids to restore their energy and to provide them with nutrition without fuss. I tend to flavour it with onion, green chillies, coriander leaves and optionally spices. It is easy to make and easy to eat and is one of the healthiest dishes to be had.

Ragi Rotti (Finger Millet flatbread)
Servings: 8 Rottis
Prep Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 5 mins (for each Rotti)
Ingredients
2 Cups Ragi flour
1 Medium Onion
2-3 Green Chillies
A bunch of coriander leaves
1 cup Spinach leaves
1 cup Water
1 tsp Cumin powder (optional)
1 tsp Coriander powder (optional)
Salt to taste
Instructions
Cook the spinach leaves (Microwave or stove-top) and grind to a fine paste.
In a bowl mix together flour, salt and spices.
Add to this minced onion, green chillies, coriander leaves and mix well.
Add in spinach paste till crumbly.
Add water, a little at a time, to make a soft dough.
Keep aside covered for 30 mins if desired.
Wet a small piece of cloth (handkerchief) completely and squeeze to remove excess water
Spread it out on a flat surface.
Place a dough ball on the wet cloth and flatten it using fingers dipped into water
Slide the cloth along with the flattened dough and flip it onto a hot skillet
Drizzle  oil around the flattened bread and cook on both sides.
Tip :- If the flour on any part of the bread shows up white, it isnt cooked. Spread a drop of oil or water and cook the spot. 

Methi Paratha

I dont know if this is really a Paratha. A paratha to me has always been about stuffing the chapathis with veggies, a laborious process in the making. When you use Methi to make parathas, there is no more added labour than washing, cutting and adding of methi leaves to the chapathi dough one is mixing. Its the easiest way to incorporate greens into the kid's tummy as it is hardly noticeable. So, in effect, with no added effort in the kitchen or at the dining table, explaining how Popeye gets his strength, we can enjoy a healthy meal. Should be reason enough to make this all the time!

Methi Paratha

Servings: 20 Parathas
Prep Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients 

2 1/2 cups Whole Wheat flour + A little more for rolling
1 cup of cut Methi leaves
Salt to taste
Water for the kneading
Oil for cooking chapathi

Instructions

1. Take the whole wheat flour and salt in a wide bowl where the dough can be easily kneaded.
2. To this add the washed and cut methi leaves and mix well till the flour and methi leaves are nicely crumbled together.
3. Adding a little water at a time, knead the flour into a soft dough. 
4. Cover the bowl with the dough ball and keep aside for 30 minutes. 
5. Pinch off some dough and roll it between palms to make a golf ball sized ball. 
6. Coat the dough ball with flour and roll out evenly into a circle 6 inches wide. 
7. Optional step - Coat the dough ball withh flour and roll out into a small circle 2 inches wide. Smear 1/2 tsp oil evenly on the circle and then fold in half and then once again in half. Coat this triangle dough with flour once again and roll out into triange shaped chapathis. 
8. Heat a skillet and transfer the chapathi onto it. 
9. Wait for air pockets to show up, rub some oil on the top side of the chapathi and flip it. 
10. Rub a little oil on the top side again and cook evenly on both sides, pressing down lightly with a spatula so as to ensure edges are also cooked. 
11. The chapathi is done when a few brown spots appear evenly on its surface. Should take a minute on medium heat.
12. I find it best to roll out the chapathis in one go and then cook them on the skillet one after the other. That way the skillet heat is not wasted.
13. Serve with a side dish or simply with ghee smeared. 

Tomato Puri (not the chaat)

Puris are my darling dotzy's all time favourite breakfast and today being a Sunday we decided to feast on them. 

I had seen that Rafs was hosting the Tried and Tasted event this month and the featured blog was Maayeka. Incidentally I had come across this blog a couple of weeks ago and one of Mrs. Anjana Chaturvedi's recipes, the tomato poori, had caught my fancy. I tried it out today and it was super yummy. I had to really scramble to get pictures before they got devoured. The accompaniment to the puris was the most kid friendly side dish, onion and potato curry. 

The original recipe can be found here. The only deviation I made was to not add the baking soda. 

Tomato Puri

Servings: 16 puris
Prep Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 30 mins 

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups Whole wheat flour
1/2 cup Fine Semolina (Rava)
1 tsp Cumin powder (or use Cumin seeds)
1 tsp Red chilli powder
1 1/2 tbps Mint leaves (finely chopped)
1 Tomato pureed
Salt to taste
Oil for deep fry

Instructions 

1. Mix the flour, semolina, cumin powder, red chilli powder, salt, mint leaves and oil. 
2. To this add the tomato puree and mix
3. Knead and form a dough, adding a little water if required.
4. Cover and keep aside for 30 minutes
5. Heat the oil till it becomes hot enough to fry.
6. Pinch off dough and roll it in your hands to form 1 1/2 inch diameter balls
7. Using a rolling pin, roll the ball out to a 4 inch wide dough circle.
8. Slide this into the hot oil and fry till golden brown. 
9. While frying, gently patting the poori with a slotted spoon while enable it to puff up.
10. Drain excess oil, remove the poori and place it on a tray covered with paper tissue. This helps absorb any excess oil. 
11. Serve tomato puri hot with onion-potato curry or chutney. 

How to Puree Tomato

1. Boil 3 cups of water
2. Make slits in the tomato and immerse it in the boiling water.
3. Allow it to cook in the boiling water for around 4 minutes till soft
4. Remove from hot water and immerse it in cold (room temperature) water for 5 minutes
5. The above process is called blanching.
6. Remove the skin of the tomato in a thin layer
7. Grind it to a puree in a mixer/blender. Do not add water while grinding.
8. Use the puree in any recipe which requires tomato puree. 

Sending this to Tried and Tasted event being hosted by Rafs!

Whole wheat Veggie Pizza with 7 spice base

To make the perfect pizza has been one of my life quests ever since we landed in the USA and I had on hand a great big oven. There have been quite a few experiments and not all of them have turned out palatable. There have been thick crust pizzas with crusts so thick that we got exhausted chewing on them. There have been thin crust pizzas which have been so thin that we were hungry even after consuming 2 10-inchers. There have been pizzas where the topping just dropped off and we ended up eating the whole thing like chapathi and curry. There have been cheese-less pizzas for the days when I felt extra conscious of the dent I was making in Mother Earth. There have been sauce-less pizzas for those lazy experiments. There have been over garlicky pizzas and there have been bland ones too. The highlight and turning point arrived when one weekend T was craving Rosatt's pizza and I offered to make it at home instead. Immediately an aghast kiddo looked straight into my eye and explained "But amma, appa meant he wants to eat yummy pizza".

Now I am not complaining about the duo who are the guinea pigs in all my experiments. They are real sweet and supportive but I guess there is only that much they can take when it comes to a mood uplifting food like pizza. 

I am now happy to announce that I seem to have stumbled upon the best recipe for pizza. I was inspired by this post of theKitchn. Mostly I used the technique of baking specified and was charmed by the fact that I had only vessel to wash. Almost making a pizza a one-pot dish!

I do like to make the pizza base at home because that gives me more control over what goes into the end product. I have tried to make this with 100% whole wheat flour but the resulting base was more like cardboard. I need to give it another try but for now I use half and half whole wheat and all purpose flours. I have also tried making the base with Rapid rise yeast - without proofing and setting aside for the rise and have been thoroughly disappointed with the end result. The base had a over powering yeasty smell owing maybe to the fact that the recipe called for using the whole packet of yeast (around 2.5 - 3 tsp). The base did puff up in the oven but not to my liking. After most of my failed attempts with rapid rise, I gathered up enough courage to get Active Dry Yeast and proof it. Its not that complicated and you get used to what to expect after a couple of times. 

Whole wheat Veggie Pizza with 7 spice base

Servings : 2 9-inch pizzas 

Prep Time: 2.5 hrs (including 2 hrs rise time)   Cook Time: 10 mins * 2

Whole wheat Pizza base

Ingredients

1 cup Whole wheat flour

1 cup All purpose flour

1.5 tsp Salt (or to taste)

1 tsp Active Dry Yeast

3/4 cup warm water (I microwave water for 20 secs on high)

Flavour variations to add into the dough (that I have tried)

- Dried basil leaves 

- Italian spice mix 

- Black pepper powder

- Indian spice mix - Cumin powder, Coriander powder, Carrom powder, black pepper powder

- All of the above (This is what I have used in my pizza here)

Instructions to make the base

1. Stir in the yeast into warm water along with sugar. Let sit for around 10 minutes. In the meanwhile the water should become frothy and a little bubbly. The surface of the water will look bulged. This process is called "proofing". 
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together.
3. Add the yeast water to the dry ingredients and mix till the dough comes together. Use water as much as required, adding little at a time. 
4. Do not knead too much. 
5. Once the dough comes together in a ball, keep in a lightly oiled bowl and cover it with a plastic wrap or a lid.
6. Keep the covered bowl in a warm place for 2 hours for the dough to rise. Top of the refrigerator seems to work the best. Hot air rises!

Instant Pizza sauce

Ingredients

2 Tomatoes / 5 heaped tsps of unfavoured natural tomato paste

2 garlic pods

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 tsp Olive oil or Vegetable oil or Canola oil

Instructions

1. Grind all the ingredients together adding 1 tbsp of water if required

Pizza Toppings

Cut up the following and more and keep aside

1 Medium Onion -chopped Julienne

1 Medium Capsicum - cut thin lengthwise

2 Medium Tomatoes cut into small pieces / 10 Cherry Tomatoes halved

1 cup sweet corn

12-16 thin slices of Jalapenos

2 cups Mozzarella cheese

Putting it all together

1. Once the dough has risen, gently press into the dough and smooth it out into a ball. Do not rough up the dough.
2. Preheat the oven to 450°F
3. Divide the dough into two parts and keep one of them covered till the first one is done.
4. Cut 2 parchment paper  squares of dimension 10-inch * 10-inch
5. Keep a cookie sheet or inverted cake pan ready to bake the pizza. I don't own a pizza stone so cant really say what to do with that. Inverted cake pan makes it easier to cool and serve. 
6. Now here is where I did it differently - Keeping one of the balls of dough on one parchment piece, flatten it by pressing it by hand. I did not need extra flour since I worked on parchment (cleaner). Continue to keep it on the parchment paper and roll it out with a rolling pin to desired thickness. I could get a near 9-inch circle at 1/4-inch thickness. Again be nice to the dough, it takes 5 minutes.  
7. Cut the paper around the edge of the base as close to it as possible. 
8. Now scoop half the sauce onto the center of the base and spread it outward with a spoon.
9. Spread the toppings you have ready and sprinkle cheese right at the top.
10. Slide the whole thing along with the paper onto the cookie sheet or inverted cake pan.
11. Bake in the oven for 5 mins. 
12. At this point remove the pizza from the oven and slide the paper out from under it. 
13. Continue to bake for another 5 mins. 
14. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes before serving.
15. Repeat the process with the second pizza. 

My pizza is being YeastSpotted!