everyday subzi: making lauki ki muthia and using it in many ways

Muthia is a steamed dumpling made with grated vegetables and chickpea flour which is made into a dough and then rolled into sausage shaped 'muthia' before placing them on the steamer. The traditional muthia is made by pressing a portion of dough inside the fist (muthhi) hence the name muthia. It is a Gujrati tradition but popular all over India in some or the other form. Muthias get steamed quickly and can be cut into small pieces and served along with some green chutney.

Or the cut pieces of muthia can be shallow fried along with some tempering to be served as a tea time snack.

Lauki ki muthia is an easy way to make the meals filling and nourishing. Since we use besan (chickpea flour) to bind the muthias it makes a gluten free meal too. Please note that the recipe is easy and takes just about 20 minutes if you are making muthias for 3-4 people. And these steamed muthias can be refrigerated and used later to make tea time snacks or even kofta curries.

If you get the lauki (bottle gourd) grated in a food processor or get it done by the maid (we are spoiled in India :-)), the procedure will be even more quick.

ingredients

grated lauki 2 cups (about 400 gm)
besan or chickpea flour 3/4-1 cup or a bit more
ginger paste 1 tsp
garlic paste 1/2 tsp
cumin powder 1 tsp
ajwain seeds 1 tsp
turmeric powder 1 tsp
green chillies minced 1 tsp or more
salt and pepper to taste
oil or ghee to smear the plate and hands while working with the dough

procedure

Mix all the dry ingredients with the grated lauki and massage them together so the water from lauki helps make it a dough. You might need to add a little more besan or little more lauki depending on how fresh and tender the lauki is. I recommend the freshest lauki you can find. See how to choose the right tender bottle gourd.

Now grease a ceramic or pyrex dish and your hands too. Pinch portions of the dough and shape them like 2 cm thick sausages or press portion in your fist to shape them like traditional muthias. Arrange all such sausages (or muthias) on the greased dish.

 Now cover the dish with cling wrap loosely. Leaving some space for the steam to escape. Make cuts in the cling wrap otherwise.

You can cover the plate with a dome shaped plastic lid meant for microwave and steam it for 5 minutes too. With the cling wrap too it takes the same time.

The muthias get cooked as steam condenses on the cling wrap. Peel off the cling wrap and use the muthias as required. These can be enjoyed right away with green chutney or with any sauce or salsa you like.

These can be steamed over the gas stove too. See this post about another steamed dumplings to get an idea how a simple contraption can be used to steam these.

Once cooled, the muthias get firm and can be shallow fried along with mustard seeds, hing and some sesame seeds for crunch. Sprinkle some amchoor powder or lime juice and have these with some warm salad for a meal. Here I served it with a beans and carrot poriyal and pickled cucumbers.

We sometimes use these muthias to make kofta style curries too. Just deep fry or shallow fry these muthias and curry them with a north Indian style bhuna masala.

I normally shallow fry these muthias cut into one inch long pieces, and pressure cook them along with some bhuna masala and water. Add enough water to the muthia as they soak up a lot of water and double in size when cooked into a curry.

Refrigerated (2-3 day old) muthias behave well in pressure cooker as they get firm and do not break. You can cook this curry in an open pan if using freshly made muthias.

This lauki muthia kofta curry tastes great with roti, paratha or plain boiled rice but you can always make the curry light and thin and have it as a one pot meal as I do sometimes.

We love this kind of kofta curries better than the fried round koftas (like this kele ka kofta). This muthia kind of kofta works better for lauki and is healthier as well. I don't remember if I have cooked a traditional lauki ka kofta ever in my life. But I love besan dumpling curries so this lauki muthia kofta style curry is one of the favourites. The taste and texture is quite different and so is the health quotient of this curry.

Let me know whenever you try making muthias this way in the microwave. It will be the easiest healthy snack to munch on and some spicy curry can be whipped up in a jiffy.

chane ka saag : steamed dumplings with chickpea greens in a mustard based curry ...

I cooked chane ka saag quite a lot this year. Somehow my demand for this particular leafy green met with supply too. I would keep asking the vendor at the corner of our weekly market for chane ka saag and he would say there are no takers here. May be he got a few more requests or just got fed up of me asking him every time I saw his other leafy greens, he brought it one day and then brings it more often. That's why I say we should create a demand for uncommon greens and vegetables too, the ones we used to get a decade ago are being forgotten with the flood of coloured peppers and imported vegetables. The desi produce is being forgotten sadly, I wonder if a large quantity of such produce rots while we eat the snow peas and coloured bell peppers, imported mushrooms and what not.

Taste this wonderful leafy green that is a growing soft shoot of chickpea plant, the shoots are nipped to accelerate lateral growth of plant so it becomes more bushy and bears more fruit. I am sure chane ka saag will be bought often once you taste how good it is. I have already posted a few recipes. This one can be another way to have it. I love it as it is like a dumpling soup, it is great with plain boiled rice as well if you have some side dishes like alu ki bhujia or begun bhaja, the way it would be eaten traditionally.

ingredients..

for the dumplings..
cleaned and chopped chane ka saag 2 cups
chickpeas flour or besan 1 cup or as required*
minced garlic 1 tsp
minced ginger 2 tsp
minced green chilies 1 tsp
ajwain seeds 1/2 tsp
turmeric powder 1 tsp
water to sprinkle while binding the dough
salt to taste

for the gravy..
yellow mustard powder 2 tbsp
red chilly powder 1 tsp or to taste
turmeric powder 1 tsp
cumin powder 1 tsp
garam masala powder 1/2 tsp (optional, I have not used for this)
fresh tomato paste 1.5 cup
mustard oil 2 tbsp
fenugreek seeds 1/2 tsp
salt to taste

 procedure...

Mix everything from the list of dumpling ingredients and knead a dough. Make lime sized balls ans steam them. I microwave them in a greased bowl, covered with a loose lid and they get ready in 3-4 minutes. Check by pricking a cocktail stick if done.

The detailed procedure of making these dumplings is mentioned here.You can follow the same steps and play with the flavors used in the dumplings too. Keeping the steamed dumpling in the fridge till cold will be good to get a better shape when cooked in gravy. Steaming them a day ahead makes sense.

To make the gravy, heat the oil in a pan and tip in the fenugreek seeds. Let them become brownish  taking care not to burn them. Tip in all the steamed dumplings into the hot oil and toss them gently so they get seared from all sides.

Add the powders and toss the pan to coat everything and get a little roasted. Add the tomato paste and salt and about 2 cups of water and let the curry simmer for about 20 minutes. The dumpling balls will get doubled in size and the gravy will be lesser and thicker by the end of cooking.

Garnish with fresh coriander greens and serve hot with hot boiled rice or just as it is.

The version with a little garam masala looks darker in color and has more complex flavors. You can add some amchoor powder to balance the pungency of mustard if the tomatoes are not enough tart.

You can also add a few shallow fried Okra to this curry, or small aubergines shallow fried. Even lightly fried potatoes work well into this curry. A mustard based masala curry is very versatile, We make besan katli ki subzi and sarson waali machhli in this gravy as well. A few variations can be done in the spice blend but it is essentially a pungent tart curry that goes well with besan based dumplings, most river fish and several vegetables.

I am sure you would love this curry. Spinach or dill greens can also be used if you don't get chane ka saag.

Chane ka saag | chickpea greens and a steamed savory snack called patoda or girmachh...

Yes, my grandmother used to call it chane ke saag ka girmachh as it is similar in the cooking technique to the arbi ke patte ka girmachh or patra, long cylindrical dumplings steamed and then cut into slices to shallow fry as a snack. Technically it is more similar to a gujrati muthia or any greens and lentil dumpling that we steam for snacking. I always wonder how versatile and yummy these dumplings are. I have posted another version of steamed dumplings that are tempered with sesame seeds etc for tea time snacking. These can be made with any green leafy vegetables but since I have had these in my childhood, made by my grandmother who was so find of spicy food, I love recreating this in my kitchen whenever there is a chance. The chance comes only when I get Chane ka saag in the market, that is a rare happening here in Delhi vegetables markets. In high end mega malls we don't get to see such desi seasonal greens while Celery and Parsley is abundantly available. I feel sad.

We should all keep writing in the suggestion books of those high end stores to stock Indian greens as well, till they realise there is market for the abundantly growing greens in out rural fields. Anyways, we get these at out local vegetable vendors or the farmers markets around the city. Cleaning this greens is a little time consuming but it's all worth it. Just discard the tough stems and keep the leaves and growing buds. Rinse them in several changes of water, drain and then chop finely. It's difficult to chop these finely as the leaves and twigs are quite small, just make a tight bundle, place on the chopping board and keep slicing away. It's a breeze after this.

ingredients...

chopped chane ka saag (chickpea greens) 250 gm or 3 cups chopped
besan(chickpeas flour) 1 cup
ginger-garlic-green chilly paste to taste (use a little more than you think is enough as besan needs a lot of seasoning)
cumin powder 1 tsp
black pepper powder 1-2 tsp or to taste
turmeric powder 1 tsp
red chilly powder to taste
salt to taste (you can taste the dough after mixing everything)
water about 1/4 cup or as required
mustard oil (or any other) fro greasing the plate and more mustard oil for shallow frying (about 1 tbsp is enough to fry about a dozen sliced discs)

procedure...

Mix everything together and make a dough adding minimal water.

Divide the dough into tennis ball size portions and shape cylindrical dumplings.

Grease a plate (microwave safe) and arrange all the dumplings over it. See this post to get a pictorial elaboration of the process, only the shape of the dumplings is different in this case.

Cover the plate with a dome cover or an inverted bowl (suitably sized) and steam the dumplings till firm. You can use the idli steamer meant of microwave or for stove top for steaming these dumplings. They cook quickly.

These dumplings taste really good while still hot and soft. You can have them as it is, but you need to cool them down before slicing and shallow frying.

Cool and place them all in a dabba or container to refrigerate. These keep well for a week and you can slice and shallow fry a small batch for evening tea every day.

To shallow fry, heat a tawa or flat griddle or frying pan with a tbsp of oil and arrange all the sliced discs on it. Let them brown on low flame on one side, then flip and brown it on the other side too. They become crisp on the surface and crumbly inside.

And yes, you don't even need a chutney with these. Spicy and perfectly crisp with a pleasant taste of chane ka saag. Tastes great with methi ka saag (fenugreek greens) as well.

These can also be curried like kofta curry or to make kadhi, but it has been a long time I curried these dumplings. These are so tasty as tea time snack either steamed or shallow fried that we never get enough leftover to make a curry with it.

I always say our traditional recipes are healthy and make use of whole foods. Don't you agree?