fasting recipes | sama ke chawal ki tahiri | vrat wali tahiri

 Sama ka chawal or Samak chawal is actually a millet called Barnyard millet that is mostly consumed during Navratri fasting. Barnyard millet cooks really fast when soaked and can be made into sama ka Jeera rice, Sama ka Upma, Sama ki Idli and Sama ka Dhokla easily. Making sama ka Dosa is also easy once you know how to use this millet. We love sama ki kheer too.

Sama ki tehri or tahiri cooks quickly once you have soaked sama in the fridge. Yes it is advisable to soak sama overnight either in water or thin buttermilk and refrigerate so it can be used to cook meals quickly as the soaked sama ke chawal lasts about 3-4 days. It is particularly convenient in Navratras if you are fasting.

ingredients 
(2 servings)

1/3 cup sama ke chawal (Barnyard millet) soaked in 1.5 cup thin buttermilk overnight
2 cups mixed vegetables chopped into small cubes
1 tomato pureed
one small potato chopped in small cubes
1 tbsp ghee
1 tsp cumin seeds
pink salt (sendha namak) to taste
pepper to taste
chopped green chilies and chopped ginger if required
chopped dhaniya patta to garnish

preparation 

Heat the ghee in a wide stockpot (or pan) and tip in cumin seeds. Let the cumin splutter a bit.

Add the potatoes and stir and cook for 2 minutes. Now add the pureed tomatoes and all the chopped vegetables, salt and pepper. It will be better to add the other vegetables one by one according to the time they take to cook. I added carrots first and then zucchini after the potatoes and carrots were done. Toss and cook them all together.

Now add the soaked sama ke chawal, mix everything well and cook covered on low flame. No need to add any additional water as there is enough water in the ingredients to get cooked. It takes about 5 minutes for this quantity to get cooked after adding the soaked sama ke chawal.

Fluff up once cooked, sprinkle with chopped dhaniya patta and chopped green chilies and ginger if using. Serve with cucumber raita.

Green chilies and fine julienne of ginger taste really good in this tahiri but you can avoid if you like it a little plain. You can always add some roasted nuts or paneer cubes on top to add some proteins. I normally like it lighter but it also depends on how hungry you are for the meal or whether you are serving this sama ke chawal ki tahiri for lunch or dinner.

amaranth flour dosa and beans and potato stew | fasting or feasting, vrat ka khana...

Amaranth is a pseudo grain and is allowed during fasting days of navratri. The grains can be used whole to make porridge with milk or coconut milk, the popped amaranth can be used to make parfait, can be used as breakfast cereal and laddu can be made if you follow this method. The amaranth flour is quite versatile and you can make rotis, cheela or dosa using it. Incidentally, it is the most protein rich grain you can find, so start using it for your everyday meals as well.

Amaranth or Rajgira is also called as Ramdana in UP. Ramdane ke laddu is a popular fasting food in Banaras although it is not seen easily these days. I feel most of the amaranth is being marketed through high end grocery stores and health food stores now. Hoping that this will be a positive sign for the farmers and they would start cultivating more amaranth and less of wheat may be.

Although I am not fasting but the easy availability of all fasting flours during this times is a boon. I stock the fasting grains, seeds and flours for the next six months during each navratri (there are 2 navratri seasons each year), the flours go into the refrigerator during summer times, but winters allow them to be stored at room temperature.

I have been using amaranth flour a lot to make cakes, brownies and cookies as well, but those are the things I do occasionally. Our daily meals are simple and frugal most of the times. Here is one frugal meal that can be a good navratri fasting meal as well.

Amaranth flour dosa and green beans and potato stewed with coconut milk. It is actually a multigrain kind of dosa as I used sama rice, buckwheat as well as amaranth flour.

ingredients for the dosa:

amaranth flour 1/2 cup
sama (barnyard millet) flour 1/4 cup
buckwheat flour 1/4 cup
sour yogurt or cultured buttermilk 1 cup or a bit more
salt and pepper to taste
soda bi carb 1/4 tsp (if making the dosa instantly)
ghee as required to make dosas (thin crepes) on a suitable flat griddle

procedure for the dosa:

Mix everything together and let it stand for at least 3-4 hours before making the dosas. If you are making them instantly, add the soda bi carb and proceed to make dosas.

On the dosa griddle (I use my roti tawa mostly, use a nonstick pan if making dosa for the first time), smear a little ghee and heat it. Sprinkle water to cool down the griddle a bit and ladle about 1/4 cup of dosa batter to it and spread it in circular strokes making a thin crepe. Drizzle a little ghee and let the crepe brown on one side, flip to the other side and cook for a few seconds. Serve hot with the stew.

Repeat the process to make more dosas. You can make them thinner or thick as you like or as convenient.

Green beans and potato stewed in coconut milk

ingredients for the stew

green beans (French beans) 250 gm
one large potato about 150 gm
finely chopped ginger 1 tsp
broken dry red chillies as per taste
curry patta 12 springs
fenugreek seeds 1/4 tsp
turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
thick coconut milk 300 ml
sesame oil 1 tbsp
salt and white pepper powder to taste

procedure:

Using new potatoes will be good for this recipe. wash and clean the potato nicely, retain the skin and chop it into small cubes. String the beans and chop them all in 1 cm pieces, holding them all together over chopping board.

Heat the oil in a pan and tip in the fenugreek seeds and broken red chillies, followed by the curry patta and cubed potatoes. Add salt, pepper and turmeric powder and cook for a couple of minutes.

Add the chopped beans and toss to mix everything well. Add the ginger and 1/2 cup of water, cover the pan and cook on low heat till cooked.

Add the coconut milk and simmer for a couple of minutes. Serve hot with dosa, appams and plain boiled rice as desired.

caramalised fox nuts | meethe makhane | vrat ka khana

Meethe makahane or caramelised makhane is a crisp lightly sweet treat, very addictive but fairly healthy.  Used to feed new mothers and as a tonic food this nut is very versatile.  

Makhana is actually Fox nut (or Gorgon nut) that grows in ponds and is often called water lily seed. The plant belongs to the water lily family but the seeds are different.

The foxnut seeds are roasted to make them pop and makhana is actually the popped seed of Euryale ferox. These light popped nuts are an excellent snack on their own once roasted or fried in ghee and we make kheer, subzi and many more recipes using makhana. Vrat ka khana or fasting recipes use makhana a lot as this nut is allowed in all Hindu fasting rituals.

This caramelised makhana used to be a favorite snack of all of us siblings and I remember even my younger brother could make it on his own when he was around 12 year old. There was only one condition for whoever makes it, that it will be made for the whole family in large amount. So any one of us would take the largest kadhai, fill it up to 3/4 with raw makhanas and start roasting it on low heat patiently. It takes about 15 minutes to get completely roasted and to get crisp and then is the time to caramelise it. Caramelisation takes another five minutes and then the snack is ready. By then the whole family would know what is cooking and we all would gather in the kitchen and the crisp caramel laced makahnas will be polished off within a matter of 10 minutes. There were times when someone would offer to make the second batch as well. You get the drift, we were a bunch of foodies :-)

Here is how the raw makhana looks. It is chewy in texture and does not melt in your mouth easily. The story changes once it is roasted well or is fried in ghee.

Incidentally, none of us liked the ghee fried makhanas as it bursts like a balloon filled with ghee in your mouth when fried. Not at all a good texture nor good taste so to speak. 'Slow roasted in a kadhai' was a preferred way always in our family. Caramelised makhana was a treat. It still is.

ingredients

makhanas 2 cups
sugar 1 tbsp or a little more
ghee 1 tsp (optional)
salt a pinch (optional)

procedure

Heat a thick base pan or kadhai greased with a tsp of ghee if using. It is perfect even if you roast the makhana without any grease on the pan.

Tip in the makhanas and start stirring them on low heat along with salt if using. It takes about 10-15 minutes for the makhanas to get crisp, you can take out one makhana and test. It actually starts 'sounding' crisp when you stir it in the pan.

Once the makhanas are crisp, start sprinkling sugar on it while stirring. A generous pinch of sugar at a time and keep mixing evenly. The sugar melts, gets brown and coats the makhanas. Keep sprinkling more sugar till you get a thin light coating on all makhanas.

Take off the stove and pour all the makhanas in a large plate, separate them all so they don't stick to each other. It cools down within five minutes and is ready to eat.

It doesn't last a couple of minutes after it is served. Trust me.

If you plan to keep it, store in an airtight container after it cools down completely.

It can be added to salads and can be crushed to add to your breakfast cereal or parfait desserts. Possibilities are endless and the recipe is easy. Can it get any better?

sama ke chawal ka dhokla | vrat wala dhokla | a healthy fasting recipe that can be a regular snack too

Dhokla used to be my go to snack few years ago when I would steam an instant dhokla every other day. It was always for our evening tea or when my brother came who loves dhokla. And then our evening tea changed as we started having early dinners. So the evening tea was just tea and nothing else with it most of the times.

I had bought some 2 kilos of sama ke chawal (Barnyard millet) during navratri a couple of weeks ago and have been using the millet for my breakfast or dinner sometimes. And then I was reminded of the dhokla I used to make of this millet. I couldn't stop myself and steamed a plate of sama ka dhokla, later I realised the husband had forgotten about a white dhokla. But he loved it all over again. Yes, I am telling you grudgingly because I got way too less than I wanted to have for myself :-(

This recipe of sama ka dhokla was suggested casually by a senior of mine during my research days and I used to be my experimental best regarding cooking in those days. So I played with this idea of a recipe and made a significant change. Instead of using whole sama ke chawal as suggested by her, I made it into a batter and the dhokla turned out much better. I like the sama ki idli steamed with whole soaked millet.

ingredients..

for the dhokla..
sama ke chawal (Barnyard millet) 1 cup
sour buttermilk or sour yogurt diluted with equal amount of water 3 cups
salt to taste

for the tempering...
green chilies 3-4 slit length wise
dry red chilies 1-2 broken
rai seeds (small mustard seeds) 1 tsp
hing (asafoetida) a pinch
curry leaves 3-4 springs
peanut oil 2 tsp
sugar 1 tbsp
lime juice 1 tbsp or a little more
water 1.5 cup

procedure...

Soak the millets in the buttermilk and salt overnight, but keep it refrigerated if you are using sour curd in summers, it could get too sour for your liking. But if you like khatta dhokla, you would like it really sour. Go with what you like. Also, this soaked mixture can be refrigerated for up to week if you are a bad planner. It happened with me so I thought I should add it to your convenience.

Make a batter of the soaked millet by blending it in mixie or food processor when you are about to steam the dhokla. Add 1/2 tsp pf soda bi carb to the batter, mix well and pour into a greased plate or steaming vessel. Steam till set and cooked. I used an opal ware plate and microwaved it for 5 minutes covered with a dome lid. Let it cool completely. Then cut in desired shapes.

For the tempering, heat oil in a pan, tip in the hing and rai seeds and let them crackle. Add the chilies and curry leaves and stir them to let them cook and release their aroma. Pour water and add the sugar, let it come to a soft boil.

Take off the heat, add the lime juice and pour over the steamed dhokla. Let the sweet and sour water soak in, it will all disappear within 5 minutes. The dhokla will swell up so make space for them by removing a few from the plate.

Serve at room temperature.

Soft and spongy, hot, sour and lightly sweet and completely bursting with flavors of the tempering. This makes a very pleasant snack or meal, or part of an elaborate meal. You just can't stop at a couple of these. This millet has a nice nuttiness to it when cooked and that comes out really nice with this dhokla tempering. Those fried and then boiled chilies become so yummy I gobble them all up.

We had it with our evening chai as I mentioned. But the chai was given a royal ignore as the dhokla took center stage  I had to reheat the chai later to finish it. The dhokla is that good.

 Vrat ka khana or fasting food can be fun if you use the ingredients to full potential. I keep cooking these ingredients whenever possible as all alternate grains do taste great and provide a good opportunity to bring variety to my meals every day.

sama ke chawal aur moongphali ki kadhi | Fasting recipes for Navratri....

 Jeera rice made using sama ke chawal or Barnyard millet is as tasty as jeera rice cooked with any short grain rice. You have to try it to believe it. And if it is served with a kadhi, it becomes a comforting meal that is light on the system. The kadhi I am talking about is made using peanuts. Fasting foods are made using a limited number of ingredients but that doesn't mean it has to be boring and bland, or repetitive by any means.

So now you can enjoy kadhi chawal during fasting days as well, this recipe of peanut kadhi makes yummy kadhi and the tempering doesn't make you realize it is not the real thing. You would end up slurping the last bits believe me.

Recipe of sama ke chawal ka jeera rice...

ingredients...
(2 meal servings)
3/4 cup sama ke chawal
2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp or more black peppercorns
pinch of salt
1 tsp ghee
1.5 cup hot water

procedure...

Heat the ghee in a pan and add the cumin and black peppercorns. Add the pinch of salt and the washed and drained rice. No need to soak the rice.

Dry fry the rice just for about 30 seconds stirring constantly, add the water, cover and simmer for about 5 minutes. It gets cooked quickly.

The sama looks slightly sticky at this stage, is al dante too, cover and let it cook further in it's own heat after taking the pan off heat. After about 10 minutes you can fluff up the rice using a folk. It fluffs up nicely with each grain looking separate. Khila khila as we call it.

Do start with the kadhi as soon as you cover the lid to simmer this jeera rice.

recipe of the peanut kadhi....

ingredients...
(for 3 servings)
3/4 cups soaked peanuts (I used sprouted)
2 green chilies
an inch piece of root ginger
salt (pink salt or sendha namak) to taste
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
3/4 cup very sour yogurt

Tempering to be done to finish the kadhi.. 
1 tbsp ghee, 1 tsp cumin seeds and 1/4 tsp red chilly powder.

procedure...

Make a paste of the kadhi ingredients without adding any water, no need to peel the peanuts.

 Pour this paste in a kadhai or deep pan. Add 3 cups of water and start simmering on medium heat, stirring all the while till the first boil comes. Lower the flame to very low and simmer for about 15 minutes.

For tempering, heat the ghee in a ladle or small pan, add cumin and wait till the cumin splutters. Add the red chilly powder and take the pan off heat. Pour the tempering ghee into the cooked kadhi.

This would make a yummy meal for navratri, vary satiating and filling and yet light on the system, detoxifying and cleansing in properties.

I served it with a quick stir fry of potato wedges, carrot batons and zucchini slices that I cooked while the kadhi was simmering. Just with a seasoning of salt and pepper.

I have won accolades for these two recipes and for this particular meal. Have served it on non fasting days too and people have ended up taking third and fourth helpings.

The leftovers reheat well if you are wondering how you will manage if you are fasting alone. Make it for 2-3 days refrigerate in portions, reheat in microwave and serve with different vegetable stir fries on the side. This is what I used to do when I was in research eons ago.

Hope you enjoy having kadhi chawal for your fasting days. I am enjoying a few fasting recipes though I am not fasting and have been eating my fish fries on the side...

Please do let me know if you try the recipe.

sama ke chawal ki tehri for vrat ka khana | fasting recipe for navratri...

Sama ka chawal or Mordhan as this grain is called in Hindi, the botanical name is Echinochloa colona . A very tasty grain that can replace rice for those who want to eliminate grains from their diet or for fasting days. A tehri is a fried rice or pulao/pilaf like dish that is mildly spiced and requires a side dish like raita and a curry or chutney etc.

This sama ke chawal ki tehri is made with grated carrots. You might like to add some grated coconut as well to add to the taste and texture.

ingredients...
(2 servings)
sama ke chawal 1 cup (soaked for 3 hours or overnight)
grated carrots 1 cup (you can use grated cabbage or even spinach etc)
dry red chilly broken to taste
cumin seeds 1 tsp
curry patta 10 springs
black pepper powder 1 tsp
sendha namak or pink salt to taste
ghee 1 tbsp
water 2 cups

Fresh lime juice as required (optional, I didn't use)

procedure...

Heat the ghee in a thick base kadhai or pan or pressure cooker pan (not to be pressure cooked, but the cooker pan is a good utensil to use otherwise too) and tip in the broken red chilies and cumin seeds. Let them splutter. add curry patta and immediately add the grated carrots as well. Add any other vegetable if using.

Stir fry for a couple of minutes or till the carrots wilt. Add salt and the drained sama ke chawal. Add the measured amount of water, mix everything well and cook covered on low flame. It cooks just like rice so check after 5-6 minutes and turn off the heat if the grains have absorbed all the water and have become al dante'. Keep covered for a while as it cooks on even after taking the pan off the flame.

Serve with raita and any curry or chutney on the side. Add fresh lime juice if required.

 I served it with zucchini raita and a quick paneer methi malai which is a fasting recipe too. I also had a little angoor ki chutney on the side. It was a yummy satisfying meal, full of varied flavors. Fasting food doesn't need to be boring and dull. You can always cook it interestingly.

Cheers for the new year and Navratra...

kuttu ki khichdi lauki tamatar ke saath | buckwheat khichdi with bottle gourd and tomatoes...

Kuttu ki khichdi is more like a stew that you can cook in about 20 minutes if all the vegetables are chopped. So technically it may be a buckwheat and bottle gourd stew with some bits of paneer for protein in the meal. A khichdi should have a grain and a lentil or more than one grain and lentils if we talk about authentic khichdi, but buckwheat groats can become almost khichdi like in consistency when cooked with a little extra water. Though it cooks like a pilaf as well.

Anyways, this dish is more like a one pot stew that can make a complete meal. We had it with a fish fry on the side as we are not into Navratri fasting anymore, but a large serving of raita or buttermilk will complete this meal if you are fasting.

You can use any gourd family vegetables to make this stew, sponge gourd and ridge gourd work well and zucchini also can be used for a good texture and mild taste that does not mask the nutty flavors of buckwheat. I used a soft bottle gourd of the round variety and some home grown tomatoes..

Buckwheat groats can be cooked with just the double amount of water volume wise to cook like pilaf and if the cooking liquid is more, the texture of the resultant dish is more risotto or stew like.

ingredients...

(2 meal servings with a side dish or raita)

chopped bottle gourd 5 cups (400 gm)

chopped ripe tomatoes 1.5 cup (150 gm)

finely chopped root ginger 1 tbsp

whole dry red chilly one broken

finely chopped green chilies to taste

curry powder (everyday curry powder) 1 tsp

turmeric powder 1/2 tsp

salt and pepper to taste

ghee 1.5 tbsp

cumin seeds 1 tsp

buckwheat groats 3/4 cup

paneer 100 gm chopped in small cubes

procedure...

Heat ghee in a pressure cooker pan (or a normal stockpot type pan) and tip in the cumin seeds. Let the cumin splutter before you add the red chilly broken and then the chopped ginger. Once cooked and fragrant, add the powdered spices and immediately add the chopped tomatoes and salt to taste. Cook this mixture till the tomatoes cook well and look like a chunky sauce.

Add the chopped bottle gourd (lauki), toss well and let it cook for about 5 minutes. Stirring it all once in a while. Add 2 cups of water and let it come to a boil. 

Add the buckwheat groats, mix well and cover the lid and pressure cook till the first whistle  If cooking in a stock pot, let it simmer covered till the buckwheat gets cooked. Add water if required to adjust consistency.

Add the cubed paneer and let it come a boil once again. Or just mix and cover if you want the khichdi  on the dry side.

Add finely chopped green chilies and coriander leaves if using.

Serve hot with raita or buttermilk on the side. The meal might look drab in color but the flavors are really good. Use the vegetable of your choice if you don't like bottle gourd but this meal becomes a detox type meal with bottle gourd used. Zucchini or pointed gourd (parval) would also be the same but any other vegetables would change the temperament of the meal a little.

Not to worry, all vegetables have their own benefits, so go ahead and cook this with spinach or a mix of bell peppers if you wish. Just take care not to mask buckwheat if you like the nuttiness of buckwheat.

This could be a daily meal during Navratri with changed vegetables and seasoning every day. Do let me know if you try this recipe.

Cheers and wishing you all a wonderful Hindu new year...

Amaranth seeds or Ramdana for fasting | three ways with Ramdaana...

Amaranth grains are very small like yellow mustard seeds but the similarity ends there. They pop up when roasted dry and get nice and smooth when boiled with water or milk. The Flour made from Amaranth seeds makes nice flat breads and pancakes. It is a grain most of us UPites grew up eating. My memories are of the Ramdane ka laddoo we always had at our grandparent's place during our summer vacations. The same Ramdaana ka laddoo is available even now, at least in Delhi, but somehow I never get the same taste. Is it the childhood charm of memories? Nostalgia is always sweeter when it is food related. Yes it is.

The laddoo are very light and melt in the mouth texture. Very lightly sweetened with jaggery and can be eaten as a snack or as a breakfast porridge. When you put them in hot milk they just seem to melt in it and a nice smooth and light porridge is ready.

It is a very nice baby food also.

The second way to make a breakfast porridge is to boil the raw Amaranth grains with water, either in a pan or in pressure cooker. In a pan it takes about 25 minutes to get soft and cooked. In pressure cooker just one whistle is all you need. Water required for cooking the grains is double the volume of grains.

Add milk once the grains are boiled. You might like to add fresh cream as well. Sweeten it with sugar or honey, or even jaggery if you wish and have warm.

I developed a few Vrat ka khana recipes for Leonardo Olive oils. Those recipes are cooked in pure olive oil or seasoned or dressed with extra virgin olive oil. One Amaranth seeds savory porridge or risotto made using coconut milk is one of my favorite recipe among them.

You can see the recipe of this savory porridge here at Leonardo facebook page. The perfect way to eat rejuvenating food during the sattvic time of Navratri.

Fresh water chestnuts for fasting food | Kachhe singhade ki katli...

Fresh water chestnuts are in the market for quite some time now. We have already enjoyed them boiled, stir fried and even raw just after peeling the tough skin. The husband loves these Singhada a lot in all it's forms. Keeping in mind his love for desserts, I make this kachhe Singhade ka halwa every season. This time I decided to make this kacche singhadeki katli and it is something I will be repeating many times. Even for visiting guests who love mithais.

Let me tell you a secret before the recipe. The husband is so besotted by fresh (kaccha) singhada that he is ready to peel them on the weekends so he can get to eat them at least 3-4 times a week in season. So I stir fry the peeled singhada for him either in ghee and salt n pepper or with sprouts and sweet corn like this one.

This singhade ki katli is a new entrant, the kachhe singhade ka halwa was already a favorite. A Katli or halwa made using the dry singhade ka atta (water chestnut flour) is also among his favorites. These are a few things we have been eating since childhood. Simple foods that succeed in making us feel the warmth of home.

This Kacche singhade ki katli is a 15 minute dessert believe me. Healthy and quick. Yummy you would know when you try this.

ingredients...

about 500 gm of raw fresh water chestnuts peeled and cleaned
2 tbsp ghee
2-3 tbsp sugar
2-3 tbsp mixed nuts chopped

procedure..

Make a smooth paste of the raw water chestnuts in your food processor or mixie jar. Should make about scant two cups without adding any water.

Heat the ghee in a wide pan (kadhai) and pour the water chestnut paste in it and start stirring with a spatula.

See the picture in series. The paste changes it's consistency and color and starts becoming more glutinous, if I can use the word. No gluten content in it alright.

Just when the cooking mixture becomes almost translucent and fragrant too, a very characteristic nutty aroma that I love, add the sugar and stir to dissolve.

Pour into a greased square tin or container and spread chopped nuts over it and press the nuts so the embed properly.The container should be appropriately sized to get you thin or thick katlis (squares like fudge or brownie), so keep that in mind.

Cut in squares when cool and remove from the container. Serve fresh and see if you can save some leftovers.

Keep in a lidded container in fridge for about three to four days. I would recommend to serve it on room temperature as chilled katli tastes a bit blander than the room temperature version.

This makes the best of Vrat ka khana recipes as it can be served to guests who are fasting. Happens a lot of times during Navratri. Many of my guests are already in awe of the sugar free or naturally sweetened mithai substitutes I serve. This Water chestnut flour, gluten free Panforte is one that brings me copious complements.

This kachhe singhade ki katli is one more addition to such unusual, awe inspiring snack treats.

Cheers for fasting days ahead...

Singhade ki muthia... Water Chestnut Dumplings : Vrat ka khana

This is another recipe for fasting days. Or for someone who wants a gluten free version of a nice steamed snack. The vegetable content in this dumpling is quite good and it makes a perfect meal for fasting people, could be a tea time snack for others. With or without a green coriander-mint chutney.

Refer to the Singhade ki roti posted here to make a cooked dough from the Water Chestnut flour.

To this dough, add salt to taste and some grated papaya and chopped coriander leaves.

The quantity of these vegetables and greens would be equal to the dough volume wise. Other vegetables like carrots, cabbage or spinach etc can be used too. The shredded vegetables have to be mixed into the cooked dough like this.

Then this mixture is to be divided into small portions to make lemon sized balls.

Arranged in a Microwave safe plate, which is greased with ghee, these balls are to be steamed in the microwave.Uncovered for 3-4 minutes, depending on the quantity. They look a little dry after steaming.

Cool these balls and refrigerate if you need them later. Cut the balls in quarters and temper them with a tadka.

To make the tempering...

Heat 2 tsp ghee in a pan, sprinkle a pinch of hing and a tsp of jeera, and some chopped green chillies to taste.

Now tip in 2-3 tsp of sesame seeds into this tadka mix and let them splutter.

Tip in all the Muthia (dumpling) quarters and toss well to coat all of them. You might like them to get crisp lightly so keep them tossing and turning while keeping the heat level low.

Serve hot with anything you wish. They make a great nibble on their own.

They are quite tasty when cold too, may be a fasting meal to be packed in a lunch box.

Note : The tempered dumplings are not in these pictures. These are just steamed ones.

singhade ke atte ki roti...(सिंघाड़े के आटे की रोटी) | step by step recipe..

Singhada is Water Chestnut for those are wondering what this weird name is. Singhade ke atte ki roti is an easy recipe if you understand the process step by step. Try it if you are on a gluten free diet or if you are fasting and want to have some roti subzi, you would be able to make a decent roti in fist try I am sure.

Does this one look like a perfectly made chapati, the burn marks et al? I made just one singhade ke atte ki roti to take the pictures of kneading the dough, rolling the chapati and then roasting it on a Tawa (flat griddle). Fluffing the chapati finally on the gas flame, as we do for the whole wheat chapatis.

This flour is not glutinous in texture and hence doesn't make a good dough. When you try to bind it in a dough it doesn't come together first when you add water and then it gets all gooey if added any more water.

But interestingly, as soon as you cook the watery slurry it becomes gummy and ready to bind. So cohesive that it sticks to your fingers like hell.

Let' see how we make the dough first.

Equal quantities of flour and water to start with. One cup of both, the water is heated till it boils. I used my trusted Microwave, you can do that in a round bottom pan (for the ease of churning and kneading later)..

About 3/4th cup of the flour is added to this hot water, the temperature comes down immediately (more because my singhada flour was refrigerated), proceed to whisk to make a slurry, and you don't notice anything unusual. I mean if you use cold water to make this slurry, it would behave the same way.

Using hot water quickens the gelling of the slurry later when you heat it again.

Now the slurry is microwaved again for a minute(for this quantity) or till the periphery starts looking set and darker in color. See picture below...

When doing it in pan you would have to stir it all the time till the slurry almost becomes a dough.

Now use a sturdy spoon to churn or stir the dough in circular motions. You would feel the dough has become 'stronger' and resists churning. This is good.

If you feel the dough is not enough hard to be rolled out into chapatis, add some more flour.

By this time the temperature of the dough would have come down and you can use your hands to knead the dough till it behaves like a regular chapati dough. It feels sticky and cohesive and your fingers wouldn't like it. Using some dry flour to keep kneading helps.

Pinch a ball and smoothen it rolling between your palms. Place on the floured rolling board.

Flatten with your fingers...You would still notice cracking edges. But this is fine.

It rolls out normally like a whole wheat chapati.

Lift up and flip over a hot tawa (griddle)..

Turn as soon as a few bubbles appear, and let it cook on the other side too....

Now lift the chapati, which would be quite hardened to use tongs to lift it up, and grill directly over the gas flame...

Both the sides...I like it flecked with those brown spots...The chaapti normally fluffs up to become all round, I made just one and it fluffed about 80%. Good enough.

The chapati is soft, folds well and gets softer when cooled...

Can be served with any curry, wrapped around some grilled paneer or dipped in some Baba ghanoush, as I did. Baba ghanoush can be made without garlic for fasting days and would be a great nourishing side dish because most Indian fasting recipes are carb loaded, you need some protein in the meals.

This Singhada flour is mostly carbs and a protien rich Baba ghanoush could be a great companion with it.

This Paneer curry with white cashew gravy could be a great side dish with this chapati too...

Raw singhada flour can be mixed with boiled and mashed Arbi ( Colocacia) to make a dough and then can be rolled out and fried like pooris. The boiled and mashed Arbi is quite gummy in texture and binds the Singhada flour well to make a cohesive dough. The pooris are very crisp and kachori like in texture. Those are really tasty with aloo ki subzi. I rarely made them as they soak a lot of ghee, not good for a fasting body :-) My body to be precise. Chapati suits me well.

If you have been looking for a substitute for those singhade ki poori, you know you are at the right place.

This Singhade ke atte ki roti makes a nice gluten free roti/chaapti as well. Try it if you are looking for gluten free options.

I hope this post is helpful to many who are fasting during the auspicious Navratri. It was a long due post and a few of my friends and readers would be glad to see this. Are you?