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.

instant besan ka halwa ... microwave recipe...

Someone has got a big sweet tooth here and after a root canal treatment , has come to a conclusion that halwa is therapeutic for teeth ..... The one tooth who suffered was because of halwa deprivation he claims...

Many halwas are made as an evening snack which leads to a 'glass of milk for dinner' or no dinner at all . Halwa is rich as it has quite a lot of ghee and if someone want a whole bowlful of it , i make a whole bowl full of it in the microwave....just one serving at a time.

Starting with 3/4 cup of besan  1/2 cup of fresh malai and chopped almonds...

Sugar to taste . Mix them all ... Reserve the almonds......shove into the microwave for 1 minute on high...

Mix to make a goo.....

 Mix again and shove into the oven for a minute , after two turns in the MW for a minute it looks like this...slightly dehydrated and lumpy....not gooyi any more...

Now add the chopped almonds , microwave again for a minute...repeat till the mixture is crumbly and a nice aroma fills the kitchen...

I made it for a late evening snack cum dinner and hence the pictures are a bit dark . But
the procedure is clear i hope...

The halwa has to be served hot , as soon as the desired consistency is achieved , the halwa is ready . It takes about 5 minutes to make it , taking intervals after every minute to stir the halwa.... If you count 2-3 minutes to chop the almonds and arrange the things for preparation , still the halwa is quick enough for a hungry halwa deprived soul....

Same way the halwa of sooji can also be made , or even with atta or daliya . the taste of the microwave halwa will different from the slow roasted in ghee halwa , but it is quite good and you will be hooked to it once you make it .. the convenience of it being quick , as well as being able to make a single serving at a time will be a great excuse to make the halwa this way...

The traditional kadai made halwa of besan is posted here on this blog....do try it that way if time permits ...that post attracts a lot of hits on this blog....picture quality is not a deterrent here...

indian flatbreads : whole wheat kulcha recipe, the way they make it on the streets of old Delhi

Kulcha is a yeasted flat bread and is commercially available in the northern India, especially in Delhi. The traditional kulcha dough is fermented with sourdough starter or the dough is left to ferment naturally and then flat breads are made in tandoor. But now a days the commercially available variety is baked in modern commercial ovens, made with yeasted dough they are soft spongy and spotless white sprinkled with some herbs sometimes.

Delhi street vendors sell chhole kulche on a typical street cart carrying a wide brass handi (urn) for the piping hot chhole. They use the ready made kulche out of packets,  just toasting the kulcha quickly on a hot griddle with some butter and serving with hot chhole. I have tasted that chhole kulchea few times and it is the best kind of street food you can find in Delhi.

Here comes the same bazar wala kulcha made with whole wheat flour ... I have tried baking this kulcha over the griddle, in the oven and in the microwave in the past and this version which involves cooking the kulcha first in the microwave and then toasting on the griddle works best to make it just like the ready made ones. They look and feel just like the ready made  kulche (when made with maida) when they are just out of the microwave, white and spotless. After microwaving they can be kept in the fridge and toasted when required. I have been getting requests from many of my friends for this bazaer wale kulche, so friends... the wait is over.

Here they are, toasted on the griddle for those brown spots....

Before moving to the recipe i must make it clear that it is somewhat similar to the pita bread and the pizza base available ready made in the markets, but this kulcha is thinner and softer and can be folded without breaking, as is shown in the pictures. The best part is, it can be made with the same yeasted dough. Just keep the dough a bit softer and you will see how the texture of the bread changes.

ingredients...

whole wheat flour 2 cups
all purpose flour (maida) 2 tbsp
salt to taste
any oil of your choice 1 tsp
mint or coriander leaves to garnish the breads
vegetable oil for greasing
fresh yeast 1 tsp (or dry active yeast 1/4 tsp, or sourdough starter)
sugar 1 tsp

procedure...

Heat a cup of water to 40 degree C or just warm to touch. Dissolve sugar into it and add the fresh or dry yeast to it. Keep this water in a warm place and wait till it gets frothy.

Add the maida and salt, it usually gets more frothy while adding the maida and becomes like a slurry. Whisk this slurry for a couple of minutes (it helps the dough to get a stretch). Add the remaining wheat flour and knead a soft dough adding some lukewarm water as needed.

Keep the dough in a warm place to rise and become double in quantity. At this stage the dough can be kept in the fridge too for a couple of days and then proceed with the rest of the process...bring it to room temperature and them keep it warm to proceed.

Punch the dough and make small balls, keep the balls greased and covered ....wait till they rise to double. Flatten the dough balls on a greased rolling board using your oiled fingers, brush plain water on the surface and stick some mint or coriander leaves. 

In the picture you can see the spotless microwave cooked  kulcha on the left side in the ceramic plate, on the right side you can see how i pressed the dough with hands to flatten it on the rolling board (chakla) and then coriander leaves are stuck to it.

As I said the dough for this flat bread needs to be a bit soft, so it is a bit tacky to roll using a rolling pin sometimes, using your fingers to flatten it is far more convenient.

I prefer keeping a hot griddle ready when the kulcha comes out of the microwave, toast the kulcha with some butter and it gets lightly browned in just a few seconds..

I served the kulcha with cheat's version of matar paneer, as I didn't want to have chhole with these whole wheat kulche. Matar paneer or any mutton curry is a great accompaniment to these whole wheat kulchas.

daal ke pakode hari chutny ke saath

this was our dinner on a weekend when it was raining heavily outside......rain is playing lukka chhippi here in delhi n i saw some of the heaviest rains this season as rain God is quite kanjoos for Delhi otherwise............so whenever our evening tea becomes late , it transforms into a dinner n how it went on that day.......i had soaked a mix of pulses for the pakode and Arvind got late from work n was wet n hungry ......i processed the pulses and made tea while he got fresh and we had a relaxed tea dinner.....

to make these daal ke pakode you need to soak a mix of red lentils , split chick peas or chana daal and mung daal in equal quantity for about two hours.....i used about 2 tbsp of each daal which becomes about 1.5 cup after soaking.

grind the soaked daals with a one inch piece of ginger , 2 garlic cloves and 3 green chillies in a chutny jar of your mixie......to make a course paste....add a tsp of turmeric powder and salt to taste


chop about half cup of curry leaves and a big onion finely and mix with the paste .

grease a MW safe plate and drop spoonfuls of the mixture on it till all the mixture is consumed , you may need to make another batch for this quantity....microwave for 3 minutes on high or till all the pakode are cooked through ( a tooth pick should come out clean when pricked with it)...

meanwhile heat vegetable oil in a kadhai to fry the pakode ....when the microwaving is done, take out the plate and tip in the microwaved pakode immediately into the hot oil.......this allows the pakode to brown quickly into the oil, reducing the frying time tremendously and very less amount of oil is consumed.....( tell me if you found the tip useful).

drain the pakode when browned and serve with hari chutny......every family has their own version of hari chutny or may be many versions according to availability of ingredients.........i made this using mint leaves and pickled green garlic chives ( recipe coming later)....

rains , masala chai and pakode does something very special to you.......enjoy!!!