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.

Ragi ki roti step by step procedure | how to make ragi ki roti

How to make ragi ki roti easily is the question everyone asks when I suggest them to try it. Ragi is the Finger millet that is highly recommended as a healthy alternative grain. Making flat breads or ragi ki roti with it is a challenge for many and I used to get a few requests now and then. It is actually quite easy if you use your microwave in the dough making process. You can easily make the ragi roti dough by heating the ragi flour slurry in microwave and then kneading it like any other dough.

Ragi is also known as Nachni, Mandua or finger millet in different languages.

I had clicked these pictures long back when someone was not able to make millet flour rotis, I had sent her all these step wise pictures in mailbox but forgot to post on the blog. Here it comes for all my friends and readers.

We love rotis made with mixed flours and individual millet flours as well, this Ragi roti is enjoyed most with a chokha or a mash like Hummus or Baba ghanoush. It actually behaves like a cracker if you cook it for a couple of minutes on the flame. If you cook quickly it stays soft as a normal whole wheat roti should be, just a little fibrous in mouth feel when the roti gets cold.

The procedure to make the dough is a little tricky if you are doing it for the first time. The flour is mixed with water to make a slurry and then cooked either on stove top or in microwave so the slurry cooks and makes a glutinous dough. Ragi flour turns glutinous when cooked like this.

If you do it in microwave, the process becomes really easy though.

Let's see how the dough is made...

A cup of flour and 1.5 cup of hot water...

Mixed together to make a slurry like this...

The slurry is cooked in microwave for two minutes, the slurry looks set around the margins...

Look at this picture how the slurry gets set...

Take a spoon and mix it vigorously, the slurry is hot so be careful, the mixture become glutinous like this picture...

Microwave once more for a couple of minutes. The mixtures gets a bit dehydrated and stiffer but yet doesn't look like a dough...

Now add some more dry flour and knead using a sturdy spoon as the  mixture is hot. Adding the flour will lower down the temperature and you would be able to handle it with your fingers in a few minutes...

The dough looks like this..

Pinch off a ball, smoothen it to make it round...

And roll out a roti as you would do for a whole wheat roti, using some flour for dusting..

It behaves well under the rolling pin. No sticking on the surface and no cracking.....

Flip it on a hot tawa...

Flip to the other side in 30 seconds...

Wait for another 30 seconds and then fluff it up on open flame.

The Ragi ki roti is ready. You see this way of making the dough takes about 5-6 minutes if you are using a little more than a cup of Ragi flour and your Ragi rotis come out nice and soft. Most importantly they don't crack and stick to the rolling surface.

Recently I clicked pictures of a quicker method that I worked out to make ragi ki roti and other millet flour rotis and bhakhris. I make a thick slurry or a very loose dough of the flour and microwave it for a minute (for one cup flour and 1 cup and a little more water). Then mash the sticky cooked dough with a sturdy fork or potato masher before kneading it with hand for a few seconds. See these pictures for more details.

The kneaded dough is rolled and cut into smaller portions to roll out rotis like above..

A nice meal with ragi roti is something to look forward to.

I hope this post will be helpful to many who are trying to include gluten free grains or other whole grains in their diet. Ragi has multiple health benefits and I have posted a Ragi dosa, a Ragi uttapam and Ragi Idli in the past. More ways to include this wonderful grain in your daily meals..

Please let me know if this post is helpful to you...