Leftover Chappati Ladoo

When we have many people at home for lunch or dinner, it is difficult to estimate the number of chappatis to prepare. If there are left over roti's and if they just languish in the refrigerator for a few days, they find their way into the thrash soon. I find it extremely sinful to intentionally throw left over food. So I usually try to make food in required quantities, but sometimes if it happens that there are leftovers, I like to put them to use as soon as possible. At my home left over rice usually finds its way into methi rice, curd rice or phodni bhaat. This dish is a healthy and tasty way to put to use all the left over chappatis. This is one of the dish I make with left over chappatis. My mother added this recipe to our recipe collection when we were in Pune. I also use black sesame seeds in this ladoo as I find they are more flavorful than the white sesame seeds. Many of my Maharashtrian friends used to get two tiffin dishes made from left over chappatis. One was this ladoo recipe and another was left over chappati upma. Both are very popular in my home and my parent's home. I will put the upma recipe soon on the blog. 

Ingredients 
Left over 2-3 chappatis or roti
2-3 tablespoon powdered jaggery
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon black sesame seeds or white sesame seeds(optional)
2-3 pinches of cardamom powder
1 tablespoon ghee or clarified butter


Method
Tear the chappati into small pieces and put it in the mixer to grind it into small bits. Grind without adding any water. Toast the sesame seeds till crisp. Mix milk, jaggery and cardamom powder well with hand. Add the ground chappati bits and sesame seeds into the jaggery mixture and mix well. Add ghee and make small, tight round balls out of the chappati mixture by pressing it in your palm. 

Kanda Batata Pova / Poha / Phovu

This is a very popular breakfast dish or snack in Maharashtra. We make pova very often for breakfast as it is healthy and filling. It is an easy to prepare and garnish it with a little sev or chooda, it makes a sleek breakfast. If you don't want to eat onions in the morning, you can skip adding it. 


Ingredients
1 medium potato
1 medium onion
4 tea cups or around 100-150 gm medium beaten rice (mota pova)
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds (saunf in Hindi)
2 tablespoon peanuts or fresh green peas
2 green chilies or as per taste
3 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 tablespoon sugar
salt for taste
2 tablespoon oil


Method
Wash and soak the peanuts (if using) overnight or for at least 3 hours. Wash the beaten rice or pova well with water and drain the water. Mix salt and sugar with the pova as per taste.  Leave aside for 10-15 min. Chop the onion finely. Peel and chop the potato into desired sized cubes. Chop the green chilies finely. Heat oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds. When they pop add the the fennel seeds and turmeric powder. Add chopped green chillies and fry till they are light brown. Add the chopped onion and fry till it is light brown. Add chopped potato and peanuts and mix it well with the seasoning. Add one cup water a pinch of salt and cook covered till the potato is soft. Add the pova or beaten rice and mix well. If the pova feels dry then sprinkle 2 handful of water over it and mix well. Adjust salt as per taste. Cook covered over low flame for 5-8 minutes. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and sev and serve hot.


Preparation time: 30 min
Serves: 2

Spring Onion Stirfry/ Zhunka

Zhunka can be prepared with many vegetables like methi or fenugreek, cabbage, carrots, spring onions and onions. I got a couple of bundles of spring onion from my local grocery store and planned to make this dish. The base is made of besan or chick pea flour which is rich in protein. The process involves partially cooking the vegetables and then coating them well with chickpea flour. The vegetables are then cooked to perfection along with the chick pea flour. In Maharashtra it is also called poor man's dish as the ingredients are readily available at low cost and the nutrition content is also very high. It goes very well with roti, but traditionally people have it with bhaktri or millet (Jowar/Bajri) rotis. 

I also use non-stick utensils to make zunka as it is easier to cook chick pea flour. If cooked in traditional iron or steel pans the chick pea flour sticks to the bottom and gets burnt and the flour on the top half doesn't cook well. 

Ingredients 

3 cups chopped spring onions

1 medium onion

1 tablespoon chopped ginger

4-5 cloves of garlic (around 3 tablespoons)

4 finely chopped green chillies or as per taste

1 cup besan or chick pea flour

1 tablespoon jaggery

1/2 teaspoon red chili powder

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

pinch of asafoetida

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

4-5 curry leaves or karipatta 

salt for taste

1 tablespoon oil

Method  

Fry the chick pea flour on low flame for 4-8 minutes or till the raw smell goes away. Keep aside to cool down. Crush the ginger and garlic to make a fine paste and keep aside. 

 Heat oil in a non stick pan and add mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds splutter, add curry leaves and asafoetida. Coat the curry leaves well in oil and then add garlic and ginger paste. Fry on low flame till the raw smell goes away and then add chopped green chilies. Cook the chilies for a minute and add chopped onions and saute it for 4-5 minutes. Add the spring onions and cook uncovered for 4-8 minutes till the spring onions are half cooked. and the raw smell is gone. Salt the vegetables as per taste. Add jaggery, red chili powder and turmeric powder and mix well. 

 Now sprinkle the besan in 2-3 batches on the vegetable mixing well each time. Sprinkle few handful of water or as required to make the besan a little moist. Cook covered stirring occasionally to avoid big lumps on besan from forming.

Kolhapuri Vegetable Curry / Rassa Bhaji

This is a very spicy and tangy curry which is perfect to have on a cold, rainy day. Kolhapuri curries or sabzi is spicy and very flavorful. Kolhapuri chicken and mutton curries are very popular in Maharashtra. "Rassa" means gravy, so the curries usually have quite a bit of gravy with the meat or vegetables. I decided to try this rassa curry using vegetables. The red color of the curry is due to the byadgi chili I use in the masala. This chili is mild in pungency and imparts a very red color to the curry. Alternatively, Kashmiri chili can also be used to impart red color.  Byadgi or kashmiri chilies are less pungent in flavor. Other varieties of chilies can be used to impart more pungency. Here is the recipe.


Ingredients
1 capsicum
1 potato
3 cups cauliflower cut into big pieces of 2 inches each
1/2 cup peas
1 teaspoon chopped ginger
3 medium tomatoes
1 medium onion
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 1/2 tablespoon coriander seeds
4-5 red chilies (byadgi)
1/2 inch stick of cinnamon
3 tablespoon grated coconut
3 cloves
1/4 teaspoon tamarind concentrate
2 cardamom
6 tablespoon coriander leaves or cilantro
2-3 pepper corn
oil for frying
salt for taste

Method

Cut capsicum into two inch pieces each and fry it for 5-10 minutes till brown on all sides. Fry cauliflower for 4-5 minutes on high flame till crisp. Chop onion into small pieces. In a tablespoon of oil add chopped ginger and onion. Fry onion till brown. Chop tomatoes into small pieces and add it to the onion. Cook tomato till soft.
Soak red chilies in water for 5-10 minutes. Grind red chilies, coconut, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, pepper, coriander seeds and cumin seeds into a very fine paste. Add this paste to the tomato-onion mixture. Add tamarind and salt for taste. Add the vegetables in the curry and cook the curry till the vegetables are soft. Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot with roti or rice

Preparation time: 40 minutes
Serves: 3-4

Moong Sabzi / Moong Usal

Moong sabzi or moong usal is a very easy and nutritious recipe. It goes well with both rice and chappati and is great for tiffins. You can buy sprouted moong at the grocery store or sprout it at home. To sprout moong, soak it in warm water for around 12 hours. Wash the moong well and tie it in a muslin cloth. Sprinkle handful of water over the muslin cloth bag to keep it wet. Keep a heavy weight over the muslin cloth bag and let it remain for another 12 hrs. If you don't have a muslin cloth, just let it remain in any vessel in a warm place for 12 hours after draining the water.



Ingredients
2 cups of sprouted moong
2 table spoon chopped coriander or cilantro
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
salt as per taste
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
5 pinches asafoetida
6-7 curry leaves
1/2 teaspoon maharashtrian goda masala (optional)
1/4 teaspoon sugar or gur
1 teaspoon oil

Method
Heat oil and and mustard seeds. When they splutter, add asafoetida, curry leaves, turmeric powder. Add the moong and cook covered till the moong is soft. Add salt, sugar/gur and chili powder for taste. Garnish with cilantro. Serve hot with chapatti or rice.

Preparation time: 25 minutes excluding sprouting time
Serves: 2

Carrot Salad / Carrot Koshimbiri

Carrot koshimbir is a konkani salad. It can be made with yogurt or without it. Carrots are a rich source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C potassium among other nutrients. This salad should be served as soon as it is prepared as carrot loses its nutrition if kept exposed for a long time. It can also become watery as carrot or any other vegetable loses water when salt is added to it. Also we buy carrots and radish from our local farmers market and they taste sweeter and tastier than those available at the regular grocery store. This same salad can also be prepared by replacing carrot with radish or mooli or beetroot. Coconut is used for garnishing if lemon juice is used. I usually avoid using coconut due to the fat contents present in it, but traditionally it is used as a garnish. I am sending this to roundup organized by Suma and Siri.

Ingredients
2 medium sized carrots
1 teaspoon mustard
1 teaspoon oil
1/2 lemon juice or 1/2 cup curd
1 tablespoon grated coconut (if lemon juice is used)
1 tablespoon coriander leaves or cilantro for garnishing
1/2 teaspoon sugar or as per taste
1 chili finely chopped
salt for taste


Method
Grate the carrot. In a seasoning pan add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add green chili and remove from heat. Add this to the carrot. Mix in sugar, salt, curd or lemon juice and mix well. Garnish with Coriander leaves and coconut .


Another day, I found yellow beet root at the farmers market. I half-boiled it and grated it and added it along with the carrot. So, the beetroot was a little cooked, but still had its crunchy texture. The yellow-orange salad looks yummy too!!.



Preparation time: 15 minutes
Serves: 2

Sabudana Khichidi

Sabudana khichidi was one of the most popular items on my college canteen breakfast menu. My canteen "bhaiya" would serve a generous amount of khichidi with lemon wedges and sweet curd. I would relish this dish early in the morning before attending my classes. Many people eat sabudana when they fast, hence it is also called "upaas ka khana" in many parts of India. Peanuts are a great source of protein and Vitamin B. It is a very healthy breakfast especially for growing children. It is quick-to-make dish and tastes delicious when served piping hot for breakfast. Shengdana koot or coarsely ground peanut powder is used to make this dish. Roast the peanuts for 8-10 minutes and coarsely powder them. This can be stored in an airtight container and keeps up to a week.

Ingredients

1 cup sabudana
1 large or 2 small potatoes
1/2 cup coarsely ground roasted peanuts
2 green chilies (chopped)
1/2 teaspoon red chili powder.
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 tablespoon oil
handful of chopped coriander/cilantro leaves
2 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon sugar
salt for taste

Method

Wash the sabudana and soak the sabudana overnight. It is a little tricky to soak the sabudana. If it is soaked in more water, it can become sticky and mushy. To soak sabudana, put it in a vessel and add water till it reaches 1/2 inch more than the level of the sabudana. Leave it overnight or soak at least for 4 hours. (Do not wash the sabudana or add water, once it is soaked!!). Add sugar, salt, chili powder, potatoes and ground peanuts and mix it well with the sabudana.


Put oil in a wide bottom pan and add cumin and green chili. Fry for 2 minutes and add the sabudana. Cook with the lid on pan and on low flame for around 10-15 minutes. Toss the sabudana occasionally while it is cooking. Garnish with lemon juice and finely chopped coriander leaves. You may also serve the sabudana khichidi with a bowl of sweet curd. Enjoy the nutritious khichidi.

Preparation time: 20 minutes excluding the soaking time
Serves: 2