Gobi Paratha is Sendhil’s most favorite Paratha recipe. After marriage he took me to In-swing restaurant in BDA complex, Banashankari and got this cauliflower paratha for me as he loves it very much. That’s the first time I tasted a stuffed paratha in my life. He told me to try the same at home. As I was a beginner in cooking, I did not have any idea about the stuffing part, how to roll paratha etc.
When I tried it, all the stuffing came out while rolling and the paratha became a disaster. Still he appreciated me for my attempt and ate well. And that’s my man. Now after so many years of cooking, I can make a good gobi paratha for him. So I wanted to share this recipe in my blog with step by step photos and a detailed video recipe to help beginners.
You can try this yummy paratha recipe for dinner or lunch box. Even Kids would love this paratha if you cook it adding ghee or butter. It comes out soft and stays good for hours. Lets see how to make Gobi paratha/Cauliflower paratha at home easily !
Gobi paratha recipe/ Cauliflower paratha recipe
How to make gobi paratha/Cauliflower paratha at home with step by step photos and video !
Cauliflower - 1 no or Grated cauliflower - 1.5 cups
Cooking oil - 2 tbsp
Green chilli - 1 no ( finely chopped)
Grated ginger - 1 tsp
Ajwain/Carom seeds – 1 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Dhania powder/coriander seeds powder - 1 tsp
Garam masala powder - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds powder - 1/4 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Aamchur powder - 1/4 tsp ( optional)
Coriander leaves - 2 tbsp. ( to garnish)
Salt - as needed
METHOD
In a wide bowl, take the wheat flour, add required salt and 1/2 tbsp. of cooking oil. Mix well. Add water little by little and make a smooth, non-sticky dough.Knead well, apply a tsp of oil and cover the dough with a dry cloth, leave it for 20 minutes. In the mean time, lets prepare the stuffing.
Take the cauliflower and remove the leaves, cut into 4. Remove the stem part and separate the florets in a plate. In a wide bowl, boil water and add the florets. Boil for few minutes, parboil and drain the excess water. Remove the half cooked cauliflower florets to a dry kitchen towel/cloth. Pat it dry.
Grind the florets in a dry mixer jar without water. Wipe the sides of jar and grind in batches. You can also grate it. But grinding is easy. Take in a plate.
Heat oil in a kadai and when it gets heated , add the finely chopped green chilli, grated ginger (If u wish u can add very finely chopped onions at this stage) and saute well. Add the grated cauliflower, salt, red chilli powder, dhania powder, cumin powder, garam masala powder,aamchur powder and ajwain. Mix well till all the moisture is absorbed. Let the mixture cool down.Divide the stuffing into lemon sized balls.
Take the chapathi dough and make lemon sized balls. The size of dough ball & stuffing ball should be equal.
Take one dough ball, dust it in wheat flour and roll into small poori size.Make the corners thinner than center. Keep the stuffing ball in the center and seal it. Again dust in the flour and roll to a thick or thin paratha as u wish. Sendhil likes it medium thick.So I do it accordingly.
Heat a dosa tawa, cook the paratha on both the sides till half cooked in medium flame. Brush one side of paratha with ghee or cooking oil and cook for few seconds till brown spot appear.Flip the paratha and brush the other side of paratha.Cook for a minute. Keep flipping and cooking till brown spots appear all over the paratha. Brush with ghee and remove in a plate. Serve hot immediately with raita or pickle OR stack the paratha in a clean kitchen towel or thermal foil for later use. (Remember the more you brush with ghee, softer the paratha would be.)
Enjoy !
Note
Do not make the chapathi dough very sticky. Rolling will be difficult. You may have to dust the paratha with more flour which leads to dry paratha.
You should grease the paratha with cooking oil or ghee for best taste.
Cauliflower stuffing should be free from moisture so that paratha won’t become sticky while rolling.
Adding aamchur powder gives a mild tangy taste. Skip if you don’t have it.
Enjoy this yummy, flavorful gobi paratha with your favorite side dish or simple masala raita.
Its been my long time wish to try North Indian style Sooji ka halwa/ Rava sheera. So I tried it for New year celebration yesterday. In North India, Suji ka halwa is one of the most popular and easy halwa recipes that is made in all houses for all the festivals & occasions and is served in most of the temples as Prasad. This halwa is served along with Poori and Chole for breakfast. Halwa poori chole is one of the most popular breakfast combo in North India and Pakistan.
In Karnataka, people call this sooji halwa as Kesari bath. Rava/sooji, Sugar and ghee forms the basic ingredients for this sweet recipe. But Rava kesari, suji ka halwa and kesari bath has its own variations in the quantity of ingredients, method of preparation, taste, color and texture. I watched few You tube videos and followed Food viva for the recipe.
Though it tastes mildly sweeter than the South Indian rava kesari, it was dripping with ghee and finger licking good. We loved it very much. Its taste reminded me of the banana sheera I had in my friend’s house Satya Narayana pooja. Its very easy to prepare for special occasions and to treat your surprise guests. For variations, you can use milk instead of water. Lets see how to make North Indian special suji ka halwa/ Sooji halwa/Rava sheera recipe with step by step photos and a detailed video !!
Suji Ka Halwa Recipe
Suji Ka Halwa - North Indian version of Rava kesari
Bombay Rava/ Sooji /semolina - 1/2 cup ( Do not use chiroti rava)
Ghee - 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Water - 1.5 cups
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp or 2 pods crushed
Saffron threads - few
Milk - 1 tbsp ( to soak saffron thread)
Chopped cashews, badam and few raisins/dry grapes
METHOD - HOW TO MAKE SOOJI HALWA
Soak saffron threads in 1 tbsp hot milk.I din’t use saffron in this recipe. I used cardamom powder alone.
Heat 1/3 cup of ghee in a kadai.Roast the dry grapes, cashews and almonds till dry grapes bloat and nuts turns golden. Add rava and roast well for 4-5 minutes in medium flame. Rava turns light golden brown in color.
Add 1.5 cups of water to the rava and mix well till 3/4 th of the water is absorbed by the rava and becomes semi thick.Keep the flame low and cover the kadai with a lid. Cook the rava for 2-3 minutes.
Open the lid and add sugar, cardamom powder and saffron milk ( if using). Mix well without lumps.Sugar melts and the mixture will become watery. Keep the flame medium and mix well.
Halwa turns thick and starts to leave the sides of pan. Immediately add 1tbsp of ghee, mix well quickly and transfer the halwa to a bowl. Do not wait for the halwa to thicken completely. Remove it as soon as it becomes semi thick because this suji ka halwa becomes dry and hard when it cools down. So remove it at the right time. Garnish with few nuts and serve warm.
Enjoy !
Note
Add more sugar ( Say 3/4 cup of sugar) if you need more sweetness.
You can use milk instead of water but cook the rava for more time if using milk.
Do not reduce the quantity of ghee. It helps to keep the halwa soft.
If you don’t want to add more ghee, use half the quantity of oil.
Try this easy, yummy Suji Ka halwa/Rava sheera at home and enjoy !!
Recent days I have been trying varieties of Poori recipes for our weekend breakfast. I have tried and posted palak poori,masala poori, beetroot poori, chola poori . This week I made tomato poori ( Tamatar ki puri in Hindi and Thakkali poori in Tamil) for the first time. I just combined the recipes of my regular poori & masala poori and tried this tomato poori by adding tomato puree.It came out really well with nice red color. I prepared Bombay chutney as the side dish for this poori. It was a nice combo and we loved it a lot. This poori can be packed for kids lunch box or for snack as it tastes good and soft even if its not hot. Do try this colorful poori variety for your family and let me know the feedback. Tomorrow I will share the recipe of Bombay chutney. Today lets check out how to make this yummy tamatar puri recipe with step by step photos !
Tomato poori recipe / Thakkali Poori / Tamatar ki puri
How to make tomato poori recipe - Weekend special breakfast recipe
Wash and grind 2 tomato in a mixie jar without adding water. Grind it to make a smooth puree.
In a wide bowl or plate, take the wheat flour, tomato puree, rava, red chilli powder, garam masala powder, crushed kasoori methi, salt and ghee. Mix till crumbly.Remove the unground tomato pieces if any.
Add water little by little and make a thick, smooth dough. Dough should be non-sticky.Knead the dough with your palm for 2-3 minutes and keep aside for 10 minutes. If you wish, you can make poori immediately.
Make lemon sized balls out of the dough.Take one ball, dust with wheat flour and roll into thick, small poori as shown below. Thickness of poori should be more than chapathi. Only thick poori would puff up well.
Heat oil in a kadai to deep fry the poori. Check its temperature by dropping a pinch of dough. If it rises to top immediately, oil temperature is just right.Make sure oil is not smoking hot. Keep the flame medium . Take a rolled poori, pat it with your hands to dust off the excess wheat flour and drop one poori in hot oil.
When it starts to come up, just press it gently with the ladle. Poori will puff up well. Now flip the other side and cook for a minute. Remove in a tissue paper, drain the excess oil and serve hot with your favorite side dish.
Enjoy !
Note
Adjust the quantity of masala powders as per your taste.
Do not make the dough sticky. Poori will absorb more oil.
Adding rava helps to maintain the poori puffy for long time.
Addition of ghee helps to keep the poori soft for hours.
Roll the poori thicker than chapathi else it won’t puff up.
Heat of the oil should be perfect to get well puffed poori. If the heat of oil is less, poori will sink in oil and drinks more oil. If the heat is more, the color of poori will become dark and may turn like a papad.
We enjoyed this yummy tomato masala poori with Bombay chutney !
Appam is one of the most popular South Indian breakfast recipe. It is commonly found in Tamil nadu and Kerala hotels. Tamil nadu style appam can be prepared in many ways. In my family, everybody loves appam very much. So I make it at least twice in a month. I have experimented and shared different recipes for appam like appam with cooking soda, appam without soda adding ENO and have made appam recipe using idli, dosa batter as well. But I have never thought of trying Kerala’s traditional appam recipe popularly known as Palappam.
Recently when I was going through my Instagram feed, I got tempted by seeing a picture of Kerala Appam served with vegetable stew for breakfast. Since then, I was searching for traditional Kerala style appam and found many recipes with variations. I found it can be prepared with yeast , without yeast and even with rice flour. This time, I tried the traditional appam recipe using raw rice and yeast. Now I wish to try the easy appam recipe with rice flour and see the difference in texture.Soon I will share restaurant style vegetable stew recipe. Now lets see how to make Kerala Palappam recipe using raw rice and yeast !!
Salt & water - as needed (You can use coconut water for grinding the batter)
Cooking oil - to drizzle appam
HOW TO MAKE KERALA APPAM / PALAPPAM - METHOD
Wash and soak raw rice for 4 hours.Chop the coconut into small pieces and grind it coarsely. Instead you can grate the coconut and grind it along with rice. Grind the soaked rice adding grated coconut, cooked rice, salt, sugar and yeast till it becomes a smooth paste. You can grind in a grinder or in a mixie. You can use coconut water while grinding. But do not add more water and make the batter watery.
Transfer the batter to a big vessel and cover it with a lid.Let it ferment for 8 hours. I kept it for 12 hours as winter has started in my place.
After fermentation, the batter would have become frothy and almost doubled. Mix well with a ladle and add some water if the batter is too thick. The consistency of batter should be like regular dosa batter.
Heat an appam pan and pour 1.5 ladleful of batter. Swirl the pan and make a circle. The center part of appam should be thick and the sides should be thin and lacy. Drizzle a tsp of oil around the appam and cover it with a lid. Keep the flame low to medium. I cook till its bottom turns light golden brown and corners turn crispy. If you want soft, white colored appam, remove it before the corners turn crispy. Remove and serve hot with sweetened coconut milk and vegetable stew.
Enjoy !
Note
Traditionally yeast is added in Palappam/Kerala appam. But if you don’t like its smell, you can avoid it.
If you are not using instant dry yeast, you should proof it. For this, dissolve 1/2tsp of yeast in 1/2 cup of warm water, 1 tsp sugar. Mix it well and cover with a lid. Let it sit for 15 minutes. Check to see if the mixture turns frothy. If its active, add this mixture to the rice and grind it. If its not frothy, yeast is not alive/active. In that case, discard it and use a fresh yeast.
Cooking appam is medium flame patiently is more important else appam will burn in the bottom.
To make sweetened coconut milk, Grind 1cup of grated coconut adding 3/4 cup of warm water. Grind smooth and strain the coconut milk in a sieve. Collect them in a bowl and mix 1/4 cup of sugar and 1/2 tsp of cardamom powder to it. Mix well. Heat the coconut milk lightly till its warm and mix well for the sugar to dissolve completely. Do not boil the coconut milk. Serve warm with appam.
Enjoy this traditional Kerala Appam with sweetened coconut milk and Vegetable stew for a delicious breakfast !
Ulli Theeyal is a Kerala special, gravy kind of side dish served for rice. Ulli means onion in Malayalam. Theeyal curry preparation is usually made with pearl onions (Shallot/Small onions) as the main ingredient. For variations, drumstick(Muringakka), Bittergourd(Pavakka) or ladies finger(Vendakka) can also be added along with onion. It is also served in Onam sadya. This gravy tastes similar to Tamilnadu Arachuvitta Puli kuzhambu.
Traditional, authentic theeyal recipe calls for roasting coconut along with whole spices like coriander seeds, red chilli whereas I followed an easy and quick version from Marias menu. I have used Dhania powder and red chilli powder along with coconut.It came out really well and finger licking delicious.I am sure I will make this kuzhambu very often in my kitchen.Lets see how to make Kerala style Ulli theeyal recipe with step by step photos !
Soak tamarind in 1 cup of water for 15 minutes and take the extract.Wash and peel the small onions. Slice it into two if its very big. Set aside.
In a big kadai, heat oil and roast the grated coconut along with 5 small onions.Roast till coconut starts to turn golden brown with a nice roasted smell. It takes nearly 10 minutes to do this. So stay nearby and roast it patiently with continuous stirring. Keep the flame medium. Finally add the turmeric powder, red chilli powder and dhania powder. Mix well for a minute till raw smell leaves and switch off the flame. Let it cool down completely. Then grind them to a paste.
Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a kadai. Splutter mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, curry leaves. Saute the small onions till transparent. To this, add tamarind extract and required salt. Boil the gravy till onions cook well. After the onion is cooked, add the ground coconut paste. Check for taste, add more red chilli powder & dhania powder if it tastes tangy. Boil well till the gravy thickens and leave oil.
Enjoy ! This gravy thickens more in time. So adjust the consistency by adding some water and give a boil before serving. check for taste and add more salt or red chilli powder, dhania powder if needed. Boil and serve !
This gravy stays good for weeks stored in refrigerator ! Use clean spoon for every use.
Note
Add more chilli powder if you like spicy gravy.
This gravy tastes the best with small onions. so its better to use it. If you don’t have them in hand, you can use big onion but flavors may differ.
Add less tamarind if its more tangy.
Yummy, finger licking Kerala ulli theeyal is ready to serve ! I served with Chena Erissery, Nendran chips and rice !!
