Bajra Roti

Bajra Millet

After registering for the Marathon, I decided to eat healthy but cornflakes or plain oats aren’t my kind of food. I’ll go for poha, idli, upma any day (Of course they need to be prepared nicely not the hostel-food kind).  So I started looking for other options and that reminded me of bajra rotis which are usually prepared around Sankranti time. They are an awesome food esp during winters.

One thing I totally love about the healthy food fads is millets are back in style. Bajra/Pearl millet/ಸಜ್ಜೆ is one of them. It is a gluten -free grain and comes with a plenty of other benefits.

Here is how to make some tasty rotis. They are made the same way as Jowar/Sorghum rotis. For better pictures and a more detailed recipe check this out and just replace jowar with bajra. In this recipe, I have added some jowar with bajra and also some more spices to make the roti tastier.

Ingredients:

• Bajra atta – 1/2 cup
• Jowar atta – 1 tbsp
• salt – to taste
• red chilli powder – to taste
• turmeric – to taste
• white sesame seeds/till – to taste
• Hot water for kneading the dough

Ingredients

Method:

Bring the water to boil.

Start kneading with the spoon. You can use your hands and cold water once you add hot water and mix

• Don’t put all the water at once. Keep adding a little every time. Also, use a spoon to mix the water as it is very hot.

knead the dough properly to get nice rotis

Take a small portion of the dough and make it into a ball

Use a rolling-pin or flatten the roti using your hands

Once rolled out, put it on hot tawa.

• Make sure the tawa is hot for good rotis. In the next few seconds, as the roti gets a little dry, use a clean muslin cloth and apply a thin layer of water on the upper surface.
• Let it remain till water evaporates a little and flip it over and press slightly with a soft cloth to make sure it is done properly on all sides.

Roti flipped over

You can eat it with any subzi, but I can’t wait these rotis so I am eating it right away with cucumber slices, sprouts, channa dal/ಪುಟಾಣಿ chutney and awesome curd.

Hot bajra roti ready to eat 🙂

Beetroot Paratha

Just a few months back cooking used to be my Bête Noire but lately I have started to fall in love with it. The more I cook, the more I love it. The best part is creating stuff everyday. Being creative to make the same old dishes more appealing and getting them right every time. Fortunately for me, I have my Mom(who just loves cooking) to help me out with new recipes and lend her experience.

Here is one of the recipes that I tried. As I was talking a few friends here I realized not many knew this recipe so I am posting it here. It is simple, easy, looks great, very healthy and great fun to prepare and eat. My Dad who hates beetroot also loved these parathas.

Yummy Beetroot Paratha

Ingredients:

1 medium-sized grated Beetroot
2 cups wheat flour
1 tsp Red chilli powder
1/4 tsp Ajwain seeds (ಅಜಮೋದ/ಓಮಾ)
1/2 tsp cumin seeds (ಜೀರಿಗೆ)
1/2 tsp white sesame seeds/till seeds ( ಬಿಳಿ ಯೆಳ್ಳು)
1/2 tsp garam masala(optional)
salt to taste
water – to knead the dough

Method:

Mix all the ingredients above and knead to make dough with the same consistency as chapathi dough

Dough

Let the dough settle for about 30 minutes
Take small balls of dough and roll it out to make nice round parathas
How you fold is entirely up to you so have fun with the shape of your Parathas! Below are the pictures of how I have done it.

Sprinkle some oil and flour on rolled paratha and cut it as shown

fold it to make a cone

fold it to make a cone

Cone ready

Cone pressed and ready to be rolled out

Once rolled, put on a hot tawa and fry till evenly browned and well cooked.
Serve hot and enjoy with curds, pickle and fried green chilli 🙂
Hope you have making and eating this dish!

 

Mother’s Recipe

What is it about Mothers that makes the food they cook so irresistable? One of my roomie’s mom has come to stay with us and this afternoon she cooked some Pulav. The pulav was simply amazing. The same ingredients that we use everyday, the same method but mothers manage to add a magical touch to the food. Thank you aunty 🙂
I miss my home and miss you Mom 😦