When Valli was floating her idea of Indian Thali Mela I was quiet.
That is quite unlike me. Usually I like to be in the thick of things if not doing anything else at least making a noise.
You may wonder why I was quiet. Well there is a reason no three reasons
1. Will I be able to cook an entire festive thali all by myself? I do not know why I wanted one festive thali but I wanted it. I still want to make one but
2. Will I have eaters? For my family is one are very fussy eaters so I did not want my hard work go down the drain.
3. The most important reason is I do not know how to click it. The pictures suck.
So I decided to let the festival go by. But I hate failures or giving up before I try so I decided to try. I would love to see your comments on improving my pics.
So here goes this is my thali. It was my lunch there is in the top line lime pickle, curds, salad and javasa –chi- chatni or flax seed chutney. The bottom line is paratha– paneer, mint and bottle gourd paratha and Amul butter.
Salad is salad leaves, corn, cherry tomatoes and green apple with lemon and olive oil dressing. I picked it up at the supermarket. Javas chutney is also readymade will get the recipe from my father. Parathas are something different from what I make regularly.
Story is that I had bottle gourd, paneer and coriander that need to be finished as I am going on a short vacation yet again. And the post here had me thinking.
Ingredients:
1 cup of peeled and grated bottle gourd
½ cup coriander leaves
1/8 cup mint leaves
1 cup grated paneer
1 tblsp kalonji (optional)
1 tblsp jeera powder
1 tsp jeera
Turmeric
Red chilli powder
Salt
3 cups Whole wheat flour
Oil
Method:
1. Take the grated bottle gourd and add the chopped coriander and mint leaves and paneer.
2. Add the jeera powder, kalonji, turmeric, red chilli powder, salt rub the jeera between your palms and add to the mixture. Mix. Let it stand for at least ½ an hour.
3. The bottle gourd will give out juices. Add as much flour as possible needed to get smooth dough. In fact it is better if your dough is stiff as later the dough becomes a bit watery.
4. Now smear a little oil and immediately roll out the parathas.
To make Parathas
1. Heat a tava/griddle on the gas.
2. Take a smooth ball and with the help of some dry wheat flour make a nice circle. (I make all the maps in the world).
3. Lower the flame and Put the paratha on a hot griddle. Depending on how hot your tava is you will get small bubbles on the paartha.
4. Flip; use a spatula if you feel the need (I do not at least at this stage). Raise the flame and add about ½ tsp of oil around the edges.
5. The paratha will immediately give a lovely aroma and will have lovely brown spots. Turn it over cook on the other side too.
Serve hot paratha with curds and (diet ko maro goli) Amul butter.
P.S.
Bai made these paratha in the morning. She forgot that I had added salt and added more so we had to increase the amount of wheat flour. Else 3 cupful of flour was enough. The flavour of mint and coriander also went down. After making 10 today we have enough to make another 10 tomorrow.
Sending this to
love it, superb working lunch.
Super flavourful parathas,love the addition of bottlegourd.
hi dear, your pic is perfect, could have another one close up- larger size. ha ha have a nice day- sorry cant comment on your dish- i have no
knowledge
Interesting combo and looks yum …..that platter is fab
Archana, so sweet of you to make this, of course the picture looks fab!..and lol on the salt part..guess you don't have to strain yourself again to make it..:)
The thali looks super delicious. I love the way you write.
Very yummy
Very yummy
Wonderful looking and delicious Thali, Archana! And Nice presentation and Nice Click! 🙂
-Mythreyi
Yum! Yum! Yum!
I so loved the combo!!! Healthy, flavorful parathas :)) How u doin??
Prathima Rao
Prats Corner
paratha looks very good
def a winner combo..love it
Tasty Appetite
Even i never dated to cook a whole Thali till now:-)
But ur thali looks just nice! Simple and wholesome!
Very yummy n flavorful parathas.
great thali n great click… love ur presentation
Yummy & flavorful parathas.
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