Incredible Indian Food!

Traditionally, we tend to do our food posts closer to the end of our stays in a country so that we compile a number of eating experiences, but we thought – “why wait until the end of our stay? Let’s do some cooking right now!”

As mentioned in previous posts, our Couchsurfing hosts, Ravi, Anju and Pranav, have been absolutely amazing! Anju has been a non-stop chef creating mouth watering Indian dishes for us to try. We all agree that we are moving in because her cooking is beyond belief!

So after our time in Agra, we retuned “home” to New Delhi for some awesome cooking classes with Anju. We learned how to make some delightful Indian dishes we can serve at our international food nights when we return home to Canada. The Puliani family will have to come and visit and give us their personal feedback!

To begin with, to authentically eat Indian food, one should not use forks or knives…spoons only on the table. One also has to master the art of tearing  breads with one hand and elegantly scooping the different delicious delights up to one’s mouth (we are all still working on this skill!).

As in most cultures, breads play an important role on the menu and there are so many to choose from: chapati/ roti, paratha, puris, etc…all of them homemade and very delicious!  Another thing we learned is that naan is served mainly in restaurants, it’s not something people make and eat in their homes.

So let’s start by making some different types of breads!

First of all, most Indian homes would have a few staple ingredients in the house and special equipment to make their different breads.  For example, a big container of whole wheat flour, a small rolling pin, a platform for rolling out the dough, (not sure what this is called), and a special pan to cook the dough called a tava or a flat iron grill. Some kitchens will also have small tandoor style ovens which look like large toaster ovens – but are incredibly hot!

Every morning, Anju makes her dough for the day.  Bread is served at all three meals so the dough is kept in the fridge and prepared fresh for each meal.

Standard Bread Dough 

Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup of water

Pinch of salt

1. Add 2 cups of whole wheat flour and a pinch of salt to a food processor.

2. Add 1 c of water and process.

3. Keep processing until dough forms a large ball and sticks together.

The cooking method and any additional ingredients determines which type of bread is made.

Chapati/Roti

1. Take a small piece of dough and roll it on the platform with the small rolling pin.

2. Make sure to flip it over a couple of times – sprinkle with flour if the dough becomes sticky.

3. Place dough on the tava/griddle and cook on stove.

4. The dough will cook quickly – 1-2 minutes and puff up.

5. Flip the bread to brown evenly.  Serve hot and fresh!

Paratha

** Follow the same dough recipe and cooking method for chapati – see above.

1. After rolling out the bread, spread melted butter or ghee on the dough for extra buttery flavour.

2. Put some oil on the tawa and cook evenly on both sides.  It will be crispier than the chapati.

Stuffed Paratha

Ingredients

Boiled potatoes

Cumin

Coriander powder

Chilli powder

Fresh coriander

Green chillies to taste

1. Prepare traditional dough.

   

2. Mix ingredients together and put on a plate.
   

   Potatoes, spices and ghee

   

   Onions

   

   Mix together with your hands.

   

   Ready to stuff!
3. Spread ghee on dough and roll up again to mix.
4. 

   Rolling out the dough.

   

   Spread ghee on dough.

   

   Fold dough.

   

   Fold again.

   

   Keep rolling.

   

   All rolled up.

   

   Press down.

   

   Press down again.

   

   Flatten

   

   Add more ghee.
5. Dip in flour and roll out dough again.
   

   Roll out again.
6. Add some of the “stuffing” to the dough and pinch together into a small package.
   

   Add stuffing.

   

   Fold up dough.

   

   Make a little package.
7. Dip in flour and roll out dough again.
   

   Press down and dip in flour.

   

   Roll out dough again.

   

   Flattened stuffed dough.
8. Place stuffed dough in the kitchen tandoor oven – be careful – it’s very hot!
   

   Put into kitchen tandoor oven.

   

   Bake until browned.
9. In a couple of minutes – remove from stove and put more butter or ghee on top if desired. Delicious!
   

   It’s hot!

   

   Add even more butter!

This recipe can also be done with minced mutton – called kima, or paneer (pressed cottage cheese) or whatever you feel like adding to the stuffing!

We all successfully made the stuffed parathas – so if we can do it – anyone can! These parathas reminded us of the kulchas we tried in Amritsar.  The difference is that kulchas are made with refined flour and some sort of yeast or leavening agent.

Puris

1. Prepare dough as usual.

2. Roll out dough into circles.

3. Add to hot oil and deep fry.

4. Remove from oil after puris have “puffed up”

5. Drain on paper towel and serve immediately.

Drain puris on paper towel.

Basket of puris.

Ready to eat!

What I learned…if you do not roll out your dough in a nice circle, (mine looked like rectangles), your puri will not puff up – or it will fall soon after removing it from heat.  If you look at the pics above, you can tell which ones I made versus the ones Anju did!

Stay tuned for more recipes from Anju’s Cooking School!

On the menu…..dahl, butter chicken, rice, and of course – desserts!