Friday, January 29, 2016

Makki di Roti te Sarson da Saag

Makki di Roti te Sarson da Saag: Punjabiyan di shaan!! (The pride of Punjabis)

Well, this is the first food which comes in mind when we talk together of winters and Punjab!
Oh yes, and as of almost all the Sikh households, this is the pride food of our home as well. As the winters begin to set in in India, we see lush bright mustard greens in the vegetable markets and the preparations begin to prepare this awesome Sarson ka Saag which undoubtedly goes with flavorful makki ki roti.

Unfortunately we don't get mustard leaves where we live so I prepared Palak ka saag instead. It tasted yummy and a wonderful alternative where mustard greens are not so easily available. In this post I'm sharing the recipe of both Palak ka saag (how I prepared it) and Sarson ka saag (recipe by my Nani ji) and also how to prepare the perfect Makki ki roti..

Palak ka saag recipe:


Spinach leaves: 500 gm
Onion (chopped): 1 large
Tomatoes (chopped): 2
Ginger (chopped): 1 inch
Garlic (chopped): 3 cloves
Green chilli (chopped): 1
Cooking oil: 1 tsp.
Makki flour: 3 tsp.
Salt to taste
Red chilli powder: 1 tsp.
Ghee: 2 tsp.
Cumin seeds: 1 tsp.
Onion (finely chopped): 1

  1. Wash and chop the spinach leaves. Assemble all the other chopped vegetables: onion, tomatoes, ginger, garlic and green chilli. 
  2. Add about 3 cups of water in a deep vessel or a pressure cooker and add all the chopped vegetables to it. Bring to a rolling boil in open flame.  
  3. Turn off the flame and remove all the vegetables and let them cool. 
  4. When cooled, grind them all to a smooth puree like mixture. Keep aside. 
  5. Heat oil on medium flame and add the spinach paste to the pan. Stir well and let cook. Do not cover. 
  6. Keep stirring and cooking. Add some water which was boiled with the veggies to the saag and keep stirring and cooking. Water is added because the saag will soon become dry in the process of cooking but will not be cooked properly. So adding water and stirring will give more time for saag to cook. This whole process will take about 15 minutes. 
  7. Now add the makki flour to the saag. It will start getting thicker in consistency. Add the salt and the red chilli powder. 
  8. Keep stirring and after few minutes the water will evaporate and it will become the saag consistency. Turn off the flame. 
  9. Now prepare the tempering for the saag: Heat the ghee on medium flame and crackle the cumin seeds. Add the onions and fry until they start getting brown. Turn off the flame and add the tadka to the saag. Mix well and cover. 
  10. You can remove cover and serve after 10 minutes. Saag is ready. Serve hot with a dollop of butter, makki ki roti, gud and achaar. 

Makki ki roti recipe:


Makki flour: 2 cups
Warm water to knead the flour
Salt to taste
Carom seeds
Ghee: to top the makki roti

  1. Take the makki flour in a kneading bowl and add in salt and carom seeds. Mix well. 
  2. Begin by adding very little warm water to the flour and then mixing it with fingers. Keep adding little water and mixing the flour until it reaches a crumbling consistency. 
  3. After that try and bind little flour together. Start keeping the little bits of binded flour to the side and again adding very little water and try to bind more bits of the flour. Continue keeping the binded flour to the side and try to make one big lump of the binded flour. 
  4. Makki aata will not require a lot of water so be careful about adding water. Bind the whole flour into a big lump of dough and roll it between your palms to give it a round-like shape. the final product must not be sticky.  
  5. Now will begin to make roti of this dough. Pinch a small ball of the flour and make it as round as possible by rolling between your palms. 
  6. Lay it on the flat surface and press the ball lightly with your fingers. Don't apply a lot of pressure of it will disintegrate. 
  7. Flatten it a little more with your fingers and then try to lift it up carefully with a flat spatula. Sprinkle some dry makki flour at the bottom if required. 
  8. Now lightly begin to roll it with the help of a rolling pin. Apply very light pressure, keep checking if you can lift it with the spatula. The roti might have little rough edges on the side, it's normal. Take care not to make too big roti otherwise you won't be able to lift it up with the spatula. 
  9. When it's done, lift up the roti with spatula and put it on the tawa on medium-high flame.
  10. Flip the side and press with a kitchen cloth. 
  11. Flip again and keep cooking till the roti is done: light brown spots will appear on the roti. Prepare rotis from all of the dough in this way. 
  12. Serve hot hot with Sarson ka saag or Palak ka saag. 

Sarson ka saag recipe (Recipe courtesy my Nani ji)

Mustard greens: 500 gm
Spinach leaves: 150 gm
Makki flour: 50 gm
Dried red chili: 2
Ginger (grated): 1 inch
Green chili (chopped): 2
Onion (chopped): 1
Garam masala: 1 tsp.
Garlic: 2 cloves
Lemon juice: 1 tbsp.
Salt to taste
Red chilli powder: 1 tsp.
Cumin seeds: 1 tsp.
Cream: 1/2 cup
Ghee: 3 tbsp.

(This quantity of saag will serve 4 to 6 people; you can adjust the ingredients according to requirement).

  1. Wash and chop finely the mustard greens and spinach leaves. 
  2.  Pressure cook for 3 whistles with two cups of water. 
  3. While the greens are getting pressure cooked, add the salt, red chili powder, garam masala, ginger and cream to the makki flour. Mix well. 
  4. Heat 1 tbp. ghee and fry the flour mixture on medium flame until it starts getting golden brown. Turn off the flame and keep aside. 
  5. By this time, the mustard and spinach would be boiled. Let cool and grind to a smooth paste in the grinder. Keep aside. 
  6. Heat the remaining 2 tbsp. ghee and crackle the cumin seeds. Add the dried red chillis and onion. Fry until it starts getting brown. 
  7. Add the garlic and green chilli and mix well. Let cook for a minute. 
  8. Add the cooked flour mixture; mix well and let everything cook for 2-3 minutes. 
  9. Now add the ground mustard and spinach paste. Mix well and turn the heat to medium-high. Let cook for 3-4 minutes. Do not cover. 
  10. Turn the flame to medium-low and let cook for another 10 minutes. Turn off the flame, add a dollop of ghee and serve hot with Makki ki roti (procedure explained above), gud, papad and achaar. Enjoy !!!
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Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Instant Methi dhokla

Hello again everyone and a very Happy New year to all of you. I believe wishes are never late and I'm back to blogging after almost a month as I had taken a break and had traveled to India for vacations with my parents. Being with parents gives everyone an immense pleasure, no matter how old we are. It was very special for me and I enjoyed my trip to the fullest. It was so amazing to leave behind the cold, snowy weather to bask in the sunshine. My stay was full of shopping, sunshine, family love and food. Food, yes food is one of the most special part whenever I visit India: there are so many things I crave to eat all year long and I get overwhelmed by the choices I get to eat in my beautiful country. From roadside chaats, pani puri, samosas and kachoris, stuffed parathas and all types of curries and the typical sweets; you name it and you get it.

While it gives immense pleasure to sit and eat in the sunshine, it gives more pleasure to cook something for your parents and family. So I did prepare Whole wheat Samosas , Stuffed karela and Dal-Pakwaan at home for my family. Everyone also wanted me to prepare the instant dhoklas they have been looking at my blog and wanting to try at home since long.

Winters in India are beautiful: it's little cold with plenty of sunshine on most of the days, and you get the abundance of vegetables in the season. It was almost raining green leafy vegetables: mint, coriander, mustard, methi, spinach, bathua and what not.. So I decided to experiment a bit and filled in my dhoklas with abundant methi leaves. Also my mother doesn't use a microwave so I had prepared these on the regular stove top in idli molds. It took a total of 5 minutes for each batch. I had prepared a lot of batter and steamed them in 3 batches for my whole family.

Here's the recipe:


Chickpea flour (besan): 5 cups
Semolina (sooji): 2 cups
Methi leaves: 2 big bunches
Salt to taste
Sugar: 4 tsp.
Lemon juice of two lemons
Eno fruit salt: 3 tsp. (replace eno with a 50:50 mix of baking soda and baking powder)
Slit green chillis: 4
Green chilli (finely chopped): 1
Ginger (grated): 1 inch
Mustard seeds: 2 tsp.
Oil for greasing the molds
Oil: 2 tsp. for tempering
Coriander leaves for garnish

  1. First we begin by making the batter. Take a big size bowl and and the chickpea flour and semolina. Add salt, 3 tsp. sugar and lemon juice. 
  2. Wash and chop the methi leaves very finely. Add to the bowl. 
  3. Mix all the contents of the bowl lightly. Begin adding little water and mixing the flour to make a batter so that no lumps remain. Keep adding water slowly until the batter reaches the consistency where it's not too thick and it shouldn't be too liquid. 
  4. Add the ginger and green chilli and mix everything well. Cover and leave for about 30 minutes. 
  5. Add the Eno fruit salt after 30 minutes and sprinkle little water over the fruit salt. It will begin to bubble up and that's when mix it nicely with the whole of the batter. Do not mix vigorously. 
  6. Now the batter is ready to be filled in molds and steamed. Add water in the idli cooker and begin to boil the water on high flame. Cover it without the pressure. 
  7. Grease the idli mold (or the dhokla molds) and fill in the batter.By this time, the water will be boiled. Remove the cover and keep the mold inside the cooker and cover again (without pressure). 
  8. Turn off the flame after 5 minutes, remove the mold and check if done with a toothpick. Gently remove all the molds from the cooker and keep aside. 
  9. After 5 minutes, slowly remove the dhoklas from the molds in a big tray or plate. Steam all the dhoklas in this manner. 
  10. Now we begin to prepare the tempering. Heat the oil and crackle the mustard seeds. Add the slit green chillis and fry on medium flame till they start turning white. Add 2 cups of water and mix well. Add the sugar, mix and bring it to a rolling boil. 
  11. Turn off the flame and spread all the tempering over the steamed dhoklas. Let sit for a minute so the dhoklas soak in the water. 
  12. Now remove dhoklas one by one and arrange on another tray or plate because dhoklas will absorb water in a minute and the excess water would be left behind. 
  13. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with mint-coriander chutney. They taste awesome if refrigerated for about an hour before serving.  
  14. These dhoklas can also be prepared in the microwave in 3 minutes by following the same recipe: instead of steaming on stove top, just microwave for 3 minutes on the highest power. 

Do check out other versions of instant dhoklas from the blog:

3-minute Microwave dhokla recipe
Dhokla in idli stand recipe
Beetroot dhokla recipe
Instant khatta dhokla recipe
Instant poha dhokla recipe
Rawa dhokla recipe

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