Whole Masoor Paratha

I had some whole masoor that I had soaked and pressure cooked to make some curry.  Turned out that I had cooked more than required and also strangely I had somehow put in less water and had an almost dry but well cooked sabut masoor when I opened the cooker.  While I used half of it for a yummy curry that I forgot to take a picture in the hurry to pack the lunch box, I used the rest - since it had no moisture content whatsoever - to make a stuffed paratha.

Ingredients:
( for the stuffing)
Cooked whole masoor - 1 cup
Onion - 1 medium - finely diced
Oil - 2 tbsp
Chilie powder - to taste
Salt - to taste
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Jeera Powder - 1/2 tsp
Chaat Masala - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Kasuri Methi - 15-20 gms
Garlic - 3 nos - crushed

Make roti dough as you would normally with whole wheat flour, salt and water.

Take a pan.
Heat the oil
Saute the finely diced onion till transparent.  Add garlic
Add the cooked masoor and the powders, salt, kasuri methi
Keep for a few minutes.  Mix well.  Make sure it is a dry mixture.
Take off fire.
Cool and then make a few round balls which will serve as stuffing

Roll out the roti dough into a small round.
Fill in the stuffing.  Pinch the dought together.
Roll into normal rotis - do it carefully without applying too much pressure.

Now make the rotis on a pan - use as much oil / ghee for the frying of the paratha.  I have not used much here.  But the quantity of fat used will have a direct bearing on the taste!

Serve with pickle and raitha.

The paratha is very filling as compared to a veggie stuffed one.  

Dhal Makhani

( supposed to be a Sanjeev Kapoor recipe with slight adaptations that I made)

1 cup black whole urad dal
2 tbsp Red Kidney beans/Rajma
1 tsp Cumin seeds
6 cloves garlic
1 inch ginger finely sliced ( or alternatively used ginger garlic paste)
1 tsp Garam Masala
1/4 cup fresh cream - this can be drastically reduced !!
2 tsp Red Chilli powder ( use your andaza)
3 tbsp butter ( once again I use oil)
2 tomatoes - (this can be substituted with tomato puree to make things simpler)
1 onion
1 tbsp Oil
Salt to taste


Clean the dhals and soak overnight ( or atleast for 4 hours). Pressure cook with finely sliced ginger, till well cooked ( after the first whistle keep for 5-7 minutes on simmer)

Take oil in a deep pan add cummin and wait till it turns slightly dark in colour, add sliced onion brown awhile, add chopped garlic, and balance ginger, saute, add finely chopped tomatoes and stir till it cooks and comes together. Add the cooked urad and rajma dhal. Add salt to taste, garam masala, chillie powder. Allow to simmer for a while. Remove from fire add fresh cream and garnish with corriander leaves and voila you have fresh home made dhal makhani ready to be served with hot rotis.

( To make it simpler - add a packet of Maggi Bhuna Masala to the boiled dals and cut out the onion and tomatos from the above recipe - works just as fine - if not better)