Think Pink: Beetroot Roti

Have you seen 'Chopped' on food network? I absolutely love the show. The creators of 'Chopped' go out of the way to select the most outrageous food combinations -- quail eggs, fish and dried cherries for instance, and have chefs compete against each other by cooking up the best possible appetizer/entree/dessert dish using the chosen ingredients.

As I opened my refrigerator door looking for some sort of dinner inspiration, I found the beetroot stashed behind the bag of apples with half a squash tucked in between. If I was at my creative best perhaps I could have used all three ingredients. I picked out the beets and squash.

I don't like to cook with beets that much. They make too much of a mess and stain everything on their path. If they were not so good for you and taste so darn good -- I would never bother with them. So, whenever I have to prepare beets, I prefer to cook and eat from the same apparatus. Tonight I grated the beets and squash into a giant bowl, mixed up seasonings (chili powder, ginger + garlic paste and vegetable bouillon cube) and whole wheat flour, made a dough out of it. Then took lumps of the dough between two large gallon sized freezer baggies and flattened then into flat discs using my palm . Then transferred the disks to a hot griddle and cooked them till done on both sides. Ate them with some sriracha hot sauce. Dinner accomplished yet again.

The sweet from the beetroot and spice from the chili powder made for a very interesting combination. The pink hue looked bright and pleasant on my white dinner plates.

All in one solitary meal: Tofu Spinach Roti

I can tell that it has been too long since my last visit to the grocery store because I am all out of junk food. Yes, been a slacker lately - no excuses. Plenty of theories for my lack of motivation to cook (besides the hackneyed too busy at work) -we'll go over them another day.

But, today I was possessed with the will to cook something good. I was surveying the pantry when it came to me - the mother of all one dish meals - the paratha (Indian flat bread). I gathered all elements of the USDA food pyramid - whole wheat flour, tofu, frozen spinach, vegetable stock cube, water and oil. And got to work. Also, in my life when it rains, it pours. So in true overachiever behaviorial pattern, I also launched another unit of processing - laundry. I kneaded the dough for the parathas and put the clothes in the washer as the dough rested. The whole cooking, cleaning and eating process was done before the end of the dryer cycle. Of course, I was eating as I was cooking. Here goes the recipe for the parathas/rotis

Tofu Spinach Roti/Paratha
0.5 cups frozen spinach 1/2 a vegetable stock cube	Place spinach and half a stock cube in a microwave safe bowl (big enough to knead the dough in) and nuke for 1 min to defrost the spinach
1.5 cups whole wheat flour 2-3 tbsp crumbled tofu (no need to drain) 1 tsp chili pow Not more than 1/2 cup water	Add the flour, tofu and chili pow (and salt if needed, the stock cube will have seasonings). Use your hands to incorporate all the ingredients. Add water little by little and knead into a smooth dough. Keep aside for a few minutes if you can spare.
	Divide dough into 10 parts, Roll into balls and flatten to form discs. Using a rolling pin, roll out into discs of about 6in diameter. Shape has no effect on the taste and nutrition. Heat a griddle/shallow frying pan till hot. Slap on a rolled out disc, flip after cooking ~30 sec on each side. Now drizzle some oil if desired and toast both sides applying slight pressure till brown spots appear on both sides.

Eat by itself or with plain yogurt. A proper meal, two loads of laundry and a blog post all in one week night - tonight is going to be hard to beat. If only I can now muster up motivation to put away that laundry!

ARF/5-a-Day #10: Grape Nuts Date Bread

After my earlier post on the 'non'-Grape nuts ceareal, several bloggers kindly shared serving suggestions for this whole-grain packed cereal! While I wouldn't mind eating it just for the sake of nutrition, real victory in my opinion would be to get Hubbie to eat the cereal too. We have moved on to other cereals which are tried and tested, so the grape nuts are at my disposal to be disguised in various forms. First up, I took-up a suggestion to add this cereal to baked goods. I found a recipe for Grape Nuts bread with dates here. As soon as I saw the recipe, my first instinct was to change a couple of things like eliminate the use of eggs and the white flour. Then, Hubbie's wise words came to mind. Though he uncomplainingly puts up with some of my weird kitchen productions, he always wonders "Why I would change some recipe without knowing how it would have turned out in the first place?". So, the only teeny change I made was to substitute 3 cups of flour for 2 cups of flour + 1 cup wheat flour :) I really couldn't help myself!

Anyway on to the weekly Anti Oxidant Rich Foods (ARF) event hosted by Sweetnicks... Sadly I missed last week, didn't get much time to blog. But I am back! Did you know that coffee is the number 1 antioxidant food consumed in America. Whether its effects are good or bad is up for debate. I would have expected chocolate to hold that top spot:)

Dates have the high amounts of antioxidant foods per serving size, and are ranked up there with the berry family. They are also considered to be rich sources of iron. Also, they are naturally very sweet, so great for deserts without additional refined sugars!

This bread recipe turned out great... and it quick (no double rising). Going further, I would like to experiement with using yeast to leaven the bread and eliminate egg, baking powder, and see if the recipe can withstand more whole wheat!

Grape Nut Date Bread
2 cups milk, scalded 1 cup Grape Nut Cereal	Pour hot milk over Grape-Nuts; cool.
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour 1 cup whole wheat flour 4 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 1/2 cup sugar	Sift flour, baking powder and salt. Add sugar to the mixture
1 egg, well beaten 3 tablespoons melted butter 1 cup dates, pitted and chopped	To the cereal mixture, add egg, butter and dates. Blend Well. Add dry ingredients, stirring just enough to moisten (I found it best to use hands) Transfer into a greased 9x5x3 loaf pan. Let STAND for 20 minutes and bake at 350F for 1 hour 20 minutes

The bread turned out well, with a nice crumbly crust. It seemed to go dry with time, after which we toasted it briefly to perk it up. All in all a good way to use up the cereal, though the dates were the reason I liked the bread :)

Doodhi Aur Jowar ki Masala Roti

Jowar aka sorghum is a gluten free, wheat free whole grain. I was blissfully unaware of the existence of this grain until MIL came into the picture. I instantly liked the bhakris (rotis that are rolled by patting), warm off the tawa with ghee and garlic chutney. The texture of the bhakri was unlike anything I had tasted before. Because the jowar flour is gluten free, it is difficult to roll out and breaks easily. One tip MIL graciously shared with me, is to prepare the dough with hot water. Add hot water to dough while stiring around with a spoon and when it forms the consistency of scrambled eggs, use both hands to form a firm dough. This makes the dough on the stickier side, which makes it easier to roll out. That said, I will be the first to admit that I have great difficulty rolling out the bakri, and end up doing patch work. As a result, the bhakris are not round, nor do they puff up ever so slightly when cooked :-( If you want to take a look at what jowar rotis should look like, you might want to visit Ashwini's Food-for Thought. Edit: Another excellent resource can be found at the Cook's Cottage. Thanks! I feel a renewed zeal to try out the jowar bhakris.

But... No despair, MIL gave me another recipe for masala jowar rotis which is very forgiving. It tastes great - all patched up. It is sorgum roti, stuffed with doodhi or bottlegourd. It is quick, nutritious and best of all - one-dish-meal! No fuss cleanup. This roti is best eaten fresh, smeared with ghee or butter accompanied with garlic chutney and a glass of buttermilk.

Jowar Aur Doodhi (Bottle gourd) ki masala Roti
1 cup bottle gourd peeled and cut into large chunks 3-4 green chilies 3 cloves garlic 1 small red onion, peeled and chunked	Place all ingredients in a food processor and give it a 'whir' until the ingredients are grated. Transfer to a wide mouth mixing bowl
2 cups jowar flour 2-3 tbps sprouted moong or bean sprouts (optional) 1 tbsp coriander powder salt to taste	Add to the vegetable mixture. Incorporate into a dough adding hot water only if necessary. Most often the water from the gourd and onion would suffice. Break dough into 6 lumps, shaping each into a ball. Use extra dry flour for dusting, and roll out each lump into a thick disc with hands. Carefully remove with a spatula. Place on a heated tawa, press and cook on both sides till blistered. Remove from heat and smear with ghee/butter. Serve immediately.

Cooking this roti tends of take its toll on nonstick coated (strongly discouraged for this recipe) or even hard anodized griddles/tava. Use a cast iron griddle if you have one. Or like me, use an old tava saving it exclusively for jowar/bajra rotis.