Mooli Paratha

These are another breakfast favorite at our home. They are a nutritious whole wheat Indian tortilla stuffed with grated radish,and are super yummy too.

This week everyone was a little under the weather here. So I thought this would be a nice thing to make for breakfast. My husband absolutely loves these. I am so happy to be married to a man who loves my cooking. My son also likes my cooking but he is a bit more picky and will politely decline anything that does not meet his six-year-old gourmet palate !!! This is among his favorite breakfast dishes.

Sindhi Koki

A very popular Sindhi breakfast dish. It is very much like a paratha with a little variation to it. This crispy, tasty, nutritious and hot parathas are a favorite of my son, who loves to have some in the mornings before going to school or even take some to school in his lunch box. It is also a wonderful idea for a breakfast on a lazy weekend morning.


Makes 5 - 6 medium sized Kokis

Ingredients

2 cups / 300 gm / 10.6 oz  chappati atta / whole wheat flour used to make chappatis or rotis ( available at any Indian store )
1 big red onion , finely chopped
2 small green chilies, finely chopped
1/4 cup cilantro, finely chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and grated ( optional - not part of the original koki recipe but something I have added for extra nutrition. )
1/2  tsp of salt
1 tsp oil + extra oil for roasting the koki
water for kneading


Method

• In a mixing bowl, mix the atta and salt together. Now add to it the chopped onions, grated carrot, chopped cilantro and green chilies. Mix it all together.
• Add a little water at a time knead it to a soft dough. It should all comes together and there is no dry atta left. Make sure you do not add to much water so as to make the dough sticky. If this happen, just add a little atta to the sticky dough and knead it in.
• Divide the dough into 5 or 6 portions. Pat each portion down a little with the palm of your hand so that it is about 3 inches in diameter.
• Heat the tawa / gridle. when medium hot, roast this mound on it adding oil on both sides. Roast till it gets some light golden spots on both sides. Remove from tawa and place it back on the rolling board and roll it out to about 8 inch diameter. It should have a little less than 1/4 inch thickness. Transfer the rolled koki back to the tawa and toast this by putting 1/2 tsp of oil on each side and toast till each side is fully cooked and have nice brown spots on it.
• Remove and repeat the same for all the other balls. Serve hot with some raita and a pickle of your choice or enjoy this with a cup of plain yogurt. The picture below is of a koki without any carrot in it.

Paneer Stuffed Spinach Parathas

This is one of the popular weekend breakfast items at our home. My son is fascinated by the different colors and loves to eat it. Also mentioning that it contains paneer does not hurt at all.


We are all paneer lovers at our home. Do try this paratha, it is very delicious. Crispy and flaky on the outside and soft from the paneer on the inside. The scotch bonnet peppers not only add color but some heat to the parathas. Nutritious, delicious and easy to make, is how I will describe this popular breakfast item. You can substitute the spinach with some fenugreek leaves or even collard greens if you fancy.


You might have some excess atta on hand after making the 12 parathas. Just roll out the excess balls like you would for plain rotis and these can be had as a snack later on or even for lunch.

Aloo Paratha

It's raining potatoes.......fried potatoes and boiled potatoes , they taste good anyway you slice them. My grandfather still teases me about my love for them.

Now my son loves it too. His favorite being Aloo Paratha which he lovingly calls 'Alew Pratha'. This is a versatile dish and can be had as a breakfast item or lunch item. My son will even  have it for a snack.

When I am pressed for time and want to make it for him, I peel and roughly dice one potato and place it in a microwave safe dish, pour sufficient water to submerge the potatoes and microwave this on high for 5-6 minutes. Voila ! the potatoes are ready. Just drain it and add some salt and a little red chili powder and chopped cilantro. Mash it all up and the filling is ready for two aloo parathas.

Wikipedia has an interesting article on parathas, stating that paratha comes from the word 'parat' and 'atta', which means layers of flour cooked. It is mainly a punjabi dish but now it is popular all over India. Another tidbit of information I got from there is that when Indian immigrants moved to other parts of the world, they adapted the paratha to their new regional flavors and thus in Malaysia and Mauritius it is called 'farata', in Singapore it is 'roti canai' or 'roti prata', in Myanmar is is called as 'palata', in Trinidad and Tobago it is called as 'buss up shot' or 'boss up shot' or 'buss up shut', named after the method of striking the hot roti  thus breaking it up into smaller pieces. It would be interesting to find out more about the different parathas adapted by other countries.