Mathri

Mathri

Good Morning everyone. Two days in life are very important; first the day you were born and second when you realise why. It takes time, effort, experience, divine guidance and grace to realise the reason for your existence on earth. That reason is revealed to us by our own inner conscious and practices like meditation, Bhakti, Yog helps us connect with our inner self and find our purpose in life. Over the years I found my true purpose in life. Wherever I live whatever I do deep inside I know;

My purpose in life is to make everyone I meet feel Special, Worthy, Appreciated, Loved and Respected. Spread Love. And this comes with an understanding that we are all fragments of the same Divine Light so essentially brothers and sisters children of the same Father. I bow to that Divinity in everyone and treat all with Love, Respect and Dignity.

In doing so I try that if it's someone's birthday and I know that; then I make something for them. It could be anything even a small appreciation letter written with love and affection. So, the other day it was a very dear friend's birthday but I came to know about that in the morning 4:00 a.m. Work starts at 8:00 what to do? I knew that this friend of mine loves Indian snacks so once again my culinary interests came to my rescue and I decided to make nimki or mathri.

Mathri, also nimki is a crunchy savoury snack eaten in the Indian Subcontinent. It is also referred as namak para sometimes in some parts of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Mathri is a pastry delicately seasoned with ajwain and cumin seeds and fried in pure ghee or any oil. 

Below is the recipe. Enjoy mathri with tea. I feel nostalgic even with a thought of it :-).

Ingredients for Mathri

Maida - 1 cup

Oil to mix in maida - 2 tbsp

Salt - ¼ tsp

Kalongi - ¼ tsp

Chaat masala - ¼ tsp

Oil - to fry mathri

For making sata

Maida - 1 tbsp

Desi ghee - 1 tbsp

How to make Mathri.

Take maida in any utensil, mix salt and kalonji in it.

Add little water at a time and knead hard dough like that used for making puris. 

Cover the dough and keep it aside for 15-20 minutes for fermenting. 

Mix ghee and 1 tbsp maida, sata is ready. 

Knead the dough and make a ball.

Roll ball thinly into a circle with 10-12 inch diameter.

Place the sata on rolled parantha and spread it evenly.

Sprinkle chaat masala on top of the surface as well.

Now roll the prepared parantha. Cut ½ - ¾ cm balls from the dough. Prepare all balls likewise.

Take one ball, place it on rolling plate and with help of rolling pin roll it in a circle with 3-inch diameter. 

Fold the rolled puri in a half-moon shape. Now again fold it giving it a shape of a cone. With the help of fork make 4-5 pricks on both sides. Likewise, roll, fold and prick all the mathris.

Take oil in a pan. When oil gets medium hot, place mathris in the pan as much as possible at a time and fry on low-medium flame until they get golden brown colour (it takes 10-15 minutes). 

Take out the fried mathris in a plate with absorbent paper. Likewise fry all mathris.

Crunchy and crispy mathris are ready. Store in an airtight container when cooled completely and enjoy eating for 2 months.

Enjoy the weekend and stay safe and blessed. I will be back with another story and related recipe :-).

 

Jowar Roti

Good Morning. It is going to be a cold and cloudy Sunday here in Melbourne today. Cooking has been my hobby; I don't even remember since when. I have lovely memories of my childhood when during summer vacation myself and my siblings tried to recreate mumma's signature "besan ka halwa". Since I was quite young at that time, so I never asked Maa for the recipe just used my own science and whatever I noticed her doing. Never saw that Maa uses ghee to roast besan; we little chefs dry roasted besan, and the end product had lots of lumps of besan. And then when the three musketeers would sit to eat, and I will ask my Didi and brother if they like the halwa the answer would be a big YES and for those lumps, all three of us will keep on telling each other, "sometimes these are there when Mumma makes besan ka halwa" although we knew it was never the case. And then the other would say, "I have seen Maa using a ladle break them apart" just to keep each other happy with our little experiments. Those moments we shared I cherish them a lot, and they are engraved in my heart.

Stories will never end especially for a person like me. I love telling stories of my childhood, and then I forget if I have mentioned the story earlier and my listeners sometimes end up listening multiple times. I have full sympathy and empathy for my husband and son :-).

My parents are diabetic, and my sister lost lots of weight and regained her health by introducing health grains in her diet. One of those is "Jowar" also known as sorghum in English, Jowar is globally being touted as the “new quinoa” for its gluten-free, whole grain goodness. Its high nutrient composition makes jowar a desirable grain when it comes to good health. Some of the benefits are. For quite some time, I was struggling to make Jowar roti but finally, after lots of googling and trials found a recipe and technique that never goes wrong. Give it a go believe me jowar rotis turn out softer than the traditional wheat rotis.

Ingredients: -

Jowar Flour - 1 cup

Boiling Water - 1 cup + 1/3 cup

Steps Involved:-

1. Take 1 cup + 1/3 cup in a pan and bring it to boil. Once the water comes to a boil, turn the flame to low.

2. Add jowar flour and keep on stirring with the spoon.

3. Turn off the flame and using the spoon mix the water and flour well enough.

4. Cover the pan and let it stand for at least 15 minutes. This is the most critical step as this allows the jowar flour to puff up by absorbing water and helps in adding structure.

5. Now knead the dough with your hands to make a soft and pliable ball.

6. Divide the dough into lemon size balls. Dust the balls with dry jowar flour and roll them using a rolling pin into thin discs.

7. Put the roti on hot Tava or a griddle and using soft hands damp the top of the roti with water. You may use a brush or a damp cloth to do this. This helps the roti from drying out and makes them soft.

8. Flip the roti and cook the other side too.

9. Puff up the rotis using a dry cloth.

10. Take the roti off the flame. Make all the rotis and then sit together with your family and relish soft Jowar rotis with curries of your choice.

Hope you like the post. Will come up with something new and mouth-watering next Sunday.

Till then, stay blessed.