Lauki Theplas, Indian Flat Bread With Bottle Gourd

Theplas make me a bit nostalgic; it reminds me of long train journeys in India. Thepla is one food that most of the Indian families take with them when they are travelling to some long distance for one reason that they stay longer and do not spoil easily.

Theplas are very easy to cook and also has many adaptations. Theplas can be made with mixed vegetables, methi, carrot, beetroot and almost anything. One among the lot which is very common and healthy is Lockey thepla. Lauki also called as ghiya, dhudhi and bottle gourd is low in fat and cholesterol yet high in dietary fibre. It contains 96% water. It is excellent for light, low-cal diets, as well as for small children, people with digestive problems, diabetics and convalescents. You can use lauki to make so many things. I made lauki kofta curry and not to forget lauki muffins. It is such a versatile vegetable and also high in nutrition.

If you have never made theplas before you might need to judge your dough very well. The dough should be soft but not very soft too. You also need to keep an eye on the amount of water you take to knead the dough. Lauki itself has lot of water and thus little sprinkles of water will be fine (nothing more than that). Moving to the recipe.

Ingredients

3 cups wheat flour (atta)

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

According to taste, salt

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder (haldi)

1/2 teaspoon ajwain (carom) seeds

1 teaspoon white sesame seeds (til)

6 green chilis, or according to taste, ground into a paste

1/2 teaspoon ginger paste (adrak)

1/2 teaspoon garlic paste (lehsuni)

1 cup grated lauki (bottle gourd)

3 tablespoons yogurt (dahi)

1/4 cup or more, chopped cilantro/dhaniya

A small bowl of water

Method

Place all ingredients except the water in a large bowl. Knead for about 1 minute. Sprinkle a little water and knead till dough is no longer sticky and has formed a soft ball. (Remember: You may need to use a little more or less water depending on how ‘watery’ your lauki or bottle gourd is).

Set the dough aside for 10 minutes. Then roll out 20 pedas or ball from them.

Place a ball of dough on a flat surface. Using a rolling pin, roll it out like you would a chapati. Sprinkle flour on the thepla as when needed so it doesn't stick.

Heat a heavy skillet, griddle or tava. Place the rolled out thepla on it. Cook till brown spots appear on one side. Turn the thepla over, pour 1/4 teaspoon oil around it and let it cook till golden on both sides.

Repeat for all the dough.

Notes:

Use any other grated vegetable like carrot, beetroot, radish, methi leaves to make other flavours of thepla.

You can omit the use oil, simply use a napkin to roast the thepla. Remember no use of oil will not make the theplas last longer.

Serving Ideas:

There are so many ways to serve it with.. It can be eaten plain or serve with chutney, raita, any side dish or  pickle. This is perfect for breakfast; in fact for any time meal.

Tatse:

Spicy, soft and healthy 

Tempting Doughnuts With Chocolate Glaze, Guest Post By Vineetha

One thing about blogging that I love is -one gets many friends who shares same passion- cooking and blogging. One among them is my friend and fellow blogger Vineetha. I met Vinee at Blogger’s Buzz and I was simply adorned by her simplicity. Her best quality is that she is a very good listener; she smiles and listens to you very patiently  After meeting her face to face I can only say that she is a perfect example of “Simple living and high thinking”

When I came back from the event I browse through her site Malabar Ruchi and I can say that I had a little blog crush :). I requested her to do guest post for my blog and she thankfully agreed.With her simple yet innovative recipes, superb fondant cakes and impeccable photography no wonder that Malabar Ruchi is one of the most popular Indian food blogs. If you do not believe me, then look for yourself, stop at her site and see the breathtaking recipes like Princess cake, Vanilla cake with strawberry mousse, Power Ranger Cake , Tuna cutlets and many more.


I am super excited that Vinee agreed to guest post on my blog. I happy to announce that Merry Tummy loves-  Malabar Ruchi.

Now to our Chit-Chat session

Shweta- You are a busy mom and kids generally choose junk food. How do you manage to cook food for his taste also keeping in mind the needs for nutrients? Is there any tip that you will like to share with other mothers?

Vinee- I am a lucky mum when it comes to my son's food habit, he was introduced to all kinds of food at a very young age so he is not a fussy type and when it comes to junk I am a strict mum, I don’t buy or stock junks at home. We can't tell  kids not to eat  junk food  if  we ourselves eat it  in front of kids, so I believe that  if parents sets a good example of healthy eating habits ,kids will follow it.

Shweta- What made you start blogging? How long have you been blogging? Is there any particular etiquette that you like to maintain while blogging?

Vinee- After moving with hubby, away from home, family and friends days seemed longer to me and just to keep myself occupied I started my blog with the  passion for cooking.I have been blogging for 5 1/4 years now but in between I took a big break when my little one joined us :) 

Regarding etiquette,I always try to respect the audience and try not to post anything offensive to hurt anyones feeling.Also when I follow a recipe from other blogs, I always give due credits to the original recipe.

Shweta-Let us now talk about cooking. Which is your favorite ingredient in the kitchen and why?

Vinee- Favorite ingredient in my kitchen?hmmm… It’s a tricky one, I should say my spices and among the spices my favorite one is Fennel, love it so much!

Shweta- Ok! Now which ingredient scares you the most and why?

Vinee- I have to say hot oil scares me the most…its mainly because In college  since pharmaceutical chemistry was my subject I had to spend lot of time in labs and my friend and roomie  had a splash of some hot chemical into her eyes which gave me the biggest scare ever !

Shweta-Hot oil and you still chose to make doughnuts! This is called as facing the fears. How do you spend your time other than cooking and blogging?

Vinee- Other than cooking and blogging I spend my time playing with my son, catching up with friends, and also little bit of volunteering in my son’s nursery.

Shweta- Like any other profession, I am sure cooking also has its share of difficult instances. Any such awkward moment?

Vinee- Of course I had some awkward moments, especially during the initial days of cooking. I remember long time back when I invited someone over for dinner  I somehow added a little extra chilli powder and poor guests were  sweating and going red and struggled a lot with my spicy food.

Shweta-He he that’s funny. I can see some real wonderful food pictures in your blog. It is said that one eats with his/her eyes before actually tasting the food. Do you believe so-your comments?

Vinee- I strongly believe in that now, here is an interesting story which happened recently, there was an international food tasting day in my sons nursery and I prepared some banana fritters for the kids and so did the other mums and the clever 3-4 year olds were eating only the food that looked good with sprinkles and decorations and half of the kids were not even ready to taste my fritters :( So I learnt my lesson that day, even if a food tastes delicious it it won’t be a winner especially with kids if it doesn't look good :)

Shweta- Uh! That was interesting. You bake some real good and perfect fondant cakes. Was this a self taught skill? What would be your advice to someone who has never made fondant cake?

Vinee- Thank u Shweta, I am a self taught decorator and I learnt the basics of fondant decoration like covering a cake with fondant, coloring it, cutting out shapes, making simple figures etc from YouTube’s and I am sure if are a kind of person who enjoys playing with kid's play dough, you will surely enjoy working with fondant and with little practice and patience anyone can do it.

Shweta-And finally, which is your most proud moment in the blogging?

Vinee- Proudest moment is when somebody tries my recipe and let me know that they liked it, I feel so happy and proud at the same time :)

With warm welcome over to Vinee-

Making doughnuts were in my " to do list " since a long time especially because my little one is a big doughnut fan.For  his 3 rd birthday party  he picked doughnut as a party food and I bought 12 -15 of them and the down side of those store bought ones were they were too big for 3 year olds especially  after eating other  the party foods,so when u make them at home you can make smaller ones and choose the icing of your choice.I was pretty happy with the way they turned out ,not too sweet and had a milky flavour too.Next time I might halve this recipe as I ended up making 11-12 doughnuts.

Recipe source: Rias collection

Ingredients(makes 11-12 medium doughnut )

Flour - 250 gm

Yeast - 1 1/2 tsp

Warm Water - 100ml

Granulated sugar - 60gm

Milk powder - 1tsp

Egg - 1 (beaten )

Butter - 40 gm

Baking powder - 3/4 tsp

Salt - 3/4 tsp

Oil for deep frying

Method

1.In a glass add yeast,warm water,sugar and keep it side until it froths.

2.Sieve the dry ingredients and keep it aside.

3.Rub butter and flour with your fingers until it becomes flakes.

4.Make a well and add yeast and mix.

5.Add beaten egg and knead  well until you get a smooth dough.

6.Let it proof for 30 mins - 1 hours until the dough is double in size.

7.Once its double punch the dough and divide the dough into 11-12 balls and flatten it a little bit to a circle of 1/2 inch  thickness and with a bottle cap or round  nozzle cut out the middle.

 

8.Cover it with a cling film and allow it to proof again for 40 minutes.

9.Deep fry in very hot oil on a medium flame until they are golden brown.

10.Allow the doughnut to cool down before you coat them.

Ingredients for Chocolate coating

Milk chocolate - 100gm

Double cream - 100 gm

Method

In a pan add cream and when it is about to boil switch off the flame and add the milk chocolate.Once the chocolate is melted give it a quick mix .

Assembling

1.Dip the doughnuts in chocolate ganache and pop them onto  to a wire wrack to drip the excess chocolate.

2.Sprinkle the doughnuts with sprinkles of your choice.

Notes

This doughnuts tastes better the same day,but if you are eating the next day just warm them in the microwave for few seconds.

You can aslo eat warm  doughnut with a dollop of your favourite ice cream which tastes really lovely !

Thank you from Merry Tummy