Shredded Parotta with Exotic Vegetables

(Alias ‘Vegetable Kothu Parotta’)

    The sight and sound of making ‘Kothu (mincing for Tamil) Parotta’, (layered Indian pan bread) by the street Food stalls, with the resultant aroma captivates all passersby attracting like the forbidden fruit.  Yes the art of ‘Kothuparotta’ is a veritable feast to all our senses!! But then Kothuparotta is always associated with meat and egg!

   

Why not a Veggie Kothu? Now try this for a change! Though this is devoid of the sound (Kothu) there is enough and more for sight and aroma!!

Ingredients

1.     Two Kerala Parottas (available in any super markets as ready to cook)

2.     Capsicum Red and yellow – One each

3.     Baby corn -  6 no

4.     Button mushroom –100g / 6 no

5.     Cauliflower/ Broccoli – 100g

6.     Zucchini – 1

7.     Onion medium – 1no / shallots(small onions) – 5no

8.     Garlic – 5 cloves

9.     Celery- a Handful finely chopped

10. Carom seeds – a pinch

11. Pepper corns- 6 to 8 no

12. Green Chilly- 1 or 2 finely chopped depends on your taste

13. Garnishing- Few curry leaves, a table spoon of shredded cheese

14. Coconut oil- 2 tea spoon for frying parotta

15. Any cooking oil -2 tea spoon for frying vegetables.

16. Salt to taste

     Heat a Tawa and cook the Parottas both sides over medium flame adding a tea spoon of coconut oil for each. Cool it and shred them in to 2 to 4 cm bits either with a scissors or by your hands.

Cut and dice vegetables and mushroom into small pieces. Heat a kadai / frying pan, add cooking oil when ready add the carom seeds, garlic, followed by onions and celery fry for two minutes. Add finely chopped vegetables, mushroom and salt; cook them on a low flame covered with a lid for three to five minutes. No need to add water as the mushroom and vegetables itself will give out enough to get cooked. The vegetables have to retain its crispness and hence don’t overcook.  

Now pound the carom seeds and pepper corns coarsely. Sprinkle them on the vegetables and toss them.

Add the shredded Parottas* on to the vegetables and mix them well over a low flame for about a minute or two.  Take out in a serving bowl and garnish it with shredded cheese and curry leaves.

* Whip an egg with little turmeric and add along with the shredded Parottas if you like.

** One can substitute mushroom with chicken sausages cut in to one cm pieces.

'Mushroom-Baby Corn Stir Fry’- A Quick Food- Healthy & Yummy

     Hi, here is a quick dish simple and yummy! You just need a vegetable and a Fungus, I mean the Mushroom, stir fry with little spice and condiments ... Voila ! You have a tasty and filling meal in a jiffy!

     People around the world including our state collected natural grown mushrooms after rains, as they were a delicacy. As a student of Agriculture, we were taught about the edible Fungi, known as Mushrooms. But only during mid 70 ies I have tasted them in soups. Those days’ button mushrooms were available only as a canned product. Oyster (Pleurotus) Mushroom made an entry in the eighties around Coimbatore and other plains and was instantly become popular. Only in the last decade the Button (Agaricus) mushrooms are seen in many supermarkets and vegetable shops in India.

     Mushroom and Baby corns are in fact exotic in origin. Button Mushrooms available in supermarkets are the cultivated edible ones containing essential B-vitamins, minerals and fibre. Baby corns are good source of dietary fibre, carotenoides, sugar and protein.

Ingredients

1.       White Button Mushroom – 250g

2.       Baby corns- 10 no / 150g

3.       Small onion/ shallot -4 or Onion– 1 no - finely chopped 

4.       Garlic cloves- 5 no -diced

5.       Ginger – 1 cm cube finely chopped

6.       Mint leaves- 12-15

7.       Coriander leaves finely chopped– 50g or Handful

8.       Green Chilly- one

9.       Cumin seeds- Half Tea spoon

10.   A tea spoon of cooking oil or one spoon of butter

11.   Pepper corns –5-6 pounded.

12.   Salt to taste- 2 to 3g

Preparation (5- minutes)

Always wash and clean the mushrooms of any soil. Dice the mushroom as half or quarter as per the size. Cut the baby corn in to four long slices. Add oil or butter to the frying pan; heat it on a medium flame. Add the cumin and fry followed by onion, garlic, chilliy and ginger. Fry them for a minute or two with a pinch of salt. Now toss in the finely chopped mint and coriander leaves; fry them for a minute more. Now add the mushroom and baby corn stir fry them adding the required salt. The water in the mushroom will start coming out and will be sufficient to cook them both. Cover the pan with lid for a while to cook partially. Then toss them to remove the excess moisture. A good aroma will tell you that the dish is ready! Sprinkle the pounded pepper and finish the dish. Make sure the mushroom and corn are rightly cooked and should be crunchy when tasted.

Now the delicious yet filling dish is ready as a main course!

Still it can turn into a good side dish too. One can role it in a chapathy or make a sandwich with bread. Also can accompany with a bowl of steamed Rice for a sumptuous meal ! 

 I recommend this to our children who are in different corners of the world; pursuing their higher education; always hard pressed for time to cook a decent meal! Instead of falling again for a fast food, I wish they try this Quick filler!

I hope my nieces and nephews will mail me back after trying it!

Tossed Bread with Egg & Vegetables - My Culinary Escapades!!

                                          “Egg and Vegetable Bread Toss”

After few days of intense Landscape designing on my computer and with aching neck and stiff back; what better way to relax yielding to the call of the Kitchen!

Good recipes as they say strike at the spur of the moment! All the more if, you are hungry and have to stir out something fast for the morning breakfast, and you realize that your culinary grey cells (is there a part of the brain identified with culinary skills?) switch instantly to the overdrive mode and throws up amazing ideas!!

Well it happened to me today; when I entered the kitchen as my better half left me fending for myself and was enjoying her bath. There were four slices of brown bread and a noodles packet welcomed me and I could have gone for the easy way out with them. The moment I saw few cut vegetable left by my wife, Bingo! I had a solution right there!

Why not vegetables and bread tossed together! I mean literally! And it didn’t take me long; in fact seven minutes exact to cook up this idea with whatever I could find in our kitchen!

India has adopted bread in various forms like bread channa, bread uppma, bread bajji etc. Now here is one more simple meal out of it!

Ingredients: (what I found in my hurry)

1.   One cup of finely grated cabbage

2.   Two baby corns chopped

3.   Two cloves of garlic.

4.   One  small green chilly chopped finely (if only you like spicy food)

5.   A pinch of cumin/ few pepper corns

6.   One table spoon of oil

7.   Hand full of chopped Spring onion leaves

8.   Four slices of Brown bread cut into one inch squares

9.   One egg beaten with a pinch turmeric.

10. Coriander leaves and slices of cheese for garnishing   

Once the oil in the kadai is heated up, I added the cumin. After the splutter I have added the chilly, garlic and spring onion and stir fried them for a minute. Then chopped vegetables were added, and lightly fried them for two minutes adding a pinch of salt.

The bread pieces were added and tossed them well for a minute. Finally I poured the beaten egg and added one pinch pounded of pepper and tossed them well. The egg gets soaked in the bread and the stirring helps the pieces not binding them together.

Now it is ready for serving! Garnish it with chopped coriander leaves and pieces of Cheese. Any sauce or chutney will go with it.

 I had a sumptuous breakfast, filling yet healthy too! The brown bread/ whole wheat bread becomes more tasty and healthy when combines with the crunchy vegetables. I like spicy stuff and hence the green chili and pepper corns while the garlic, cumin and egg gave the inviting aroma.

Children will love it (without chilly of course) and working couples can make it in a jiffy. You can always try some variations to suit your taste. Enjoy then !!