Mooli Paratha

It was "Micham Socham"(left overs) day last Thursday. Once a week, we have this at home, all the left over one spoon uperi (subzi), 2 karandi(laddle) sambhar, 3 chappatis .... all consumed together, along with the all-ever-favorite curd rice!.... This time we decided to make Mooli Partha. I have been visiting food blogs for quite some time now. So, inspired by all those zillion cooks in the world, I decided to put across my recipes also here.Many of them might be repeats, but then who-cares!

What to put in?

Atta(Wheat Flour) - 5 handfuls (gave me around 6 medium size parathas).
Mooli (Mulangi in Tamil) - 1 big (grated finely)
Red Chilli powder - 1 teaspoon
Salt - to taste
Ajwain - 1 teaspoon
Onion - 1 small finely, very finely chopped
corriander - 4 to 5 sprigs finely chopped.
Oil - 2 teaspoons
Yogurt - 1 laddleful

How to Make it?

The Filling

To the grated Mooli add salt and chilli powder nicely. Keep this aside for about 10 minutes. The Salt will help drain out all the water from the mooli. Squeeze the mooli well and remove all the water from it. Don't throw away this water! To the chakka(squeezed out mooli) add the finely chopped onion and corriander. Mix well and keep it aside. This should now resemble a dry powder like mix.

The Covering

To the Atta, add a little bit of salt, ajwain and the Oil. Mix it well, so that the lumps formed by the oil are gone. Now add the yogurt and knead the mixture finely. It will be sticky so be prepared. If the mixture is kneaded well into a soft dough you are good to go; else add the water squeezed from the mooli little-by-little to this atta mixture. Be careful to add the water in small proportions because if you add a tad too much, the entire atta mix might become sticky and thus the parathas are very difficult to make. Keep aside this kneaded atta for about half an hour (so that it becomes nice and soft).

Finale

Make small balls (about the size of a golf ball) out of the atta. Keep some dry flour by your side. This is used as you spread out the parathas. Spread one ball into a small size circle (about the size of your palm). Now put a small portion of the mooli mixture at the centre and start folding the edges towards the centre to make a ball out of this. Round this ball finely and started spreading it out again into a bigger circle using the "belan". Ensure that you give as little pressure (otherwise the mixture will tend to come out of the covering). And also, spread it from the size where the folds are visible. Do not spread it too thin, as you do for rotis. Parathas have to be a bit thick. If at places, the mixture part is seen, then it gives a nice tang to the paratha.

Heat the tawa for about 5 mintues. When it is hot, put the paratha on it. Ensure that you cook at a medium- high flame and keep rotating the paratha on the tawa; so that all sides are cooked evenly. Press the sides of the paratha while doing so, because more often than not, they are not cooked well. Once the paratha starts rising slightly turn it over. Apply oil on the turned up surface. Repeat the same for the other side. Keep turning the sides over until cooked well.

Serve this with mint chutney or mango pickle! Yummy ... meal is ready.