Chef Maneet Chauhan Pregnant Recipes

LACHHA PARATHAS

Steps:

• Combine the flour, salt, fenugreek and vegetable oil in a large bowl. Mix with your fingers until crumbly. Mix in the milk with your fingers. Knead the dough, adding water as needed, 1 tablespoon at a time, to make a smooth, soft ball. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth; let rest, 30 minutes.
• Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a 1 1/2-inch ball on a lightly floured surface. Working with 1 ball at a time, flatten the dough with a rolling pin, then dust with flour and roll out into a thin 6-inch round.
• Brush the dough with vegetable oil and sprinkle with more flour. Fold the dough with your fingers to make 3/4-inch pleats.
• Stretch the pleated dough as much as possible into a rope (it may only stretch 1 inch longer or so), keeping the pleats intact. Spiral the pleated dough around itself like a cinnamon bun. Pinch the end of the dough together to secure. Dust the spiral with more flour. Roll out the dough into a 6-inch round with a rolling pin. Repeat with the remaining balls of dough.
• Cook the parathas: Preheat a tawa or large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Place a paratha in the hot pan and cook until golden brown spots appear on the bottom, about 1 minute. Flip the paratha with a spatula and cook until golden brown spots appear on the other side, about 1 more minute. Remove from the pan to a clean surface and brush both sides with vegetable oil. Return the paratha to the hot pan and cook until golden brown all over, about 1 more minute per side. Season with salt. Repeat with the remaining parathas. Bend the parathas gently in your palms to expose the spiral layers and make them more defined.

PALAK PANEER

Steps:

• Fill a large Dutch oven with water and bring to a boil. Add the spinach leaves, fenugreek leaves, mustard greens, grated garlic, grated ginger, garam masala, salt, green chiles and roughly chopped onion. Cover with the lid and boil until cooked, about 5 minutes. Strain the greens, keeping the water, then add the greens to a blender. Blend the greens to a coarse paste, adding a little water if required to move things along in the blender.
• Add the butter to a large Dutch oven and heat over medium-low heat until melted. Add the besan and cook on low heat until it starts turning brown and into a thick roux, about 3 minutes. Add the greens to this mixture and mix well. Cook for another 10 minutes.
• Heat the ghee in a medium saute pan over medium heat until hot and melted. Add the cumin seeds and cook until they start to sizzle, then add the remaining onion, chopped ginger and chopped garlic and saute until golden, about 3 minutes. Add half of the onion mixture to the greens pot. To the rest of the onion mixture, add the paneer triangles and saute until browned on all sides, about 5 minutes. Season with the dried fenugreek leaves.
• Add the greens mixture to a serving dish and top with the paneer.

PARATHAS 2 WAYS

Steps:

• For the dough: Mix the flour and salt to taste together in a large bowl. Begin adding about 1 cup water, adding the water until you have a soft dough. You can use a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook if you like. Knead the dough until smooth, 2 to 3 minutes.
• For the carrot-ginger filling: Combine the carrot, onion, chiles, cilantro, ginger, cumin, chaat masala and salt to taste in a medium bowl. Set aside.
• For the green pea-cumin filling: Heat about a teaspoon of oil in a cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Add the cumin seeds and cook until they start to crackle. Stir in the ginger. Add the fenugreek, coriander, chili powder, garam masala, chat masala and salt and pepper to taste. Add the peas. Mash coarsely with the back of a spoon and set aside.
• To assemble the parathas: Pull off a piece of dough about the size of a lemon and roll it into a ball. Roll the ball out with a rolling pin until it is about as thin as a tortilla. Place 2 to 3 tablespoons of the filling of choice in the center. Bring all the edges up to the center to enclose the filling and then pinch to seal. Tear off any excess dough.
• Flatten the filled dough with your hands. Then use the rolling pin to roll the paratha out to a circle 7 to 8 inches in diameter; use flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking.
• Spoon oil or ghee onto a griddle set over medium heat. Cook the paratha on both sides until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling, adding more oil to the griddle as necessary. Serve hot with butter, plain yogurt and Indian pickles.