Mooli Paratha/Radish Paratha

There were days in my childhood when I used to cry when Amma fed me chapathis. Back then and even now my father prefers rotis for dinner and so does my mother. When I mean rotis I mean chapathis for almost all week nights.

When I used to talk about having been force fed chapathis last night, my friends would make fun of my preferences as they were fans and they could eat rotis all day, I liked stuffed parathas though. Ok.. For those who don’t know, rice is the staple in down south of India and we prefer rice to rotis. I rarely stay away from some veggies and one such is radish while pumpkin tops the list. I don’t know, I have developed an aversion for radishes, turnips, kohlrabies and so. Somehow I can sense the smell of them being cooked even a mile away and the tiniest scent alone can put me down.

Yeah! So I have always kept a decent distance from those and when I had a control over the kitchen I never even cared to see or buy those. Since they were not big time vegetables M didn’t have any complaints till we were in UAE. But in Chandigarh, the winter season is marked by using all the above mentioned veggies in all possible ways. The market used to flood with those white yard long bulgy radishes and M has this inert urge to buy anything fresh. One day when he went alone to buy veggies he came back with a big bunch of those radishes and I was seriously upset but I don’t like wasting food and I have to use them. Instead of keeping them in refrigerator and staring at them for days with grief I decided to use them up as soon as possible and the first thing that I attracted me was their leafy greens, very bounty which I liked so when I called up my MIL she told the leaves can be made into a stir fry which I tried and was really tasty.

The radishes went into a sambar.. simple. Now I have acquired a taste for the radish greens and so M and I made an agreement where I would eat the leaves and he would eat the radishes. This went on well for sometime but M became bored of sambar and he asked me to make parathas out of it. Now imagine my reaction, 2 items which I don’t like are to be combined, roti and radish. But he asked and I have to do it, so tried this easy version which a friend used to talk about. Its way easier than the stuffed version and so zeroed in on this recipe as I m a first timer. The first time when I tried it, I should say I was proud about my cooking that I covered up all the flavors of the radish and it didn’t taste or smell radishy at all! M liked it and i boasted of my cooking skills and he told me once taste the radish raw. I was skeptic but I had to take it and when I prepared salad for M for lunch, I tasted a slice of those radishes and m was true.. it was nothing like the radishes that I have tasted back home. No sting in the tip of the tongue, no obnoxious smells and it was really nice and sweet I should say! From then on I have it in my salad with green chutney and I m having the mooli parathas too! Uff.. that was a long story… now to the parathas!!!

Ingredients:

Wheat flour-1 cup + for dusting

Radish-1 cup, peeled and grated

Red chili powder-1/2 tsp

Turmeric powder- 1 pinch

Cumin powder-1/4 tsp

Garam masala powder-1/2 tsp

Ajjwain-1/2 tsp

Salt-as needed

Water- to knead

Oil- for roasting

How It Happened:

1. Clean and peel the skin of the radishes. I used 2 long radishes. Grate them using the medium slot. Then squeeze out the water in them and reserve the water.

2. In a mixing bowl add all the ingredients except water and oil and mix well. Then add the radish water first and knead, then add more water if needed little by little and knead to thick non sticky dough.

3. Grease the surface of the dough with a little water and divide the dough into equal portions and make smooth balls. I got around six medium sized balls.

4. Dust a surface with wheat flour and roll out the dough into a paratha. Be generous while dusting else the dough will be sticky and messy.

5. Heat a skillet, grease with a little oil and place the rolled out paratha. Let it cook on one side for 1 minute. Then turn to the other side and let it cook until small dark spots appear.

6. Remove from the skillet and bast with butter/ ghee and serve it curd and pickle.

Notes:

* Squeeze out the radish before you add it to the flour else they will leave out water and the dough will become sticky and loose.

* Do not keep the dough for long else the radish will seep out water. So once you have kneaded the dough, prepare the rotis soon.

* Adjust and play with spices.