Roti Canai/Paratha Bread - Step by Step Recipes

One of the things I miss most here in the USA is the Mamak stalls. We like to go there for breakfast or for teh tarik (pull tea) in the evening. My friends and I can just sit there and talk till the wee hours in the morning. Sometimes I do miss that simplicity in life. Roti canai or roti paratha is a flat bread that is flip over and over until they become transparently thin before they fold them with lots of air bubble and ghee inside that when they pan fry it, it becomes light and crispy on the outside and slightly chewy and springy on the inside.

I might look easy to make but they are not. Each time I try to flip it, the dough will stick together and I get the oil all over the kitchen. I gave up and end up stretching the dough will my fingers. The roti canai came out ok. Not as thin and crispy as I wanted it to. I hope I will do a better job the next time I make this again. From now on please don’t take the Mamak roti canai for granted. It involves more hard work than you think ;)

Ingredients:
adapoted from Mamafami

500 grm flour
300 ml water
1 egg
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp condensed milk
1 tbsp margarine
Some vegetable oil

1. Dissolve salt and condensed milk in water. Beat in the egg. Add in the egg mixture to the flour, mix and knead until it forms into smooth soft dough. Leave it to rest for 30 minutes.

2. Divide the dough into 10-11 pieces. Roll it into balls and rub margarine over each ball. Keep the dough balls in a container and leave it to rest for at least 4 hours. Over night will be better.
3. Grease the work table with some vegetable oil. Press and flatten the balls of dough with your palm. Spread a bit of oil on the flatten dough.

4. With your palm and fingers, pull and stretch out dough as thin as possible. Be careful not to tear it especially in the middle because the tear will grow bigger as your stretch. Oil you dough and hands as you go along.

5. Bring the dough to the center to form long dough. If we can get air trapped in the thin sheet at this point, don’t press air out as it would give a lighter, fluffier result. Hold one end of the dough upwards and swirl it down to form a piece of swirly turban. Set it aside to rest for half an hour.

6. Heat up a non-stick pan with a bit of oil. Lightly flatten the dough again with your fingers and place the dough over low heat pan. Cook slowly on one side until golden brown, turn over the dough and cook over the other side until golden brown. Serve warm with some curry.

Note: Be careful when you work with the dough. It can't be re-kneaded or streached out again once you mess it up. You have to throw it away.

I am entering this post in the Muhibbah Malaysian Monday roundup, created and hosted by Sharon of Test with a Skewer and Suresh of 3 Hungry Tummies.

Spring Onions Paratha Bread Recipes

This is an easy but most important quick flat bread to make. I’ve tried out a few versions but I like this the best. The texture was great, a bit chewy just the way I like it.

I sprinkle some spring onions to it but you can actually put any type of fillings like mashed potatoes, steam cauliflowers, spinach to it. Brush it with some butter or oil and pan fried the paratha till golden brown and savored it with your favorite curries.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
2 tbsp melted butter
Enough water knead the dough
½ tsp salt

Fillings:

Some chopped spring onions
Some melted butter

1. Combined flour, butter and salt together. Rub the flour to get oil and salt well mixed. Then add water little by little, knead and make slightly stiff dough. Rest the dough for 20 to 30 minutes. Cover with wet towel, so that dough doesn't dry out.
2. Give the dough a few more knead and divide it into 6-8 balls of dough (depend on the size you like) and roll it out with a rolling pin.

3. Brush some butter and sprinkle some spring onions and roll it up like a Swiss roll. Coil it up and set it aside. Finish rolling the rest of the dough.

4. Flatten the paratha again with the rolling pin. Heat up a non stick pan, brush the pan lightly with some oil or butter and pan fried the paratha on both side until golden brown.
5. Serve with your favorite curry.

I am submitting this to Yeastspotting

Chicken Tikka Masala Recipes

I cooked this simple Chicken Tikka Masala to go with my Garlic and Cilantro Naan Bread. Normally this dish is cook with Chicken Tikka (baked chicken pieces that have been marinated in yogurt and spices) but I just used fresh chicken pieces in mine.


Ingredients:

1 pound chicken meat - cut into bite size pieces
1 medium size onions – finely chopped
3 cloves garlic - chopped
1” ginger- finely chopped
1 can (15 oz)chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp of plain yogurt
3 tbsp of Ghee or oil
½ tsp sugar
Salt to taste

Make into paste with a bit of water:

2 tbsp chili powder (depend on the spiciness you like)
2 tbsp garam masala powder
1 tsp of turmeric powder
1 tsp coriander powder

1. Heat the ghee or oil in a cooking pan. When oil is hot add in the onions and fry until lightly brown. Add in the garlic and ginger. Continue to stir-fry until fragrant
2. Add the mix spices paste for two minutes or until fragrant (you can add a bit of water if necessary). Add the tomatoes and continuously stir it for 5 minutes or until the sauce thickens.
3. Add in the chicken cubes and stir fry until the chicken pieces nicely coated with the sauce. Add in about 1 cup of water; bring it up to boil, lower down the heat and covered. Stir the chicken occasionally. Add in sugar, salt and yogurt.
4. Continue to cook for another 5 minutes or until sauce thickens. Dish out and serve warm with rice or naan bread.

Garlic and Cilantro Naan Bread Recipes

Naan bread is one of Carlos favorite things to eat at an Indian restaurant. I think he like the chewy, perfectly blistered flat bread to be eaten with curries. Normal Naan bread in cooked in a tandoor oven but since we don’t have it, we just baked it in the oven. Naan also can be filled with potatoes or other type of fillings but we like ours with loads of garlic and herbs. I served these Naan with Chicken Tika Masala. I will post the recipe here later.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp plain yogurt
1 tbsp oil

½ cup + 2 tbsp lukewarm water
½ tbsp yeast
1 tbsp sugar


Topping:
3 tbsp butter
3 cloves garlic – chopped
Some chopped cilantro

1. In a bowl mix the lukewarm warm, yeast and sugar together until combined. Set it aside until it turn frothy.
2. In another bowl, mix flour and salt together. Add in the yogurt and oil, follows by the yeast mixture. Mix until combined. Turn the dough into working table and knead until elastic and smooth.
3. Cover with a plastic wrap and set it aside to proof until double its size.
4. In the meantime mix the soft butter garlic and chopped cilantro together. Set it aside.
5. Line a baking sheet pan with aluminum foil. Put the oven rack to the center of the oven. Put the baking pan into the oven and pre-heat the oven to 400 degree F.
6. Divide the dough to six portions. Roll the dough out to oblong shape (don’t roll it out too thin)
7. Switch the oven to broil. Take out the hot baking sheet and drizzle it with some olive oil. Put the roll out dough onto the sheet (3 at a time) and put it into broiler.
8. Keep an eye on the bread and check to see if it puffed up and the surface turn brown. Filp the naan over and continue to broil the other side until lightly brown. Take it out of the oven and brush it with the garlic and cilantro butter.
9. Put it back to the broiler for another minute. Repeat the same process until you finish baking your naan’s. Serve with your favorite curries.

Chicken Varuval with Potatoes Recipes

Whenever I think of eating something flavorful and spicy I will make this dish. This is a dish that I will cook over and over again so much so that even Carlos is eating it now. He actually finished over half a plate of it that day. I have another recipe of Chicken Varuval here but this time I did some slight changes to it and also added some potatoes to the dish. Although the list of ingredients might looks like a lot but it does not take a long of time to make this. For this dish you can adjust the level of spiciness to your liking.

Ingredients:

3 pieces chicken breast – cut into bite size pieces
1 stick cinnamon
2 cardamom pods
3 medium size potatoes
2 green chilies - sliced
1 medium size onions – sliced thinly
A small bunch curry leaves
1 tsp black pepper
Salt and sugar to taste

Grind into paste:

5 cloves garlic
2” ginger
4 shallots
½ tsp salt

Make into a paste with a bit of water

3 tbsp curry powder
2 tbsp chili powder (more or less depend on how spicy you like)
1 tbsp turmeric powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder

1. Clean and cut the chicken, marinate it with the blended paste for half an hour. In the meantime peel and cut potatoes into bite size pieces and pan fried it until soft and set it aside.
2. Heat up about 4 tbsp of oil in a non- pan, add in cinnamon stick and cardamon pods. Stir fry until fragrant and add in the chicken, and spread it evenly into a layer and let it pan fried until lightly brown on one side and turn it over and do the same to the other side.
3. Once the chicken is evenly brown, move the chicken to the side of the frying pan and add in the curry paste. Continue the stir the paste until fragrant. Add in the onions, curry leaves and chili. Mix everything together and well coated with the paste. Add in about ½ cup of water and stir until well combined. Add in a bit of salt and sugar.
4. Add in the potatoes, stir, and lower down the heat and cover. Let it simmer until everything is cooked and water evaporated. Add in black pepper, Stir well and check seasoning.
5. Dish out and serve with warm rice.

Beef Briyani Rice/Nasi Briyani Daging Recipes

Carlos and I love Indian food but I hardly cook any at home. I always wanted to learn how to cook it but when I see the long list of ingredients that needed just to prepare this dish I decided not to. When I saw Aunty Lily posted this dish using Shah Brand ready mix I was so happy. Finally I found an easy way to make briyani rice. I went to the Indian Grocery store the very next day and bought a few boxes of it. I always trust Aunty Lily taste and when she said it is good, that means must be really good. I follow her recipe but instead of using chicken I used beef and I did drizzle a bit of saffron water on top of the rice just to give it a bit of color. And I also cook the rice on top of the stove as my rice cooker always switch to keep-warm mode half through cooking and burn at the bottom if I cook any savory rice in it.

Here is the recipe adapted from Aunty Lily’s with some minor changes

Ingredients:

1 ½ lbs beef – I used tenderloins for quick cooking
1 1/3 lb basmati rice - soaked for 30 minutes and drained
1 tbsp tamarind pulp - soaked in 1 cup water for 30 minutes, Then press and sieve the juice. (I omit this and used water instead)
2 medium onion - sliced(about 1/2 lb)
2 tbsp grated ginger
2 tbsp chopped garlic
4 tbsp oil
1 packet 'Shan' Chicken Biryani
A few strain of saffron – soak in a bit of warm water


For Garnish:

Some raisins
Fried shallots
Toasted cashew nuts (I replace it with pine nuts)
Cilantro

1. Marinate beef pieces with ginger, garlic and 2 tbsp of Shan Chicken Biryani mix for 1 hour. In the meantime mix the rest of the briyani mix with a bit of water to make into a paste.
2. Heat oil and brown the marinated beef pieces. Remove and set aside. Sweat the chopped onions, and then add in browned chicken pieces. Add in the paste and continue to stir-fry until the meat is well coated with the paste. Add in the tamarind juice (I just add 2 cups of water) bring it up to boil, turn down the heat and continue to cook and stir until the meat is tender and sauce thickened. Set aside.
3. Bring a pot of water to boil, add in 3/4 tsp of salt and add in the rice. Boil until the rice is three-quarter tender. Remove and drain the liquid.
4. To assemble the briyani, spread half of the cook meat at the bottom of a pot or your rice cooker and spread half of the rice on top of the meat.
5. Spread another layer of meat on top of the rice and follows by the rest of the rice. Drizzle the saffron water on top of the rice and top it with some raisins. Cover the pot and cook the rice on top of the stove on low flame for another 15 minutes. If you are using the rice cooking, press the cook function and cook until the cook function pop up.
6. Mix and fluff up the rice slightly before serving. Garnish with some raisins, fried shallots and cashew nuts.


Note: You might need more water if you are using a tough cut of meat

Vegetable Curry Delicious Recipes

I cooked this vegetarian dish for my family Doctor. She told me she tried this curry at a recently open Indian & Malay Kitchen here in Exton but it was too bad they closed down the Malay kitchen not long after that. Since she like it so much I told her I will cook some for her and brought it to her on Tuesday. She told me it taste even better than the one she had at the restaurant :)

Ingredients for the curry paste

10 dried red chilies - soak in hot water
4 shallots
4 cloves of garlic
1" of turmeric
1" of galangal
1" of ginger
2 stalk of lemongrass
3 tbsp of curry powder

Blend all the above ingredients with a bit of water and set aside.

Vegetables: (or add your own ingredients)

1 cup of french beans - cut to 1" length
2 zucchini - cut to 1" length
4 potatoes - quartered
2 carrots - cut to 1" length
1 piece of Tempe - slice thinly and pan fried until brown
2 pieces of fried tofu - cut to cubes

2 cups of coconut milk
2 kafir lime leaves
1 tsp of sugar
salt to taste

1) Heat up some oil and add in curry paste. Stir fry for 1 min or until fragrant.
2) Add coconut milk, kafir lime leaves and stir. Add in the vegetables that required longer time to cook like carrots and potatoes. Stir well and bring to a simmering boil. Turn down heat to medium, cover, and cook for 5 minutes. Add in seasoning.
3) Add the rest of the ingredients. Stir well and cover, allowing to cook for another 5 minutes or until all vegetables are cook.
4) Check seasoning again and serve warm rice.

Note : You can add vegetables like eggplants, asparagus, cabbage, long beans, cauliflower or peppers to this dish. If curry is too dry add more coconut milk or water to it.

Vadai Delicious Recipes

One of my favorite Indian snack. I first learn to make this yummy treats when I was in Home Science class. It is pretty simple to make Vadai. Here are the ingredients:

Ingredients

200g dhall (lentils)
a bit of water
1/4 tsp cumin
1 green chili-finely sliced
1 red chili - finely sliced
1 tsp of turmeric powder
1 sprig curry leaves, finely chopped
1/2 an onion, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp rice flour

1. Wash and soak dhall overnight. Drain well, then put into a blender. Add water and process until dhall is coarsely blended.
2. Combined all the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Heat oil for deep-frying.
3. Wet your hands and take a spoonful of dhall mixture, place the mixture on the palm of your hand. Make into a round then flatten slightly.
4. Drop into the hot oil. repeat until all the dough is used up. Fry until golden brown. Remove from oil and drain on paper towel.

Note : Vadai is best eaten hot.