Palak Paratha

Kids love to have chapathis and parathas...but palak ? why not try to feed them palak added in parathas ? Try this version of palak paratha for your kids along with their favourite ketchup...even for the grown up kids in your house :)

Ingredients :

Fresh Palak	:	1 bunch
Wheat flour	:	3 cups
Cumin Powder	:	1/2 tsp
Coriander Powder	:	1 tsp
Salt	:	To Taste
Asafoetida	:	a pinch
Chilly Powder	:	1/2 tsp
Oil	:	To fry

Preparation Method:

• Wash and cut the palak into fine pieces.
• Add little oil in a pan and fry the chopped palak leaves for ten minutes.
• Add the palak and other ingredients to the wheat flour and knead them to soft dough.

• Take lemon sized ball of the dough and roll them evenly with the rolling pin.Ensure that they are neither thick nor thin.
• Fry the paratha to golden brown on both sides.
• Serve hot with raitha , curd , ketchups , chutney or gravies of your choice.

Tips & Variations :

• Go crazy and creative in bringing up the final shapes of the paratha , specially while serving your little ones.

Araipuli kuzhambu

Araipuli Kuzhambu is one type of kuzhambu where you can enjoy the spongy vadas , soaked papads , crunchy groundnuts and yummy yam pieces. This when served for lunch with spicy poriyals , will grab the guests' attention and gain you more appreciations and you will be asked for the recipe when someone tastes it for the first time.

Ingredients :

Tamarind	:	big lemon size
Yam	:	1/2 kg [ cut into small cubes ]
Raw Peanuts	:	200 gm
Sambar Powder	:	4 tsp [Adjust as per taste ]
Salt	:	To Taste
Gingelly Oil	:	10 gm
Urad Dal	:	50 gm
Grated Coconut	:	2 tsp
Mustard Seeds	:	1 tsp
Papad/Appalam	:	1 [ Big Size ]

Preparation Method :

• Soak tamarind in water .
• Soak the Urad dal separately for about 15 - 20 minutes .
• Pressure cook the yam pieces and raw peanuts separately. Only pressure cooking ensures both are cooked soft.
• Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed kadai (pan), add mustard seeds and let it splutter for sometime.
• Add the sambhar powder and fry for a minute. Be careful at this stage not to burn the powder black as you may forget yourself in the beautiful aroma.
• Add the grated coconut and fry for sometime.
• Add the tamarind juice extract and salt and let it boil till the raw smell is gone.
• Add the cooked yam and peanuts to this and let it boil for about 15 minutes. Ensure that the mixture is watery as we have to add some more ingredients to this.
• Grind the soaked urad dal without salt in vada batter consistency. Heat oil in a separate pan and fry the vada till golden colour as small small balls and add this to the kuzhambu. The balls should be small as they will become bigger when completely soaked in kuzhambu.
• Cut the papad into small squares and deep fry in oil and add to the kuzhambu.

Araipuli kuzhambu ready to be served with hot white rice.This tastes well as side dish for curd rice too.

Tips and Variations:

• Vadas and Papads are the main ingredients in this kuzhambu. 
• If you feel the kuzhambu is thicker , add little water to adjust the consistency. Be careful while adding water as adding even a little more may spoil the taste.
• This tastes good with gingelly oil, you can substitute it with any other cooking oil of your choice.
• Serves good with papad , potato fry , chips and spicy poriyal of your choice.

Harabara kabab / Palak Kabab

Palak for snacks?Already it is very difficult to make kids eat Palak , the cute boy in our house is an exception though.Thought of trying an interesting recipe with palak that too for snacks.Then got the idea of making a kebab out of it and thus came the harabara kebab.

Ingredients :

Potato (Medium Sized)	:	4
Oil	:	adjust for deep fry/shallow fry
Turmeric	:	a pinch
Cumin seeds	:	2 tsp
Spinach / Palak	:	1 bunch
Corn Flakes/Bread Crumbs	:	To Taste
Dhania Powder	:	1 tsp
Chilly Powder	:	1 tsp

Preparation Method:

• Cook palak/spinach leaves in boiling water. Once cooked drain out water and keep aside to let it cool down.
• Cook green peas separately and keep aside.
• Boil potatoes and mash it well.

• Grind the cooked palak/spinach and green peas together into fine mixture without adding water. Both spinach and green peas have water content and the mixture will get watery when ground.

• In a bowl add the mashed potato, palak mixture, salt, cumin seeds, chilly powder, dhania powder, salt , turmeric powder and mix evenly.

• You can add bread crumbs or corn flakes (plain) to this. Adding Corn flakes powder gives good taste and also consumes less oil when compared to bread crumbs. Adding bread crumbs may turn the taste of the kebab like cutlet. If you don't like the taste of corn flakes you are free to use bread crumbs.
  Grind the corn flakes in a mixture coarsely and add to the prepared mixture.Now the mixture should be in the consistency that if you make a ball ,it should be firm enough to be pressed flat and doesn't break. To adjust its consistency you can add little plain flour. Be careful in this as adding too much of flour may kill the taste. You can also add little more cornflakes to tighten it.
• Once your kebab mixture is ready make lemon sized balls and carefully press with your palms to 1/2 inch thickness. Get creative to bring out heart, diamond, square or shapes of your choice in the kebabs.

• Choose to deep fry or shallow fry the kebab. Shallow frying is the method of preparing a kebab.
• Yummy Harabara Kebab is ready to serve hot with tomato ketchup or chutney of your choice.