Monday, February 25, 2013

Mooli Muthia

Recently I bought Radish during the usual grocery shopping. I had heard a lot about the health benefits of radish. But so far I had not included the vegetable in my diet. The main reason for that was radish was not at all used for cooking in both mine and my husband's household. Some times we get introduced to new vegetables and dishes through our friends. But I never saw radish being used for cooking in my friend's houses as well... Hmm... Somehow this time I had the most curious urge to buy this vegetable and learn how to cook it... And I must say all my curiousity and enthusiasm for cooking comes only during the grocery shopping... After buying Radish, two weeks it stayed in my refrigerator because I still hadnt figured out how to cook it out... He He... After researching a lot, finally I decided to make Mooli Parathas which sounded like the best way to try out the Radish. Now I have to confess something. My husband makes better Rotis than me. Yes .. Its true... He has stayed in northern parts of India for a long time and makes better chappathis than me... So usually all my attempts for Parathas are reserved to a time when he is at home which means mostly the week ends... But he has been so busy with work these days that we didnt get a chance to try out Mooli Parathas so far on week ends as well. And I found myself trying to create a dish out of Radish on a week day for lunch as all my vegetables got over in the middle of a week :( I was almost about to stop my research on Radish and go for normal Dal for lunch when I found the recipe for Mooli Moong Dal which turned out to be really yummy. I will post that recipe real soon. 


Anyway both me and my husband liked the Mooli Moong dal so much that I started looking for some other recipes with Radish and found a Gujarathi Snack Mooli Muthia. It sounded real easy to make and could be made by steaming or deep frying. I have this inherent dislike for deep frying and hence opted to steam the Muthias which is a more healthy option.

Muthias are dumplings which can be made out of Methi, Palak, Mooli, Lauki and so on. And following is the recipe that I followed. It is adapted from Tarla Dalal's recipe for Mooli Muthia. Tarla Dalal's version requires Jowar Flour which I didnt have. So I used a mix of Besan and wheat flour. The original recipe can be found here.  The recipe requires a steamer. I used Idly cooker for preparing the Muthias.

Mooli Muthia:

Prep Time: 10min
Wait Time: 30 min
Cook Time: 25 min
Total Time: 65min

Note: Dont go by the time :) Check out the recipe which is real easy. 

Ingredients: 

1 cup grated Radish
2 cups Besan (Gram Flour)
1/2 cup wheat flour
2 tbsp Coriander Leaves
1 tbsp Lemon juice
1/2 Green chilly 
1/2 inch Ginger
1 clove Garlic
1/2 Tbsp Turmeric
1/2 Tbsp Sugar
1 Tbsp curd or Yogurt (Optional)
Salt
1 Tbsp Oil
1 Tbsp Mustard seeds
1/4 Tsp Hing or Asfoetida


Prepping:
Step 1: Grate the Radish. Chop the green leaves attached to the stem and use them as well for cooking.

Step 2: Cut Green chilly and ginger. Crush them together. 
Step 3: Chop coriander Leaves.
Step 4: Add Besan, wheat flour, turmeric, radish, sugar, Salt, green chilly - ginger paste, coriander leaves, lemon juice to a wide bowl and mix well. Keep aside for 30 min. 
Step 5: Now try to make dough out of the mixture. Radish has lots of water in it which will help in making the dough. If needed, add 1 Tbsp curd to make the dough. The dough may be sticky. Add more Besan to remove the stickiness. If the dough is sticky, you can also keep it aside for some more time. Grease the palm with oil and shape the dough into cylindrical form. 



Method of Preparing:

Step 1: 

Add water to the steamer or Idli Cooker and once the water boils, grease the steamer with oil and place the dough in the steamer and cover and cook for 20 min.

Step 2:  

Insert a tooth pick to check whether the dough is cooked. Once cooked, switch off and transfer to a plate. Cut the muthias to square shapes. 
If not cooked, continue cooking for another 5 - 10min. Step 3 is optional. You can eat the muthias now itself. It will be yummy and you dont feel any sharp taste of the radish as well.




Step 3:

Heat oil in a pan. Once the oil becomes hot, add mustard seeds and sesame seeds. Once they crackle, add the muthias and fry till they start becoming brown. This will take around 5 min on medium flame. Remove the muthias from the flame and garnish with coriander leaves. 




Enjoy the Muthias as a Tea time snack with green chutney if you like or have them simply. It is greatly filling and you will not feel hungry till dinner :) 

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