A Vegetarian Indian Thali

Blogging Marathon# 40: Week 4/ Day 3
Theme: Bookmarked recipes from BM# 39
Dish: Indian Thali

So for the last day of the marathon, I created a thali with some of the recipes that I bookmarked from last month's mega marathon. Indian thali usually consists of a Bread, Rice dish, a dry curry, a gravy curry, chutney and something sweet to end the meal. 

Most of the dishes in this thali are from the North Eastern states of India. To be honest, I had no idea about the eating habits or the popular dishes from any of the North Eastern states. Thanks to the research that all of the marathoners have done last month, I know a lot more about these cuisines now. I also wanted to make this black rice pudding from Nagaland for dessert, but I made this thali for myself and I wasn't motivated enough to make a dessert and also I was tooooo full after eating this meal. buuurp!!

Dishes in the Thali:

• Sattu Ka Paratha
• Manipuri Khichdi
• Kulath ki Dal
• Panch Phoron Tharkari
• Mosdeng Serma
• Hmarcha Rawt

Sattu Ka Paratha from Bihar: This is a traditional paratha made in Bihar and Jharkand. I made litti using the sattu flour I bought and wanted to try something else using the same. When I saw these parathas with sattu flour stuffing on Valli's & Sara's blogs I knew what to do with my leftover sattu. I actually made these parathas twice in the past couple of weeks -- they are easy to make and the spices used in the stuffing makes them very tasty.

Recipe from Valli & Saras blogs:
Ingredients: Makes 5~6 6" parathas
Wholewheat flour/ Atta - 1cup
Salt - to taste

For the Stuffing:
Sattu flour/ Ground roasted gram - ¼cup
Onion - 1tbsp, finely chopped
Garlic - 1clove, finely minced
Ginger - ½" piece, finely grated
Green chilies/ red chili powder - ½tsp (adjust as per taste)
Mustard oil - 1tsp
Pickle oil/ Amchoor - ½tsp
Salt - to taste

Method:

• Make the dough: Combine atta and salt in a mixing bowl. Add enough water and knead into a smooth, pliable dough. Cover and set aside to rest for 15~20 minutes.
• Make the Stuffing: Combine all the ingredients for the stuffing in a bowl. Set aside until ready to use.
• Make the Parathas: Divide the dough into 5~6 equal sized pieces. Roll each dough into a round ball and flatten it out into 3" disc. Place 1~2tsp of the stuffing in the center and cover it with the dough from all sides. Roll this out into a slightly thick paratha.
• Heat a tawa on medium heat and cook the parathas until brown spots form on both sides, about 2~3 minutes per side. Brush with oil or ghee and serve immediately.

Manipuri Khichdi: Khichdi is one of our family favorite dish. I make it very often when I'm running out of time or ingredients. This Manipuri khichsi is made with toor dal instead of moong dal and also has more spices added to it than my regular version. I made some changes in the way of cooking the dish -- check out Valli's recipe here to see how to make it the traditional way.

Recipe adapted from Valli:

Ingredients:

Rice - 1 cup, cooked
Toor dal - ¼cup
Onion - 1 medium, finely chopped
Ginger-Garlic paste - 1tsp
Roasted Peanuts - 2tbsp
Cumin seeds - 1tsp
Bay leaves - 2
Cardamom pods - 2
Cloves - 3
Dry red chilies - 3
Turmeric - a pinch
Salt - to taste

Method:

• Pressure Cook toor dal with turmeric until very soft. Allow the cooker to cool. 
• In the meantime, heat 1tbsp oil and 1tsp ghee in a pan, add cumin seeds, bay leaves, cloves, cardamom and dry red chilies; cook till the seeds start to splutter. Add the chopped onions and ginger+garlic paste; cook till onions are golden brown.
• Once the cooker is cool enough, open the lid and add the cooked rice, onion mixture and salt to the dal. Mix well. Add enough water to get desired consistency and bring the mixture to a simmer. Cook for 3~4 minutes.
• Heat the remaining 2tsp ghee in a small pan and roast the peanuts. Add the peanuts to the rice and mix well. Serve hot.

Kulath ki Dal from Uttarakand: Horsegram is a completely new ingredient for me. I bought it just before April's Mega marathon in the hopes of using it in one of the dishes, but I didn't use it for any of the dishes. But luckily I found quite a few interesting recipes using it and here I am with the very first dish I made with Horsegram.

This dal is from Uttarakand and it is a very simple and earthy dish which is very mildly spiced. Using rice flour makes the dish thick and creamy.

Panch Phoron Tharkari (Mixed Vegetable Curry with Panch Phoron): This was one of the most popular dishes that was posted for North eastern states -- Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Bengal etc. Panch phoron is a mix of 5 seeds -- mustard, fennel, nigella (onion), fenugreek and cumin. The addition of panch phoron to tempering gives any dish a lot of flavor.

This is a very simple semi dry curry that can be made with any combination of mixed vegetables. I used sweet potato, eggplant and regular potato. Traditionally pumpkin is used in this curry, but butternut squash or any other winter squash can be used instead. This curry goes well with rice or roti.

Mosdeng Serma from Tripura: This was one of the simplest tomato chutney recipes I have ever made, with very few ingredients; tomatoes, onions, garlic and chilies. We can taste all of the ingredients in the chutney which are otherwise weighed down by tamarind and the tempering that are usually added in South Indian style chutneys. This chutney can be eaten with rice, roti or even as a sandwich spread.

Hmarcha Rawt -- Roasted Green Chili Chutney from Mizoram: I actually wanted to make this chutney for Mizoram, but changed my mind and made this simple steamed veggie dish. This is a very spicy chutney made with roasted green chilies. Use milder green chilies for a milder chutney. My husband liked it a lot, but I was huffing and puffing after a few bites.

Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 40.