Whole wheat bread in Microwave

Have you ever noticed the ingredients of the whole wheat bread that you buy from the store. Many believe that they are having a healthy breakfast by replacing white bread with brown one. But it is often made with refined wheat flour, and the color comes from caramel.Or in most companies, they just add 20 % wheat flour, the remaining big chunk is still maida. So its always a good thing if you could make one at home. Yes it may not be as tasty as those you get from market. But you can rest assured that they are totally healthy. I am sharing here a recipe to make whole wheat bread in a microwave.  

Microwave whole wheat bread

Ingredients 

Whole wheat flour- 2 cups

Yeast- 2 teaspoons

Sugar-1 teaspoon

Water- lukewarm- 1/2 cup

Salt- 1/2 teaspoon

Oil- 1 tablespoon

Milk- 1/2 cup

Procedure

Dissolve sugar and yeast in half cup lukewarm water. Keep it aside to rise for about 10 minutes. In a vessel take flour and make a dough by adding the yeast mix to it. Also add salt, oil and milk while kneading. Make a soft dough.

Now keep this to rise for 3 hours. Cover the container well with a plastic cover. After 3 hours, knead the dough again and transfer to a greased microwave proof dish. Set the dough by leaving space from the sides of the dish. This allows room for the dough to puff up. Now cook on high power in microwave. To check if your bread is done try pricking with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, then your bread is done.

Let it cool. Cut into slices and refrigerate. When warm, the texture won't be that perfect. But, after refrigerating, it becomes more crumbly.

Uzhunn vada/ Medu vada

Medu vada/ Uzhunnu vada is a staple South Indian snack.Its a crispy Black gram fritters loved throughout India. Its a south Indian snack which has become popular among other parts of the country like idlis and dosas. Generally its had as breakfast but i love them as evening snack with piping hot tea.

The recipe is easy you just have to fry the dough. But the problem is in shaping the vada. The consistency must be right for the holes to form properly. The dough must be stubborn one. What i mean is when you try pouring it with a spoon you should have to literally give a big throw to make them fall. Dont over grind the dal or else vadas wont be fluffy.

Ingredients

Urad dal/ Uzhunnu vada/ split black gram- Soaked in water for 4 -5 hours- 1 cup

Onions- Chopped very fine

Ginger- 1 inch- chopped

Green chilli- 2 - chopped

Ground pepper- 1 or 2 pinch

Hing powder- 1/2 teaspoon

Rice powder- 1 tablespoon

Sooji- 1 talespoon

Salt- as required

Oil- For frying

Procedure

After soaking in water for about 4 hours, drain the excess water and grind the dal to a coarse paste. Try to grind it by adding minimum water. Don't soak the dal too long or it may become too soggy and the batter would become runny.Now add all the other ingredient to the batter except oil and mix well. Heat the oil in a deep bottomed vessel. Add enough oil or the vada will stick to the bottom. 

In a small bowl keep cold water ready to dip and wet your hands before shaping the batter. take a scoop and place on your hands. 

Make a hole in the middle and drop into the oil. keep the flame on medium heat.Fry till golden brown. Drain and drain excess oil by placing on tissue papers.serve hot with coconut chutney or sambar.

Besan Dhokla

Dhoklas....the recipe that i learnt from my marathi friend..reminds me of my college canteen..where we friends used to fight for a bite of this gujju snack...one of my favorites breakfast as its easy to cook, has very less oil, easy to pack and super tasty..

Many complain that their dhoklas turn hard or sometimes not cooked well. Easy! its no rocket science..following my tips you could make soft and yummy dhoklas within minutes.
Iam using a pressure cooker here to steam my dhoklas.

Ingredients

Gram flour (Besan) - 2 cups (About 250 gm)

Green chilli - 5-6

Ginger - 1'' pieceCurd (sour)- 1/2 cup

Turmeric powder- a small pinch
Curd- 2 tblespn

Fruit salt- one sachet

Salt- 1 tspoon or as required

Oil- 1tablespoon

Water- as required to make batter..about 3-4 cup would  be enough for  cups besan

Mustard seeds - 1 tspoonn

Procedure

Mix besan well with water to make batter. The batter must be little thick as adding curd later on will make it more loose. When done, add curd, salt, turmeric and mix well. grind the green chilly and ginger to a fine paste and mix into the batter.
Now the batter would be of  pourable consistency. (However care must be taken not to make it very loose.)
Take out the weight from pressure cooker and let the water heat up. Meanwhile add the fruit salt to the batter and mix. Transfer the batter to a container and place it inside the cooker. Take care that the water level inside the cooker is well below the the containers rim.

(Dont make it too long to start cooking as the effect of fruit salt would be gone if you dont haste)

Close the cooker and let it cook for 15 minutes on medium flame. Check if its done. If done cook for another 5 minutes. 

Cool and cut into square pieces. Before serving splutter some mustard seeds and pour over the pieces. You could also garnish with some fried green chillies. Serve with mint chutney or cilantro leaf chutney (dhania chutney)

Whole Wheat Samosa

Yesterday, i had a sudden craving for samosas..i stormed into my kitchen only to find that i ran out of maida..so i thought of trying out with wheat flour instead.. i was not sure how it would turn out..but my samosas turned out really crispy and super yum!! And considering the benefits of whole wheat this one is more healthier than the maida version..

Ingredients

For crust

Whole wheat flour(gehun ka atta)-1 cup

Semolina/Sooji- 2-3 tblspoon

Baking powder-1 tspn

Carom/ajwain seeds- 2  pinches

Salt-1/2 tspn

Oil-2 tblspn

Water-1/2 cup

Oil for frying

For filling

Potatoes/aloo- medium size- 3

onion-1

green chilli-2

garam masala-1 tspn

red chilli - 3/4 tspn

ginger- 1''

turmeric powder- 1/2 tspn

salt- 1 1/2 tspn or as per taste

Oil-1 tlspn

Take the wheat flour in a bowl. To this add semolina, salt, baking powder, carom seeds and mix well. Heat the oil a little and add to the flour. mix again and water little by little and make a soft dough. Adding hot oil helps in making crispy samosas.Try making the dough with minimum water. Now wrap the dough with a wet cloth and let it soften for half an hour or so.

boil the potatoes, peel and mash and keep aside. In a skillet, pour oil, splutter jeera and add sliced green chillies and grated ginger. You can add more chillies if you want it be more spicy. Saute for a minute and add finely chopped onions. saute till they turn little brown. Now add the turmeric, chilli powder, salt and mix well. now add in the mashed potatoes and mix well. Add a little water and garam masala and let the potatoes soak the flavour for a while. After a minute or two switch off. Make sure the filling is not soggy or watery.

Now take the dough and make small lemon sized balls out of the dough and flatten it with rolling pins as you would do for making chapatis. Make about 6" diameter circles. Now cut this into semicircles. Take a semicircle and fold it to form a cone. Seal the edges with wet fingers. Now fill the cone with potato mix and again seal the mouth properly. Make samosas with remaining dough in similar fashion.

Now heat oil in a Kadhai and let it heaten up a little but not too hot. Fry the samosas in medium flame till they turn golden in color. Make sure to keep on a medium flame. Serve the hot samosas with tomato and chilli sauce.